Article in The Economic Times, 19 December, 07
Barriers are not without, they are within
Firstly, the world has now acknowledged that anyone from anywhere can come along and restructure an entire industry – if he but sets his mind to it. The world of ideas is now democratic, open-sourced and multi cultural. As Simon Anholt says: “Fifteen years ago, who would have believed that we Europeans could be happily consuming Chinese Tsingtao beer or Malaysian Proton cars? That one of the hottest-selling perfumes in Paris would be Urvashi, manufactured in India by a company that previously specialized in hydraulic brake fluid?” If there was Brand Racism, Indian tractors would not have been cleaning debris after Hurricane Katrina. Worldwide, customers are beginning to buy the best value propositions irrespective of where they come from, and shareholders will vote for the best deals, irrespective of who is behind them. Surely Indian companies will not be raising the kind of money they do in the LSE, NYSE or NASDAQ, if there was Brand Racism. If an Indian company doesn’t make the cut it is probably because it didn’t offer the best deal; or couldn’t craft the best combination of people, technology, price, service, and infrastructure. Across industries, Indian MNCs are successfully acquiring companies, setting up greenfield projects, getting into joint ventures, recruiting talent across boundaries, and building global supply chains. There are companies which have more than 50% of their revenue coming from outside India and these are not exports, but operations in several countries around the world.
Secondly, it’s not about how the world looks at you, it’s about how you look at the world. So the barriers are not without, they are within. What’s standing in the way is: faster absorption of global trends and technologies, faster products to market, sharper understanding of value propositions, rising above low cost to innovate, understanding that God is in execution, understanding the importance of messaging and marketing, quick understanding of new cultures and mindsets, global managerial talent, a global corporate mindset and thinking of the world as one market. Not Brand Racism.
Secondly, it’s not about how the world looks at you, it’s about how you look at the world. So the barriers are not without, they are within. What’s standing in the way is: faster absorption of global trends and technologies, faster products to market, sharper understanding of value propositions, rising above low cost to innovate, understanding that God is in execution, understanding the importance of messaging and marketing, quick understanding of new cultures and mindsets, global managerial talent, a global corporate mindset and thinking of the world as one market. Not Brand Racism.
