Why Indian companies failing to produce a world class brand

The science and research initiatives are strongly required in India, today we have started giving more importance to Singing Dancing & Acting as these fields have glamour and fetch money easily, look at the number of such programs in media. Research is going on but require support from government and fresh minds, today if compared to scientist or engineer most of the parents would choose actor singer and dancer as their kids profession so we are going to face more in coming years. Students should be motivated by the media. Cheers!

It is nothing but purely lack of research and development. We have budgests for everything other than R&D and marketing. These are the two most important factors in any products lifecycle. Without the proper R&D, we wouldnt be able to come out with world class products and without marketing we wouldnt be able to convey the same to the consumer.

Samsung is a world leader in consumer electronics only because of its emphasis on R&D whose budget is almost 3 times that of manufacturing or marketing. Its an organisation whose basic foundation is on R&D. Same with Apple computers. Many a brand of computers have entered the market but none is able to match the prowess of Apple.

R&D not only gives you new ideas or avenues in the development life cycle of a product but helps you re-invent the wheel when it comes to a product already in the market place. It gives you new insight into the whole product development phase and helps you in ironing out the weak points.

CHETUR PLEASE NOTE:

CUSED SELLINTHE OTHER WAY OF LOOKING IS INDIAN PRODUCTS USE AN UMBRELLA BRAND NAME TO SELL A WIDE VARIETY OF THEIR PRODUCTS.IN THIS WAY WE ARE SUPERIOR IN THE SENSE OUR PEOPLE ARE CONFIDENT OF MANUFACTURING MANY QUALITY PRODUCTS INSTEAD OF CONFINING THEMSELVES TO ONE PRODUCT CATEGORY IN THE NAME OF FOCUSED SELLING.

Sir,

     You told us the difference in terms of what u call as FOCUS and i entirely submit to it.But research is one of the foundation on which quality rests upon.U talked of Apple,Volvo,Nokia etc but they spend majorly on their research to make their product better all the time.I m not denying the fact that Indian multinationals do  have R&D and yet  they cannot deliver accordingly but if researches would not happen things will get worse all the way.Also,as u pointed that research is no major contribution ,in that case question arises--- Why to expend millions on research for product development ?India is a different market and Tata,Reliance etc work here aligned to the same.This is not the case with Microsoft,Apple,Nokia etc.They flourished as these product based companies got the suitable infrastructure too.So its an amalgam of such things.We cannot take it all to just Focus.

Standard quality, Research and Development everything requires proper infrastructure to support. Indian companies fail to produce class brands and the country called India also fails to attract class brands to come and have a manufacturing hub in India because the two reasons that are already mentioned and the foremost of the reason is lack of infrastructure.

The GM operation of Adidias gave a very resounding reason, when I had questioned him that “why all big brands are getting manufactured in China and not in India?” He said - “India hasn’t shown anything yet to attract the bigger brands to come and open their manufacturing hubs, where as China has given the infrastructure to manufacture in economic scales. That is why it is now the biggest exporter of all manufactured brands.” Inspite of India’s large consumer market, India’s labour force as cost effective as China’s, India does not scale its production in the economic scale like China.

I think Quality or research is not the standard to produce a world class brand.

Let me clarify this,

How could you differentiate quality between Coke & Pepsi?

Can you say, which brand’s quality is better? Nokia or Samsung?

Can you differentiate quality between Hp & Sony?

Can you differentiate quality between Dettol & Lifebuoy?

I think quality is not a standard to ppproduce a world class brand. Quality is just a “perception” that what we think about that brand.

Same is for research. I don’t think better research gives you better brands. The problem with research is that you can not predict the future through research. When slender + was introduced, they spent lots of rupees on research, and still the brand was a flop show. In addition, Opinion polls are the best example of it. 

I am not saying that better quality or research should not be there, it should be there, but it’s not enough to produce a world class brand.

Then how can we produce a world class brand?

Look at this article, published in THE HINDU (July 30, 2010)

Global technology major Apple tops the Forbes list of the ‘World’s Most Valuable Brands’, ahead of giants Microsoft and Coca Cola. The top nine brands in the list were from the U.S. No Indian company features in the list. Other companies featuring in the top 10 include U.S.-based McDonald’s, Coca-Cola, IBM, Volvo and Intel and Finnish handset maker Nokia at the tenth spot.

Now let me ask you a question which gives you the answer to produce a world class brand.

What is Apple? – Its a Tech major

What is McDonald’s? - It’s a Restaurant chain.

What is Nokia? – Its a mobile phone.

What is Coca-Cola? – Beverage.

What is Google? – Search Engine.

What is Volvo? – Vehicle Brand.

 Now look at the Indian brands.

What is TATA?  - Its car, truck, mobile, sim, insurance, salt... everything.

What is Reliance?  - Its a mobile, sim, insurance, retail chain... everything.

What is Videocon? – Its a mobile, TV, DTH, Washing machine, Sim... everything.

I think you have got my answer. Answer is simple. FOCUS.

To produce or become a world class brand we need to be a focused brand. We have been trying to build a business by expansion while we should contract our business to become a world class brand.

We have TATA motors and TATA namak, you won’t find Volvo namak. And that’s the reason, Volvo is the world class brand.

Very true. Most of the research and

development that happen here are

about how to make the products cheaper mostly

by compromising quality. May be like every

other under developed country men, Indians

are also considered lesser mortals whose life

can be tampered with.

It is for the Indians to change that image.

for all these, our politicians here  seems to be of little help.

Look at the happenings in the country's uppermost

institutions, during the week.

Scarcity of Indian international brand need deep analysis of the Indian professional environment. The reason for giving welfare to citizen need be looked into. Our professionals don't seem to be in the right frame of mind do professional work and create outcomes condusive to their job. They are bombarded by the chaos of the environment in which they have to come up in life and academia, which makes them mentaly deficient reason lack of welfare facilitation by government past and present.

Most of our professionals of yester years went to academia for adaptive reasons, for imporvement of status hierarchy or for eliciting better pays which is adaptive per se and can cause neurosis in the person and neurosis is one of the most painful mental disorders.

At work place they defend their sloth and lack of effectiveness by blaming office politics or blaming supervisors. This is again I mean defensive behavior is caused by another mental disorder called paranoid disorder.

When they are taken to task for wrong product delivery or work they offend the person involved and offensive behavior is a symptom for another mental disorder called 'psychosis'.

Not only our technical staff but all the administrative staffs and government employees are endowed with either of these sickness which prevents them from being effective at work. So companies cannot create an effective R&D staff and hence international standard brand.

Thanks. u have brought a valid point for debate. All we know today that both R & D & Quality are interdependent in nature.  We cannot out rightly say that India is lacking both. The taste of consumer has undergone a sea change and the question  of making sacrifice nor compromise is no longer valid. The so called rational thinkers (consumer) of yesteryear is more innovative and periodically looking for changes then and there.

I have a different view point. It depends from Industry to Industry, for past three decades India has been exporting world class quality garments to all the big brands in the World. J. Crew , Tommy Hilfiger , Hugo Boss , Marks and Spencer to name a few. The perspective has always been to follow the same , and not deviate. If and only if the mindset changes from Outsourcing to Ownership , Global Brands can be a reality.

Secondly I feel that India as a nation has not been explored completely, and we still need to make efforts to tap the unexplored market. To look for new markets makes sense when we have explored ourselves completely.

I personal believe that lack of sufficient encouragement for Research and Development in India is the main cause.  Most of the Indian companies are laggards in adopting technology.