Conquering the Chaos: Win in India, Win Everywhere by Ravi Venkatesan Read Free Book Online Page B

Nokia and Research In Motion and put Microsoft on the defense.
     Or going back in time, how Japanese firms challenged Detroit and consumer electronics
     giants like GE, Phillips, and Thompson. In a similar way, companies like Samsung,
     Hyundai, Cummins, JCB, Nestlé, Schneider Electric, Unilever, and Standard Chartered
     Bank are quietly creating new growth engines and unassailable leadership positions
     in places like India and paving the way for industry leadership. 8
    Because the changes we are talking about are deep and affect the DNA and operating
     system of companies, to have any chance of success at all, they cannot be delegated
     to leaders who operate within rigid frameworks. In most companies, globalization is
     the responsibility of a president of sales or a senior vice president for international
     business. The mandate of these leaders is simply to grow the business by selling more
     stuff around the world. It is not within their remit to challenge the investment process
     or the innovation process. The only place where it all comes together is the corner
     office, which is why the CEO has to champion the strategy to win in India and other
     emerging markets and the board has to explicitly support it. Leadership in emerging
     markets becomes a defining choice for today’s CEOs.
    The prognosis is not good. Most senior leaders in multinational companies have their
     experience base in the developed world; they lack a feel for and understanding of
     emerging markets. Many don’t even like emerging markets—noisy, chaotic, corrupt places
     that don’t play by Western rules. It’s a tall order to expect a CEO who brings his
     or her familiar food on the corporate jet to see the potential of these markets.
    CEO tenures are also declining. According to a recent Conference Board survey, tenures
     are now shorter than seven years. Very often, building leadership in India can take
     a decade. It’s a rare CEO who is willing to pay the price by investing on his or her
     watch, knowing that the credit might well go to a successor.
    Obsession with China at the expense of India is another major issue. While every CEO
     acknowledges that it’s all about China and India, the reality is that the rise of
     China has caused many CEOs to overlook India. In the short term, China looks like
     a much greater opportunity. However, a comparison of the profitability of foreign
     companies in China and India suggests that on a risk-adjusted basis, the differences
     may not be quite as large.
    To be fair to today’s CEOs, they have an incredibly tough job, with the world’s major
     economies in trouble, more regulatory challenges, more competition, more pressure
     from Wall Street, and so on. In the middle of all that, we are asking them to prioritize
     winning in emerging markets, with India as a lead market, at a time when India is
     presenting itself in a spectacularly poor light.
    The Levers of Success
    CEO commitment is the starting point. In India, winning requires a very different
     business leader—an entrepreneurial general manager rather than a salesperson and,
     ideally, a senior and trusted insider with credibility and influence. It requires
     a different organizational structure or model, where India is managed like a geographic
     profit center, with the ability to make important operating decisions without enormous
     negotiations and persuasion. It needs a willingness to make long-term investments
     in developing capabilities on the ground and the willingness to sustain these through
     the inevitable vicissitudes. Therefore, escaping the midway trap requires the commitment
     of the entire leadership of the company to pull multiple levers before the whole organization
     flips to a new high-growth trajectory.
    In the rest of the book, I will delve into issues that determine a company’s success
     in India. The single most important determinant of success over time is the choice
     of the country manager. What is the