The Hindu Business Line : `Being a globalised corporate more important than being MNC'

BEING a globalised corporate is more important than being a multinational. This view was aired by Mr N.R. Narayana Murthy, Chairman of the Board and Chief Mentor, Infosys Technologies while speaking at the India Economic Summit organised by the World Economic Forum and Confederation of Indian Industry on Tuesday.

While multinationals work on a model of creating subsidiaries, globalised corporates use the entire world as their arena and create aspiration in every society they work in, he said while addressing a session on `Indian MNCs in the Fortune 500.'

He added that for a globalised corporate, efficient sourcing from one part of the globe and selling in a market with good demand, without the interference of geographic boundary is very important.

Mr Alan Rosling, Executive Director, Tata Sons India said that more important than the need to globalise, is the need to be competitive. For this, being competitive in the home market was important, he said. According to him, some of the virtues of being competitive are managing people, managing geography and culturing good value and ethics.

Mr Ravi Uppal, Vice Chairman and Managing Director, ABB, India shared that India has a good pool of human resources and abundant natural resources. Unfortunately, these potentials remain unleveraged. Some of the key actions for Indian companies are to augment quality and strive for a better brand image. He said it is important to work with local talent and leverage local strengths.

Mr Tarun Khanna, Jorge Paulo Lemann Professor, Harvard Business School, said that replication was not an ideal growth path for emerging multinationals.