Indian restraint

The Indian culture of restraint has acted as a buffer against the uncertainties of a market driven by greed
Montek Singh Ahluwalia
A people with a history of scarcity and a nation that is intrinsically value centric, both these factors have grown a culture of restraint in many Indians, which we term here as a ‘Brahminical’ mindset.

Dramatic as it may sound, in India greed is sin, as a people we display an acute aversion to excess. This is not a mindset restricte to the common man, Azim Premji the head of WIPRO a company making waves even in the global scenario still flies economy class. Splurging is just not Indian.

Living and growing up in an environment of multitudinous problems and uncertainty, Indians hold the ideal of a better tomorrow very close to their heart. This mindset is reflected in the way an Indian works and thinks but more importantly this mindset directs the course of an Indians money.

For example given some extra cash Indians, by in large, will put it in Fixed deposits. It is a documented fact that the penetration of Mutual funds in the Indian market is markedly low. This is an illustration of the said Brahminical restraint, if you can give an Indian a safe bet then that is the bet he will take.
 
The Tata’s and Godrej’s of the Indian market know that if you can establish yourself as a trustworthy option then the Indian consumer will stick by you through the good times and the bad. This Indian way of thinking has buttressed the already solid foundations of India’s big businesses and is a major reason for their relative stability in these most uncertain of times.  
Indian companies have learned how to build a legacy of trust, they know how to keep their loyal consumers loyal. And given the current global scenario, where the consumer is fast losing faith in big corporations and increasingly holding their promises hollow, the big global businesses could do worse than taking a leaf out of the book of the Indian way to do business.
There is a need for trusted products in the current market a need for safe bets. And who better to fill this void than Indian companies who, for so long, have been single-mindedly focused on being the best bet.

Indians innovate for 'Value', while the world innovates for value additions

The mass consuming class of India has always been oriented towards ‘value for money’. It is this class that makes up the bulk of India's staggering population and it is in addressing the needs of this segment that Indian companies have realised the importance of products that satisfy the very rigid, Indian price value equation.
Products as diverse as toiletries, automobiles and footwear have seen that their popular price segment is always the biggest… Lifebuoy being the biggest soap brand in India, Maruti selling every second car in India, Goldfake cigarettes outselling the premium and sub-premium competition, India is a land of in betweens, where people demand a mix of premium value at popular price.
It is in their need to meet and satisfy this demanding mindset that Indian companies have had to innovate the services they provide. In India one can see that some of the biggest companies, Godrej, HUL, TATA are all value driven volume players; depending more on mass sales driven by products that epitomize the concept of value for money.

It is this mindset that has necessitated looking at innovation as a means to add value rather than adding value through innovation
In India innovation is not about sleeker mobile phones… but about dust resistant mobile phones. As a practice, innovations in India (unlike their western counterparts) are almost always targeted at the bottom 90% rather than the top 10%.
TATA’s new venture the Nano is not supposed to replace the Maruti 800s but rather the Indian family motorcycle. Vehicles in India have always stressed on mileage, long before it become the ‘in thing’ to do, not because Indians are environmentally conscious but because Indians have always and will always be ‘paisa’ conscious.
Providing services that give utility over luxury, products that have major reasons to buy, innovating for value rather than image have created certain fundamental pillars around which much of India Inc. builds itself. And these same pillars mean that Indian companies have a higher probability to successfully address the changing , increasingly value-hungry ,mindset of the global economy.

Enterprising Indians

India is a land of diversity and contrast, a well documented and much written about fact. This diversity is the root of many things that are intrinsically Indian. One such thing is the enterprising nature that many Indians exhibit. To successfully tackle the enormous variety of mindsets and cultures one comes across in India, one needs must exhibit tremendous enterprise. For any business to successfully grow geographically and across cultures, the need to evolve and adapt are paramount. An Indian entrepreneur is always faced with a steep learning curve and an even steeper ‘unlearning’ one.
India gives businessmen no other choice but to embody the strongest entrepreneurial traits. This enterprising nature is not limited however to business tycoons or corporate hotshots. It’s seen in the enterprising farmer coming up with ways to tackle the temperamental climate and in the way the common man fights against floods and equally water shortages to earn his daily keep.
Providing for yourself and ideally for others is a virtue all Indians, regardless of status or stature, hold dear. Business in India is held in high regard, in fact given the current economic scenario a number of India’s brightest minds are breaking out and trying to do their ‘own thing’, a revealing fact in this regard is that the majority of students from IIM Calcutta, one of India’s best business schools want to try their hand in the art of enterprise, rather than take the safer corporate jobs on offer. Given this bent of mind its hardly surprising that some of the top youth icons in India are infact young, vibrant and successful business men and women.

The recent rise of the small towns and the rapid growth of the Indian middle class has thrown open the doors of opportunity to a driven mass of people. The one thing that defines the rise of India and her middle class more than any other single factor, is the increase in ambition. It is not an unreasonable stretch to say, that for quite a while now, India and Indians have truly started to believe that the sky is the limit.

There is a silver lining to every crisis and Indians have demonstrated a remarkable ability over the years to find it. Starting a new venture amongst adversity is not new to Indians; Big Bazaar and Future Group a retail icon of India began its journey amidst an economic slowdown.