2006 BRAINSTORM ISA SUMMIT
Building global Indian brands Can Indian brands cross the borders successfully? Highlights from the seminar ‘Building Global Brands Out of India,’ organised by the Indian Society of Advertisers and Momentum Consulting in Mumbai recently. A report by Saurabh N Turakhia.
‘Shed ethno-centricity, acquire global mindset’ Dr Jagdish Sheth, Marketing Guru & Management Thinker BELIEVE BRANDS CANNOT BE bought in the marketplace, nor can they be manufactured in a factory, but they ought to be earned. The global economy today points to opportunities in the emerging markets, being caused by four forces— economic pragmatism, collapse of Communism, ageing of affluent markets and the flat world. All advanced countries are ageing. The ageing problem can be seen in developed world like Japan and Germany. Last year in Germany, the number of deaths was more than the number of births. With this ageing ■
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problem, more passive incomes are being generated. So, worldwide the income-driven markets are turning into wealth-driven markets. This also means we will see more millionaires. The growth will come from emerging markets. The world is flat today. Indian media has all the equipment that global players have. India and China are leading the world and not lagging behind the way they used to be. India is slowly moving from an isolated domestic economy to an integrated global economy. A truly global company loses the country-oforigin identity amongst all its stakeholders. India faces problems like lack of scale, lack of global mindset,
non-supportive government rules and regulations. Global mindset, quality, differentiation through design, strong supply chains and shedding ethnocentricity will help India succeed in making global brands. ■
‘Approach competition like a game of golf, not soccer’ ■
Deepak Ghaisas, CEO, India Operations and CFO, i-Flex Solutions
82 ❘ Pitch#resilient ❘ April 2006 #reliable #relevant
N 1993, THREE OF US CAME together. We realised that we wanted to do something different. We’d have to look at what so far nobody has done. Banking solution was the answer. We got $1million as capital. Of that, $400,000 were contributed by Citibank and rest by friends. From 1993 to 2006, that $1 million has grown to $2.3 billion. That’s the power of a brand. Today, we have 22 support centres. For the past four years, our product has been adjudged the No 1 software. We made a product brand and not a corporate brand. Nobody thought
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that banking solutions would come as a product. The responsibility on us was high. We stayed vertically focused. There’s immense pressure in 1998, 1999 and 2000 to get the Y2K business, but we resisted. I believe approach to competition should not be like a football game where you constantly try to beat someone else, but rather be like a game of golf where you excel yourself. It also helps you keep high benchmarks. It is important to have a brand vision too. Just like Intel’s ‘Intel inside’ sticker, we’d like to have every bank branch use our product. ■
NOVEMBER 2017 | PITCH | 95