As the title and the speakers of this suggests, this was one of the most popular sessions at PanIIT 2008. As always, Prof Prahalad started the session in his bold & structured style. He said that the theme of this session is not about what India ‘will be’ but what India ‘can be’ at 75.

He said that I believe that, India can have:

1. 500 million professionals
2. 10% share of the global trade
3. Source of fundamental innovation – global laboratory
4. At least 10 Nobel Prize winners
5. Leadership beyond ‘tech’ and ‘economy’ (by leveraging its diversity, which no other country in this world can boast of)

Acknowledging the success of the Tata group as example, he said that they’ve shown incredible growth – from US$ 5.5b to over US$ 60b in less than 10 years. This became possible only through their bold steps – through the combination of inorganic (through BIG acquisitions) and organic growth.

To give direction and structure to the session, he requested the distinguished speakers to present their views as response to the following 4 questions:

1. What are the opportunities for India?
2. How can we provide Social Legitimization?  
3. How can India become the ‘lab for innovation’ (than just capitalizing on the cost arbitrage)
4. What is the India advantage?

Looking back at the history of Indian growth, he said that if 1947 was the 1.0 of Independence and if 1992-93 was 2.0 of Independence; can 2009 be the 3.0 of independence for India?

B. Muthuraman (CEO, Tata Steel) started first among the 3 distinguished Tata group CEOs. Talking to the relevancy of including society (responding to question 2), he started by listing the philosophy and fundamental values of the Tata Group:

1.    Oneness with society

2.    Adaptability

3.    Empowered workforce

4.    Financial prudence

He gave the example of Tata’s bid for Corus – the success of the deal primarily came from the transparency of the process and Tata’s image as socially responsible. As a result, Tata Steel was preferred by all stakeholders (direct and indirect).

He then talked on Innovation and said that in addition to the standardization of every product/process, there is a need to continuously improve and innovate including Social Innovation. Talking on this company (i.e. Tata Steel), he said that unlike IT (which is considered sexy), steel didn’t have the similar image. However, they leveraged the process, sales & marketing. As a result, today Tata Steel is a brand which commands premium. To inculcate the innovation, Tata Steel regularly organizes a program called ‘Knowledge Manthan’, in which people (including the ones with no formal education) across the organization participate with the single objective of generating new ideas which can take the company forward and the program has always exceeded the expectations.

Talking on India Advantage, he listed ‘People’ as the primary factor behind India’s growth (including future potential). In addition, adaptability (comes from the cultural diversity) and creativity (of the Indian mind) are other advantages, which if leveraged appropriately can help India meets the objectives laid out by Prof Prahalad.

Ravi Kant (CEO, Tata Motors) started his presentation by listing the opportunities (starting with local opportunities) in front of India:

1. Change in urbanization of mind – with the emergence of communication mediums such mobile and internet, a common man in India wants to improve the quality of life
2. Young age – great desire to succeed and transform the present
3. Discretionary (or disposable) income – leads to never imagined spending by at least 300m people

Connectivity (starting from physical connectivity) is the key to capitalize on the above opportunities.

He then listed the following overseas opportunities for India:

1. Forced innovation – due to competition created by bridging of the borders across nations
2. Inorganic growth – through acquisitions. Ravi listed the examples of Tata Daewoo followed by JLR takeover. Talking on the success of Daewoo deal, he said post acquisition, Daewoo (under the leadership of Tata) became the largest exporter of heavy trucks in 4 years.

He then shared his views on Social Responsibility. He again gave the examples of Daewoo and JLR. He mentioned that Tata Motors was the last in the race to buy Daewoo. Tata buying Daewoo in Korea was considered impossible and it faced huge resistance from everyone in Korea. However, when Tata Motors talked to all stakeholders and concerned parties – company management, PM, President, Mayor and others, the antipathy for Tata Motors translated to harmony. It was the Governance and Transparency of the Tata Group, which made this deal possible. The same happened with JLR takeover.

Talking on Innovation, he said that immature markets such as India are more fertile for experimentation and thus throw better opportunities for Innovation. Nano is a remarkable example. No one was ready to accept the idea of Rs 1 lac car in the beginning but Tata Motor’s undaunted stand along with collaborative innovation with everyone involved, resulted in the game changing product – Nano.  

Ravi as well pointed ‘People’ as the key advantage for India. He shared that the fuzzy logic (getting thing done without knowing everything) is the centre of Indian mindset. Entrepreneurship (and thus SMEs) is another advantage pointed by him. Again, the number of young people and finally low cost advantage were other advantages listed by Ravi.

 

He also listed India disadvantages, which must be realized and overcome for India to a true leader:

1. Lack of discipline
2. Quality – high tolerance for imperfection
3. Lack of care and concern for fellow human beings
4. Lack of killer instinct (giving up on 90%)

He concluding by sharing his confidence that India can regain its glory it had 300 years ago.

S Ramadorai (CEO, TCS) shared his views beginning with what India was considered few years back:

1.    A resource destination

2.    Critical market

3.    Disruptions were needed

4.    Constraints such as License Raj were to be addressed

Talking on the success of TCS (and IT sector), he stated that Outsourcing enables scaling up for businesses by reducing cost. Technology is necessary ingredient without which no future (including at the bottom of pyramid) exists. Globalization is no more an option today.

Like his predecessors, Ramadorai also acknowledged ‘People’ as the most importance resource for India. The human capital needs to be trained, mentored and nurtured. Corporate Social Responsibility becomes part of it. Innovation is not just limited to organization. Thinking big and delivering it is the strength we’ve in India.

Prof Prahalad summarized the point of views of three visionaries from Tata Group and left the audience with a question (and an idea for making big) – can we create a device which can connect and enable the education for 500m people in the next 10 years?