'Mahindra and Mahindra needs to be truly global to face challenges challenges'

The challenge for a company like Mahindra & Mahindra is to grow to an $80 billion company. That cannot be achieved without being truly global. This is the central challenge for every major Indian company. However, global expansion will depend upon excellence in innovation.

In fact, globalisation and innovation are two sides of the same coin. Thus far, by and large, Indian companies have excelled in low-cost manufacture of products needed for the western consumer. To the extent they focused on the Indian consumer, it was typically at the top of the economic pyramid. The time has come for Indian companies to double their innovative efforts. The poor should not be viewed as a liability and burden on society but as consumers, entrepreneurs, producers, and - yes - partners.

On July 15 this year, the Tata Group, the makers of the Nano car, announced the launch of an ultra-low-cost, flat-pack house for the rural poor. The basic model will be available as a 20-sq. m. pre-fabricated kit designed for on-site installation at $700 (Rs 31,500). There are also plans for a house that comes with a solar panel.

A month before the Tata announcement, a self-organised team from M&M won the corporate award for the $300 House Open Design Challenge (see www.300house.com). The team is now working on a pilot of its design. We need thousands of such experiments to solve India's most pressing problems - housing, health, education, energy or transport. These problems can be solved only with breakthrough innovations.

The writer is Professor at Tuck School of Business, Dartmouth

Full text of the column at www.businesstoday.in/Govindarajan