Transformation Key to Industrial Growth – B  Muthuraman

CII releases its book 'The Big Leap: How Indian Companies Leveraged Reforms for Success'

Focus on quality, technology and customer centricity is the way forward for companies to be successful. This thought emerged at a panel discussion organized by CII at the release of its book 'The Big Leap: How Indian Companies Leveraged Reforms for Success'. The panelists included Mr Mukundan, Chairman, CII WR & Managing Director, Tata Chemicals Ltd., Mr Muthuraman, Past President, CII & Vice Chairman, Tata Steel Ltd.,  Mr Praveen Toshniwal, Past Chairman, CII WR & Chairman, Nivo Controls and Mr TCA Ranganathan, Ex CMD, EXIM Bank of India. Mr Mukundan, Chairman, CII WR & Managing Director, Tata Chemicals Ltd. moderated the discussion.

Mr Muthuraman narrated the story of Tata Steel from the pre-liberalisation to the post-liberalisation era. He said the most important thing in transformation is to first accept the reality and then change the mindset of people in the company. Speaking about the Tata Steel journey of transformation, he said that it was a shift from a mindset of contained box to mindset of aspiration. He added that companies cannot benefit if customers don’t and hence Tata Steel focused on marketing as a vital business function to improve customer relation and enhance value to the customer. This enabled the company to command a premium of 10-20% on their products. He opined that there was a pressing need for deeper social reforms, agricultural reforms, educational reforms and investments in technology.

Mr Praveen Toshniwal said that for small and medium-sized companies to survive and grow, they could not compete with big companies on technology. Hence, the only way MSMEs can do this is by offering a comparative quality and competitive price and value to customer. As a capital equipment manufacturer, Mr Toshniwal feels that to ensure customer retention, the product needed to be supported technically before and after the sale.

Mr TCA Ranganathan said that quality does not come merely from internal processes but by having strong customer and vendor relationships. He expressed that although reforms were needed, not many companies are geared to face this kind of reform and the resultant competition. According to him, there is a need to focus on environment, permissions and labour reforms.

Mr Mukundan said that the book is an attempt at understanding the effect of structural changes on industry, companies and society and how the industry stepped up post liberalisation. He added that the book speaks of the challenges and the successes of select Indian companies.  Mr Mukundan emphasized that now is the time to begin the next phase of reforms.

‘The Big Leap: How Indian Companies Leveraged Reforms for Success’ is a CII initiative that narrates stories of Indian companies post the 1991 economic reforms. Authored by Ms.Sharmila Kantha, the book unravels the challenging process of business restructuring that Indian industry undertook after comprehensive policy changes for industrial de-licensing and trade liberalisation in the 1990s, Mumbai, 10th December 2013.