The Hindu Business Line : ‘We have an entrepreneurial bent in us, despite our size’

New Delhi, Dec 16 GE India’s new President and CEO, Mr Tejpreet S. Chopra has the unenviable job of chartering a new course for the Indian arm of the world’s second-largest firm, while living up to Mr Jack Welch’s legacy of being number one or two in every business of the company.

TP, as he is called by colleagues, seems to be taking the challenge head on. Speaking to Business Line, he outlined his plans for the company and also revealed the entrepreneurial streak in him. Excerpts:

How does it feel to head GE India?

Very good. It feels very, very good. I came up from the financial services side... So now moving over to this new role, it’s a dramatic shift and you see this large conglomerate from the industrial perspective. But it’s fascinating... Fascinating when I see the kind of innovation that is happening in this company, both in India and overseas. And it’s exciting to see the innovation happening at our research facility in Bangalore. We now have over 4,000 engineers in pure research and science. And that gives us the capability to develop products not only for the local market but for the world.

You had said earlier that you were expecting revenues of $8 billion by 2010. What do you think are going to be the key growth drivers?

It’s going to be three big areas. The big one is infrastructure. We are the largest infrastructure technology provider in the world. When I say infrastructure, it includes five businesses — energy, oil and gas, water, aviation and rail. These are going to be the core drivers in infrastructure. The second is healthcare. We are the largest healthcare solutions provider in the world and that’s again going to drive a lot of growth. The third big area is financial services. In addition there’s going to be NBCU, which is NBC Universal in the media space.

How much of the overall R&D at GE happens at the John F. Welch Technology Centre (JFWTC) facility in Bangalore, as compared to the research done at the GE’s three centres across the world?

The facility in Bangalore is the second largest in the world for GE, and the largest outside the US. It is significantly larger than Shanghai and the one in New York. You would be amazed at the kind of innovations that have come out of our Bangalore facility…

How does the parent company respond to ideas and innovations generated in India?

I tell people, this company is unique. Though we are so large, we have an entrepreneurial bent in us. And we are trained to constantly take risks and challenge conventional wisdom… otherwise you will never grow. If you need to grow, you have to challenge conventional wisdom and so that’s part of my job.

Are you looking for more partnerships in India, possibly on the lines of the recent pact with Triveni Engineering in the oil and gas space? Also is this JV expected to be expanded to other sectors?

At this point in time it’s (Triveni pact) for oil and gas… But let me clarify what it is. What we do is that when we put up a big plant, you have different components come in from different people… we work with partners like Triveni to put our technologies together to provide solutions to customers and that’s what the JV does… In terms of whether we would do more of it or not, the answer is, it depends… What we will try to do is find other partners where we can leverage their capabilities and our capabilities in trying to provide solutions for our customers.

How bullish are you on the home loans segment? The tie-up with Wizard, how is it panning out?

It is very exciting. One, it’s exciting as the opportunity, if you look at it, is immense. Two, the Wizard brand brings in a lot of change in the market... a lot of transparency and we have tried to innovate by bringing in a franchise model… Combining local market knowledge with out experience in terms of underwriting, processing… I think it’s a powerful product and we hope to grow in this market.

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