Indian companies should move up the value chain, says Subir Raha

They should stop being merely the backoffice of the world. Thats the message from Mr Subir Raha, President AIMA and the man known for establishing ONGC as a leading global player. While addressing the topic Managing New India: The Indian MNCs, Mr Raha said, We are very complacent with getting the low hanging fruits. We have achieved good success with body-shopping in IT.

But we have not created a single Indian IT product company the likes of Microsoft. We write codes, but someone else creates great business value with customers. This should change.Dipping into the Indian mercantile history, Mr Raha drew the journey of corporatization into four parts: the Ancient Indian MNCs, which traded high value jewels and silk some 1000 years back; The Raj MNC, that came to India and rest of the world as part of ruthless colonization by European countries, The Industrial revolution of 20th century and now the New Indian MNCs.

Mr Raha said that Indian trade is coming to a full circle from being global players 1000 years back to now being global players again. Urging Indian companies to re-look at their current business models, Mr Raha said, Indian MNCs are stuck at the bottom end. We do most of the work, but US or Eurpean companies make most of the money. This is bad business! He offered the example of Indias fast growing mobile hardware industry. He said that while the market is booming, role of Indian companies is limited to write some software codes. Mr Raha concluded is inspiring address by saying, instead of making profits for others, we need to make profits for us. That when we will take full advantage of this great India story.