Indian corporates who are presently responding to liberalisation have to goa long way in tackling this change, says Krishna G Palepu, professor,Harvard Business School. There have been some success stories but mostcorporates are yet to realise the challenge and identify the opportunitiesthat are being thrown open. He was addressing the seminar on `IncreasingIndia's growth and competitiveness out-of-the-box thinking' organised by CIISouthern region in Chennai on Wednesday.

Indian corporates, he said, were still struggling with the notion of howwealth is created and there is still hesitation in truly becoming a memberof the global business family. Corporates still prefer to ``react'' to thereality rather than ``constructing'' the reality and there is a substantialgap between awareness and action for cutting edge management.

He listed out various factors which have helped in building globallycompetitive companies. They are:

Clear vision: Every company needs to have a vision which should becustomer-centric and based on its competence. The vision should beachievable and its boundaries have to be periodically stretched as in thecase of ICICI which has grown from being a term lending institution to auniversal bank.

Passion for excellence: There can be no compromise on excellence. Thecompany has to benchmark itself among the best in the world independent ofwhether the local conditions require it. Sundram Fasteners would not havebagged the best suppliers award for four consecutive years from GeneralMotors had it not embraced quality consciousness.

Problem solving rather than excuse mongering set up: The organisationshould be designed in such a way that the problems are solved at respectivelevels rather than being kicked upwards. Solutions are within theorganisation whatever be the problem.

Capacity to sense and respond quickly: The organisation must have afinely-tuned antenna to identify fleeting opportunities and respond quickly.But for this quality Sundram Fasteners would not have taken over theradiator caps unit for supplying to General Motors. Today, the company iscreating history.

Create a culture of winning: Success begets success. The unit mustcontinuously emerge victorious which will instill a sense of pride in theorganisation.

Ensure complacency does not set in: Infosys, despite its standing inthe market, has induced a sense of paranoia among the employees. They knowthat if they do not constantly learn and improve, they will be lost.

Focus on people and process: Focus of the organisation should be onpeople and process rather than product and services. The organisation has tobe flexible to take on change and this is possible only if investment ismade in HRD.

Emphasis on communication within the organisation: Regularcommunication within the organisation builds trust and is a key ingredientto success. Suresh Krishna, CMD, Sundram Fasteners communicates to theemployees directly five times a year briefing them on the vision etc.Result: Not a single day of production lost in any of the five factories inthe last 36 years.

Transparency: Infosys would not be where it is today in terms ofmarket capitalisation but for its forward looking policies with regard tocorporate governance. The external market looks at these things as apriority.

CII president Rahul Bajaj, speaking at the seminar asked the Indiancorporates not to depend on the government for solving their problems.Innovative actions are required to take on the future challenges especiallyin the context of increased external competition with the removal of QRs.