India through Chinese eyes

“They were very impressed,” says Patel. “Indians are so entrepreneurial, so international in outlook and so articulate. They kept saying, we are not sure we have people of this intellectual scope.”

The delegation could not reconcile this talent with the challenges India is failing to meet. Patel sums up their observations: “Why is it that India through its intellectual power cannot build big industries? They wondered how Indians have got so used to having people so poor, how people scratching for attention at the traffic lights are ignored. They found this emotionally troubling, and would beseech me to give money and food.”

This was the puzzle for the Chinese delegation: “They found Indian industrialists to be amongst the top of the world-class elite commercially and intellectually. They could not understand how a country so diverse and so poor could function as a democracy. They asked if the price for this democracy was too high, in terms of economic progress.”

China and India are in different ways leading innovation in manufacturing and services. By Patel’s reckoning, to maximise their collaborative potential, there has to be a four-way partnership, networking government and industry in both India and China. This would involve an exchange of knowledge and business practices and a sharing of markets. He perceives great potential in three sectors: pharma, IT services (in which India is ahead) and telecommunications, in which China is.

Patel, 42, has the air of a man driven by futurology. Random House has just published his first book, The Master Strategist, in which he argues that our techniques for strategising are based on military thinking and competition. Written in high-altitude hours grabbed during a six-month career phase of frequent Japan-US flights, the book’s nonviolent message has elicited a foreword from Nelson Mandela.

So, how does India grab its best-case scenario? Says Patel: “India must produce enough talent to dominate four-five key industries. It must manufacture this talent on a huge scale the way China manufactures goods. Its manufacturing industry also needs to be scaled, otherwise we cannot change society. This has to be the priority for the political and business elite. There is no reason why in a country this smart there needs to be so many poor people. We have to turn them into employees, consumers and customers. We have to give them dignity.”

Indians, he feels, also need to think global: “India needs to look outside and have its top companies make acquisitions in foreign countries. And we have one of the most cosmopolitan and rich cultures. We’re not using that to define an Indian way that could be accepted all over the world.” Bollywood, he reckons, could take a lead in this, but it needs to attain the diversity of Hollywood to be truly effective.

Meanwhile, Patel is preparing to turn the mirror the other way. This winter he takes an Indian delegation to China.