India's Global Powerhouses: How They Are Taking on the World [Hardcover]

Nirmalya Kumar (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 31, 2009

When the Indian auto manufacturer Tata Motors bought the iconic Jaguar and Land Rover brands - complementing the Nano, its own innovative $2,500 car - it opened up a new chapter in India's economic story. In the coming years, such Indian multinationals as Bharat Forge, Hindalco, Infosys, Mahindra, and Suzlon will increasingly be making acquisitions and building their brands in Western markets.

Never heard of them? Then read this book. India's Global Powerhouses introduces you to the India's preeminent global companies and explains how they differ from their international rivals. The book profiles India's pioneering multinationals in detail, describing their transformation from leading domestic players to evolving global giants, as well as their unique approaches to globalization.

Every manager should understand the histories and the business trajectories of these prospective competitors, collaborators, and customers - whose names will soon be as familiar to us as Honda, Lenovo, and Samsung.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Starred Review. Marketing professor Kumar (of the London Business School) asserts that India, along with other economic hotspots like China and Dubai, "will be unrecognizable in a decade," having "helped remake the global and political economic landscape." With coauthors Mohapatra (a player in India's private sector) and Chandrasekhar (of D.C. think-tank Strategic Insights), he assembles in-depth case studies of India's multinational operators, covering the country's pre- and post-independence history, and how an overwhelming government bureaucracy became a business-friendly regime. A look at India's Tata Group, founded 1868, reveals its extraordinary evolution into a powerful modern business through select acquisitions in hotels, steel, tea and automobiles (like its 2008 acquisition of Jaguar and Land Rover). Another captivating account tracks Essel Propack's small laminated tube company, which found global success as a supplier for Proctor & Gamble (illustrating the Hindu proverb, "Help thy brother's boat across and, Lo! Thine own has reached the shore"). Challenges for Indian multinationals like Infosys and turbine manufacturer Suzlon include skyrocketing executive compensation and rental costs, a lack of globally-minded managers and a cultural difficulty with teamwork. As Kumar and company demonstrate, the future of business in India is worth understanding, and their detailed volume makes an excellent primer.

Review

In this invaluable contribution to the study of India's rising economic might, Professor Kumar brings us up close to the people, organizations, and ideas reshaping global commerce. India's Global Powerhouses is an essential read for all leaders in business, public policy, and education. --Muhtar Kent, President and CEO, The Coca-Cola Company

Kumar has comprehensively captured the ascendance of global Indian corporations. Each case study highlights the unique vision and approach of one company on its path to the level of global competition. As a whole, this book is a must-read for all global managers who seek to understand and make the most of the emerging international powerhouse of India. --Nandan Nilekani, Cochairman, Infosys Technologies Limited

Nirmalya Kumar has captured the energy and the ambition driving those Indian companies that have become global powerhouses. When India opened to the world in 1991, few imagined that her companies would go global. This book documents their remarkable success. --P. Chidambaram, Minister for Home Affairs, India

As Kumar and company demonstrate, the future of business in India is worth understanding, and their detailed volume makes an excellent primer. --Publisher's Weekly

"But the significance of the coffee-house conversation, and many like it, is better understood after reading Nirmalya Kumar s more slender volume, India s Global Powerhouses"

"A particular value of the book lies in its concise case studies..."

"...highly readable book..." --Financial Times

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 256 pages
• Publisher: Harvard Business School Press (March 31, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1422147622
• ISBN-13: 978-1422147627
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.3 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #906,213 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Professor Nirmalya Kumar is one of the world's leading thinkers on strategy and marketing, who has taught at Harvard Business School, IMD (Switzerland), London Business School and Northwestern University (Kellogg School of Management).

As an author, Nirmalya has written five books, four of which have been published by Harvard Business Press: Marketing as Strategy (2004), Private Label Strategy (2007), Value Merchants (2007), and India's Global Powerhouses (2009).

Dr. Kumar is an outlier among marketing professors, having accomplished the rare feat of publishing six articles each in both the Journal of Marketing Research (the premier journal for marketing academics) and the Harvard Business Review (the premier journal for business practice). These, and other articles, have attracted 5,000 and 2,000 citations on Google Scholar and Social Science Citation Index respectively.

As a consultant, coach, and conference speaker, Nirmalya has worked with more than 50 Fortune 500 companies in 60 different countries. He has served on several boards of directors, including two billion dollar plus companies and companies included in India's stock indices.

Professor Kumar received his B.Com. from Calcutta University (graduating first in a class of 5,251 students), his MBA from the University of Illinois at Chicago (scoring a perfect 5.0 grade point average), and his PhD in marketing from Kellogg Graduate School of Management (winning the Marketing Science Institute's Alden G. Clayton Award for his PhD dissertation).

All of the above has led to more than 400 press appearances, six European case (ECCH) adoption awards, as well as several teaching, research, and lifetime achievement honors. In 2010, Speaking.com voted him amongst the top 5 marketing speakers worldwide; the Economic Times placed him 6th on the list of Global Indian Thought Leaders; whilst the Economist referred to him as a "rising superstar" in their cover story entitled "The New Masters of Management."

In his personal life, Nirmalya is a passionate supporter of the arts. He is the custodian of the largest known private collection of paintings by Jamini Roy (1887-1972; the father of Indian modern art) and Rabindranath Tagore (1861-1941; the first Asian to win a Nobel Prize).

