Fwd: Isko samjho -- deep aadmi hai

[Aakash]

An interesting read...

http://india.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/04/12/a-conversation-with-ravi-venkatesan-former-chairman-of-microsoft-india/

[Vikas Sarawat]

Blog has strong arguements for doing business in India. 

Maybe i will read the book too. 

It does not make me want to move back though.  

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On Apr 13, 2013, at 5:39 AM, Aakash <aakash...@gmail.com> wrote:

An interesting read...

http://india.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/04/12/a-conversation-with-ravi-venkatesan-former-chairman-of-microsoft-india/

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[Aakash Khurana]

There has to be a very strong personal and professional desire to move back to India/developing country -- mere one article is not/should not be enough to convince anyone for taking such a big step unless you are already on that path and have a strong motivation to do so.

India is and will remain a very complex but attractive market for MNC's in the foreseeable future. Manager's trained in Indian business environment tend to perform very good at global level positions  because they are generally more agile in dealing with complex and uncertain situations. Business working environment in new emerging markets like countries in Latin america,Africa  and many parts of Asia resonates more with India business environment than developed countries. Also, more importantly, in today's market place one can't afford to get to Senior leadership roles in a truly global MNC without doing an assignment in one such country.

Thoughts?

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[Vikas Sarawat]

Man! You talk like an executive.

I agree with most of it.

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[Aakash Khurana]

Its funny,reading back my own comment, I did sound like one:). 

It would be great to hear the perspective from the folks who are actually working in India as managers for MNC's-- that will be the reality in true sense.

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[Anuj Magazine]

I didnt read the interview fully yet but the first few lines itself suggests that this man is special. With almost no IT background, having helped increase MS India revenues 7 fold.

There can be arguments for or against having India or India like experience but i somehow dont feel it is necessary to have experience here to shine in Senior Leadership roles but generally diverse International experience is always a plus when dealing with such assignments given the diverse nature of organizations today. This MS guy's is an extraordinary success story but there are many failure stories also that go with it.

I dont anytime feel proud about India being still associated with chaos as it was when we were born, when we graduated and when we started working and even now. But i also know that practically its a chaos here for anyone coming from outside and people somehow have found a way around the chaos. "Jugaad" was recently promoted as management/innovation philosophy but in my mind it failed to pick-up because possibilities of it working in ordered/sane world is remote. Why would an ordered world need Jugaad when there can be better solutions. But like with anything, there could be differing views here too.

[Vikas Sarawat]

Chaos is nothing to be proud off, i agree. 

For MNC executives (not so much for mid level managers) it should help some if they have some experience/exposure in developing world. 

For Managers in MNC who lead teams in different countries, it should make sense that companies send managers to meet the team one-on-one every now and then. 

Creating business in a country like India requires you to pay bribery, that's the first requirement everything else is secondary. Persistence, unencumbered  flexibility should help as well.

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[Anuj Magazine]

I do not fully agree with India being a Lean cost destination. It was more of the case may be 10 years back but now that gap is narrowing fast. Most MNCs with local presence do not overly highlight cost as an outright advantage. Rightly, there is. Lot of focus is on overall value nod Innovation for local markets here.

I can tell from my experience with global teams, cost advantage here is fading faster than many think. China is a threat- originally thought of in manufacturing, hardware only but slowly and steadily they have made commendable progress in Software and surprising progress in English speaking.

[Aakash]

Yes, cost advantage associated with India has faded off and will further continue to go downhill.. What makes India attractive, I believe from FMCG perspective, is its huge consumer base and a fast growing middle class which is willing to pay premium price for better products. What makes India a complex market though is most of the end consumer is still very price sensitive and hence Innovation has to be focused more on finding a right product & cost combination. This innovation mantra has a potential to be applied in other developing countries.

 The chaos associated with corruption, infrastructure,logistics,Inflation, dysfunctional government has unfortunately become more of a culture and so it is there to stay until some miracle happens. Successful MNC's in India has somehow learned to  muddle through it. HOPE is considered to be  a good Strategy but it never will be.

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