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This is not the `50s and `60s and joint ventures can only stifle a company aspiring to go global - and not take it where it wants to grow, says Mr Krishna.

Bangalore , Aug. 8

WANT to go global? Just avoid getting into joint ventures.

That is one success recipe coming from Mr Suresh Krishna and Mr Ashok Soota for aspiring Indian MNCs.

The larger message at CII's two-day `StrategICON- creating the Indian MNC' was that, to make your company a multinational, be on your toes, keep reinventing your company and the products, think excellence and get into niche products and markets.

Easier said, for going global has its many pitfalls and heartbreaks, according to Mr Krishna, CMD of Sundram Fasteners, the company that keeps winning orders and plaudits from auto giant General Motors.

While doing all the right things right, just beware of getting into foreign joint ventures with equity participation. This is not the `50s and `60s and joint ventures can only stifle a company aspiring to go global - and not take it where it wants to grow.

Sundram Fasteners, he said, "always felt that (if you want to globalise,) joint venture partners are a disadvantage as they have their agendas, territorial interest and will become competitors. It should be the last resort, especially if it is equity participation by foreign companies." Instead, Indian companies can buy technology from the right sources and upgrade quality, said the head of the first Indian company to get the ISO 9000 and picked five times by GM as the best vendor from among its hundreds of suppliers.

Mr Soota, Chairman and Managing Director of MindTree Consulting, did not favour joint venture as the best route to become global.

Mr Krishna said the Indian manufacturing sector is now getting its chance to repeat the success of the IT sector. As manufacturing moves out of the US and Europe, especially in engineering, this is the opportunity for Indian companies to turn global OEMs. At the same time, they should quickly leverage the labour edge into more solid opportunities, because in 10 years, the labour arbitrage will have spread to China, Vietnam and many more countries too.

The TVS group's success also lay in not putting its fingers into too many pies, but focussing on its core strength in automotives.

Mr Sajjan Jindal, Managing Director, Jindal Vijayanagar Steel Ltd, showcased how parent company Jisco shot up from a Rs 100-crore company in 1997-98 to Rs 1,200-crore export major in five years against quality and regulatory odds. The meet featured the successes of Infosys, M&M and SRF.

Speakers said globalising companies should not risk too much but start small and build it up. They should seek out demanding markets that seek merit as well as volumes; create patents, build brands, but never take the big players head-on.

At the end of the day, they said, becoming a multinational was not everything. Just be the best little shrub in your own realm, like the hundreds of little masters in Germany, Japan or the US.

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