The book Riding the Tiger, co-authored by Wilfried Aulbur and Amit Kapoor and published by Penguin Random House, was unveiled at the event "India's National Competitiveness Forum and Porter Prize".
Aulbur took the stage to deliver his keynote address at the event. The book explains how to execute business strategy in India. Amit Kapoor, co-author and honorary chairman of the Institute for Competitiveness, India, said extensive research went into writing the book, conducted over the last 5 years and interaction with 125 companies.
Aulbur holds a PhD in Physics and is Managing Partner India for Roland Berger, a German business strategy consulting firm. Prior to this, he was CEO of Mercedes-Benz India and has held various positions with Daimler across US, Europe and India.
Riding the Tiger will be officially launched on November 18 launch followed by a worldwide book tour.
"I am quite partial to India, I have been here for about 25 years now. India is doing well, Indian companies are doing exceedingly well. We lived in very volatile times. We have shared economy, new technological disrupting our lives and war refugees. The world is complex," Aulbur said.
Not everyone in the world is used to such volatile surroundings. In contrast India has always been so.
Nikita Khrushchev, a Russian leader from the times of the Cold War, once said: "I didn’t believe in God before coming to India, but after coming to India I believe God exists. There needs to be one, if you are to exist in India."
This highlights how complex and volatile India has been historically.
Now that the whole world is up to speed and with global companies also trying to come to India, Aulbur believes there are six axes to be leveraged to win the Indian market.
Operational excellence - India is a tough market, Indians are quality tough and price conscious, unlike European customers who will be willing to pay high prices for high quality. Local companies and global ones must overcome some institutional voids to attain operational excellence that will help to cater to these high demands of Indian customers. Logistics costs in India are too high and not enough government support is available, compared to the sponsorship Chinese companies will get from their government.
Example of very high operational excellence leading to successfully winning over big market share is Maruti Suzuki. They have unrelenting focus to detail and organizational discipline, while encouraging partners to become more organized and efficient too.
Innovation - Bertelsmann research shows India must compete with China not just along price but also along innovation of products. In India, people often do this via frugal innovation. For example, Godrej works closely with suppliers to drive down logistics costs, faster R&D, making their products faster to market than other large MNC.
Right choices and trade-offs - People must pick a few products or lines to focus on, and make those products great. And in lieu of your choices discontinue some of your products. Example: Bajaj Auto's entry into motocycles shows how the company wants to do what it does well. Portfolio management is important here and Tata is great example of it.
Alignment - Employees must know in detail what to do because they have internalized organizational goals. IndiGo is a good example for this. Their tailor-made value proposition, execution of duties, training schedules and punctuality are all understood and adhered to by their entire staff.
Leadership and courage - Aulbur cited Motherson Sumi's inspirational story of guts and courage in getting manufacturing underway as an excellent Indian example of this. Both Kapoor and Aulbur are instructors with Harvard Business Publishing in the area of Strategy, Operations and Innovation.
BW Reporters
Regina is a reporter for BW Businessworld. In her previous assignments, she has worked with Independent television Network as a news anchor and reporter in Sri Lanka
