India Inc plans M038;A push for aspiring Indian multinationals

With mergers and acquisitions now becoming a way of life for corporate India, business leaders and corporates have come together under one umbrella to lead 8220;aspiring Indian multinationals8221; on the way forward.

With mergers and acquisitions M038;A now becoming a way of life for corporate India, business leaders and corporates have come together under one umbrella to lead 8220;aspiring Indian multinationals8221; on the way forward. To facilitate this process, the Confederation of Indian Industry CII, in partnership with eminent business leaders, has launched a unique initiative 8212; India Inc Going Global.

Currently, the programme is organised into operational entities termed 8220;clusters8221;, based on the functional areas or common challenges/ opportunities faced. Each of these clusters, led by an anchor company, will co-evolve the set of services that will be of common interest to the cluster members and will be responsible for achieving their objectives.

Initially, three clusters have been made operational. The Leadership Development 038; Talent Management cluster will be led by Infosys, India Advantage by Mahindra 038; Mahindra and Inorganic Growth by ICICI Bank.

Led by an initial set of companies, including Asian Paints, Bharat Forge, ICICI Bank, Infosys Technologies, Mahindra 038; Mahindra, McKinsey 038; Company and Harvard Business School Jorge Paulo Lemann Professor Tarun Khanna, a core set has been established. This set will act as the governing body for running the programme, under the aegis of CII.

The Core Set members include CII Indian MNCs Committee chairman and GVK Biosciences Chairman D S Brar, Asian Paints managing director Jalaj Dani, Mahindra 038; Mahindra president HR and Group Management Board member Rajeev Dubey, Bharat Forge Ltd executive director Amit Kalyani, Tarun Khanna, ICICI Bank deputy managing director Chanda Kochhar, Infosys Technologies co-founder and COO S D Shibulal, and McKinsey 038; Company managing director-India Adil Zainulbhai.

Providing an insight into the new initiative, Brar said 8220;The aim is to create an ecosystem which can accelerate the creation of multinational corporations from India . By tapping into the 8220;experiential expertise8221; of CII members, global Indian companies, emerging multinational corporations, strategic consulting firms and knowledge partners in academia, the initiative aims to provide a forum for learning, sharing and addressing common challenges of the globalisation journey, in an actionable format.8221;

Shibulal launched the initiative8217;s dedicated website indiaincgoingglobal.com. Stressing that speed is of essence in clinching M038;A deals, Shibulal pointed out that 8220;there is a need to create an ecosystem where Indian companies can learn from each other8217;s successes and how to avoid failures; that will help them succeed faster. This is a programme, which is unique, with success depending on the belief that it can work, participation by the members and the expectations from it. The programme is aimed at a wide set of companies. Size is not the bar, aspiration is the bar.8221;

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Khanna emphasised that 8220;we have reached a stage where Indian companies have reached a critical mass and are asking the question how they can go global. The time to go global is actually right now.8221;

Zainulbhai said that while it is natural for Indian companies to expand overseas, the speed at which it is happening is a lot faster than it used to be. 8220;Previously, we had a 30-year cycle before they could reach that stage but now several companies are taking just 10 years,8221; he observed.

Kochhar said: 8220;For the momentum in outwardly bound M038;A deals to continue, a lot of facilitating is required in the form of funding, structuring, training, valuation exercises, understanding country risk and managing the entire financing. The focus of the inorganic growth cluster would be to find solutions and help corporates put these facilitating fundamentals in place.8221;