AT a time when developed economies are in varying degrees of turmoil, India continues

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to ride on growth. Four Wharton professors Michael Useem, JitendraSingh, Peter Cappelli and Harbir Singh in their book The India Way, explore how Indian firms achieved this in the midst of a downturn. Jitendra Singh talks on India’s competitive advantage. Excerpts:



You have created a new jargon in management —jugaad — in your book. What is it about?

While there are other connotationso the Hindi word— quick fix, temporary, unstable etc — we were thinking of it in terms of the capacity to improvise and be flexible despite lack of resources. You could call it out-of-the-box ideas. This approach has brought in a competitive advantage while doing business. A case in point is India’s software industry and their business model based on labour market arbitrage, first started by TCS in late 1960s. It has now evolved to meet high value needs of customers.



What are the major learnings of the book?

From our conversations with about 100 CEOs and chairmen of top public lylisted firms in the country, we identified four pillars — holistic engagement with employees, improvisation and adaptability, creating value propositions and a broad mission and purpose. The first is where India has a major advantage; people in the US are now increasingly recognising the costs of their people model. To give an example of the desi approach, Keshav Mahindra, chairman of M&M, told us that instead of laying off people during the downturn when they closed the automobile plant, they asked them to work in the gardens of the company while paying them. It leads to loyalty from employees, something absent in an incentive- led model in the US.

Maximising shareholder wealth is way down the priority list for Indian CEOs as compared to being a role model or national purpose, according to your book..Yes, Indian CEOs are more focused on the softer side of the organisation. Being a role model is important to them. They don’t face the kind of pressure from investors for maximising

shareholder wealth that people in US do. Having said that, investor capitalism is beginning to come to India.

Nation building and social issues — are they just lip service?

We believe it is more than lip service. If it was just that, then they would talk something and do another. Take Tata Group, for instance, two-thirds of their profits got to two charitable trusts, which have been in place from before Independence. It has few parallels in the world. There’s anecdotal data that suggest they are serious.

What are the strengths of the Indian manager?

A typical Indian is more comfortable dealing with people from different cultures. It comes from the diversity in the country. They also have high capacity to adapt and dealing with uncertainty and ambiguity. You could say that Indians are capable of working in the grey and are sensitive to nuances unlike westerners who see it white or black.

Who among the CEOs that you interviewed stoodout for you?

I was struck by Sunil Bharti Mittal and his enormous entrepreneurial energy. His is a remarkable story, a combination of great ambition and willingness to take risks. N R Naryana Murthy and Infosys have strengths like execution capability and customer- centric approach.