‘Business environment in India is dynamic’

Alex Cresswell, Executive Vice President, Land and Air Systems of the €13 billion Thales Group, visited India this month along with his management team of 17 leaders, to work on its ‘Make in India’ strategy.

The team visited Delhi, Mumbai, Pune, Chennai, Hyderabad and Bengaluru during the week-long trip. In an exclusive interaction with BusinessLine , Cresswell outlined his plans for growing the business in India. Excerpts:

What prompted you to bring your entire management team to India for the first time?

We are here to develop and build further on our ‘Make in India’ strategy, which is congruent with the Government’s ‘Make in India’ initiative.

Bringing my entire management team here, is not only to expose them to the India market and introduce them to potential partners but, to understand in more depth the things that they are reading about and to understand the context and the business environment in India.

And there’s no better way of doing that than meeting and talking to people here. My business unit – Land and Air Systems, is one of Thales Group’s six business units and contributes to a third of the Group’s business worldwide.

The lines of business that I look after include, Surface Radar, Air Traffic Management, Air Operations and Weapons, Missile Electronics, Optronics, Armament and Protected Vehicles.

What is extremely important to us is building industrial relationships and capacity for the Indian domestic market, but also building our product line portfolio and supply chain worldwide. We are building an ecosystem that is in India, for India, from India.

What is the quantum of Thales’ business in India and what kind of growth does the Group target?

Thales has been doing business in India since 1953. We have over 300 people in India and three joint ventures (JV).

Our sales in India are worth approximately €300 million. We have been growing at single digit percentage points a year.

However, this is beginning to change as we look, as a group, beyond the heritage of defence, into investing a lot more into our aerospace and ground transportation businesses. Therefore, we are targeting much higher levels of growth in the future, and our ‘Make in India’ strategy is obviously a part of that.

What are the new partnerships you have forged during this visit?

We have met some large private sector companies and a number of smaller companies, some of whom may turn out to be our partners in future.

We have three joint ventures in India. The JV with Bharat Electronics Ltd focuses on the design, development, marketing, supply and support of civilian and select defence radars for India and global markets; the JV with Samtel involves locally developing and producing helmet mounted sight and display systems and modern avionics for the Defence market. The JV with L&T Technology Services focuses on providing the best services in avionics.

Are you considering setting up a captive centre in India?

We are looking across the 29 product lines of our 6 business units to try to find those products that are most suited to eventually satisfying the needs of the India market but, also fit into gaps in our product portfolio.

We may open a captive centre, or start a new partnership or extend an existing partnership. We are considering all three possible outcomes.

The business environment in India is extremely dynamic and pragmatic and the people are very open and optimistic.

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