The Hindu Business Line : `Business model must bend with the times'

COMPANIES plan to work towards improving the way they have been doing business to stay ahead of competition over the next few years, instead of just focussing on developing new products and services, a majority of the senior executives of Indian companies included in a SAP-EIU survey have said.

According to the Survey titled `Business 2010 in India', 57 per cent of the 264 senior Indian executives said that "flexibility" and "rapid responses" to market changes would set the winner apart in 2010 and a company, therefore, needed to adapt business models that can "bend with the times".

Nearly 60 per cent of the respondents believed that consolidation of existing players would be the biggest source of competition by 2010, according to the survey. In order to counter the threat, both from the consolidation of existing players and entry of new players, a majority of Indian executives (54 per cent) said they plan to focus on building established product lines to generate revenue growth. About 46 per cent of the respondents said their preference would be to go in for diversification.

Also, 57 per cent of the respondents said that the ability of Indian firms to adapt business models would become a major competitive advantage for the country. About 88 per cent of the executives in India said that five years down the line, their performance will be judged against a combination of financial, human capital and customer satisfaction parameters.

The Survey, commissioned by SAP and conducted by the EIU, was part of an EIU research programme involving over 4,000 businesses and public sector executives across 23 of the world's leading economies. The Indian component of the study involved interviews of 264 senior executives between November 2004 and January 2005.

"The EIU survey confirms that change is the biggest challenge confronting Indian businesses between now and 2010, and as the leading business software provider, we are excited to contribute to that dynamism," Mr Alan Sedghi, President and CEO, SAP South Asia, said.

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