Gunjan Bagla dons many hats. An entrepreneur academic and most recently author he has a keen sense of the market here in the US and in India. He relies on more than 25 years of experience in global sourcing and marketing in India. Apart from being the Founder and Principal of Amritt Inc which advises major Western companies on doing business in India Bagla also teaches workshops and seminars for executives on how to become more successful in India including a seminar offered three times a year by California Institute of Technology CalTech.
Bagla’s book ‘Doing Business in 21th Century India: How to Profit Today in Tomorrow’s Most Exciting Market’ was released recently and is packed with everything business leaders need to know in order to succeed in the emerging Indian market.
In an interview with India Journal Bagla talks about his book among other things. Here are excerpts:
What was the inspiration for the book?
I wasn’t looking to write a book just yet but Warner/Hachette one of the top five publishers in the country contacted me via a large aerospace client and asked me if I could. I agreed to write the book because I am passionate about helping facilitate trade between India and the West. I do that on a day to day basis with my consulting practice for large and mid-size American companies. The book enables tens of thousands of people who can’t hire my firm as a consultant to still get some value from my expertise.
How is doing business in 21th Century India different from earlier times?
In India you have to function in both the 19th and 21st Century at the same time ha ha. I ask my new clients including many Indian Americans if they have spent more than 30 days on business in India in the last five years. If they have not they might be out of touch with how much some things have changed. For example the Delhi Metro train system was built under budget and ahead of schedule. This doesn’t happen for public works projects almost anywhere. In the last five years Indian manufacturing has become world-class: Hyundai exports cars from India to Europe and Africa. While Indian banks were slow to computerize at first today you can make instant electronic payments into third party accounts faster than many banks in the US function. Many government officials have also become friendly to businesses. In the past they were almost hostile to businesspeople.
But not everything has changed: you might be kept waiting for a long time whether it is for an appointment or for a project deliverable. And economic progress is making some thing worse than earlier times: such as traffic and noise.
What are some of the useful tips you have given entrepreneurs looking at the Indian market?
First India is a complex market you can’t expect to sell in Delhi the same way as you would in Chennai and you certainly can’t sell in India like you might in Los Angeles. Consumer marketing must be segmented by urban/rural by socio-economic class by region/religion/language. Business to business marketing can also be divided into many micro-segments. Second India demands modern and unique solutions. You can’t often take an obsolete American product to India and hope that will people will buy it. Whirlpool had to modify its washers to deal with saris and their Indian commercials hand to compare the machine movement to hand-washing which Indian consumers believed was superior before they could sell well in India. Third don’t be surprised about the capacity of the Indian market there’s no shortage of money among the rising middle and upper classes and among industry in India today. American products and brands are particularly interesting in India from Nike to Disney to IBM to GE to HP. My client is selling California grown pistachios to India.
What are the most lucrative and profitable segments in the Indian market today?
For foreign companies entering India there is unbounded opportunity Sectors I have highlighted in my book include defense where India will spend 50 billion in new equipment in the next few years. Manufacturing Consumer Products Knowledge Based Services Infrastructure Training/Education and Entertainment of any kind are also hugely promising. But even if you are in a different segment you might find large demand for your products and services in India if you know how to enter the market.
How is doing business in India different than doing business in China today?
That’s a great question. I have traveled on business to Shanghai Beijing and other cities in China and I truly enjoy being there. The infrastructure is superb and the people are hard working. But many foreign companies get burned because they apply their learning from China into India. It’s true that they are both large fast growing Asian economies. But India has a free market unlike China. This means consumers have a choice of news and entertainment media from all over the world that banks generally give loans only to people and companies who can pay them back at market rates that you can raise readily capital in India as a domestic or foreign company that you can own land as a foreign company. Not all of this is true in China. But also your workers in India are free to strike and form truly independent trade unions. And you can’t expect the Indian government to relocate people for you just to build a road or a factory at your convenience. On a more mundane level when you travel in China you generally can’t expect people on the street to speak English and your taxi driver probably won’t understand a word you say. It’s not like that in India.
Anything else you would like to highlight about the book?
My book is balanced. It talks about the opportunity in India today. But it does not mince words about the challenges of succeeding there. It’s not an easy place to do business unless you have expert help or get lucky. It demands persistence and patience and I’m not shy to talk about this in the book.
How has Amritt Inc grown?
We have clients from across the North America and last year European companies also started calling us for help. Our client include Roll International which owns the largest pistachio grower and exporter in the word Johnson & Johnson Vivendi Midway Games and Denmark’s largest company Danfoss plus many smaller companies. We have senior consultants in California Colorado Tennessee and of course India.
What are the major services you provide?
We are a management consulting firm focused on globalization with three broad practices: marketing sourcing and training.
First we help Western companies market their products and services into India second we help with worldwide sourcing of products and services but most often from the emerging economies of China India and similar countries. Finally we also provide training to executives and managers by offering in-company seminars on doing business in India. For example we have a special one day seminar on selling into India’s defense market.
The reasons for your success as an author and entrepreneur?
My book just came out and while early signs are excellent perhaps we should wait to declare success as an author until we see some more evidence. As an entrepreneur success comes down to anticipating what the customer will need to working really hard and to the ability to take measured risks over and over.
Your future plans?
I’ve worked in many industries from material handling to energy to electronic to software to entertainment and in many functions from manufacturing to engineering to sales and marketing. But in consulting and advising executives how to globalize their business and in particular how to benefit from India I have found my perfect niche. I just want to do more and more of the same for many years.
Bagla earned his MBA with honors from Southern Illinois University and his Bachelor’s degree in engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology IIT Kanpur.