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Waste of money and time, September 12, 2009

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Books maniac (New York city, NY) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: India's Global Powerhouses: How They Are Taking on the World (Hardcover)

Buying this book is a waste of your money and reading it is a waste of time!

There are no insights as to how Indian companies are buying global firms. The author starts with providing the typical cliches about how India is growing. Well we all know that!! Followed by list of acquisitions by Indian companies. I already know Tata bought Tetley and Jaguar.

I was hoping to read insights about how and why Tata made this acquisition. What are the benefits of it. How steps should Indian companies take in their path towards becoming global players. Sadly such insights are totally lacking in the book.

The case studies about the companies are interesting but again miss the insights and just provide data. The author goes into the history of each company.

If Amazon permits downloading Kindle samples outside the US, I could have avoided buying this book.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Future is Coming -, December 23, 2011

By 

Loyd E. Eskildson "Pragmatist" (Phoenix, AZ.) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: India's Global Powerhouses: How They Are Taking on the World (Hardcover)

'India's Global Powerhouses' focuses on the emergence of Indian companies that have gone global and are transforming the world - thanks to its scale and cost advantages, combined with very high debt-equity ratios. Another advantage is their high degree of family control - allowing fast action and freedom from actions being closely tied to stock prices.

About 60% of India's 200 largest firms have global aspirations. In 2006 Indian outward investment outstripped foreign investment into India. Major players include Moser Baer (world's second-largest producer of DVDs), Tata Steel (world's fifth largest steel producer), Hindalco (world's largest aluminum rolling company), Mahindra & Mahindra (one of the world's top three tractor manufacturers), Reliance Industries Limited (world's largest producer of polyester fiber and yarn), Tata Tea (owns brands like Tetley), Tata Motors (Jaguar and Land Rover), Oberoi Group (four of the world's ten highest rated hotels, per Conde Nast readers), Vedanta (world's lowest-cost zinc producer). Others include Larsen & Toubro (building ten coal gasification plants in China), and Bharti Airtel (among world top ten wireless companies, averages 50% margins - despite average revenues/enrollee only one-fifth that in Europe).

Infosys, Tata Consultancy Services, and Wipro Technologies collect annual revenues around $12 billion, with average operating margins of 20% - twice that at IBM. (IBM's operating margins are higher than the average for the six largest U.S. technology firms, including EDS and Accenture. Meanwhile, Accenture India has 50,000 employees - more than Accenture U.S., and IBM has 50,000 Indian employees as well. HCL Technologies, an Indian R&D outsourcing company, designed two critical systems for Boeing's 787 Dreamliner - one to land in zero visibility, the other to avoid airborne collisions. Nicholas Piramal India Limited conducts clinical trials globally for Eli Lilly. Google chose Bangalore as the site of its first R&D center outside the U.S. G.E., H-P, Sun Microsystems, Texas Instruments are others. Intel's R&D center in Bengaluru is its largest unit outside the U.S., and recently delivered the world's first tera-scale experimental chip capable of 1 trillion operations/second. There are now more than 600 captive R&D centers in India.

A Bangalore-based company called 24/7 Customer started out as a call center, and has innovated so that it can determine from both what you called about and your tone of voice who would be best qualified to take your call.

China now has a far superior infrastructure, more developed manufacturing capabilities (13% of global manufacturing output, vs. 2% in India), but India's advantages include greater English capabilities, a younger population (per China's 'one-child policy'), and the opportunity for global firms to diversify part of their supply chain outside China. India's disadvantages include limited education opportunities, weaker intellectual property protection, less early-stage venture capital funding, and a stultifying bureaucracy - it takes 159 - 522 days to get a business license, and an average 225 days to get a building permit. (A new Four Seasons Hotel required 165 government permits.) Both China and India reap advantages from their status as major markets for Western products.

On the 'bad side,' India has yet to create a single, internal market - each state imposes its own inspection requirements, duties, and regulations on shipments crossing its borders, even those simply going to another state in India. The average time to clear exports through Indian customs is nearly 16 days, vs. 6 in China or the OECD. Unreliable power is estimated to cost Indian businesses 6X that of their counterparts in China. It takes an average of four years to enforce a contract in India, vs. 9+ months in China - thus, the headquarters of some of India's major firms have moved to European sites.

Professor/author Kumar interviewed 35 leading CEOs in researching this book. It's bottom line could perhaps be summarized as Horace Greeley's advice today probably would be 'Go East, young man - the developed world is facing a long decline in its standard of living.' The bulk of the book consists of mini case-studies of successful global Indian firms.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great insights but some contradictions, August 28, 2009

By 

Saibal Sen - See all my reviews
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This review is from: India's Global Powerhouses: How They Are Taking on the World (Hardcover)

I rate it a five star because it is very insightful reading compared to most books I have read. However the good stuff is at the beginning and towards the end. The middle is a big disappointment. In my opinion its a fairly accurate observation on strengths and weaknesses in Indian businesses. Strengths being mostly restricted to low cost advantage and ability to raise cash (nothing more). There are several weaknesses that the author has pointed out towards the end chapters. The middle part (the case studies) seems to be almost written by someone else as it has no bearing on the wonderful insights highlighted in the end chapters. I highly recommend it for senior managers in Indian businesses to reflect on competency gaps and to foreign businesses who intend doing business with Indian powerhouses. Thank you Mr. Kumar!