At M&M, we can clearly see the connection between our brand image and that of our country. Just like our country, we as a company have broken the shackles of a stereotypical image and are being taken seriously as a global player. Not to forget that we started off almost in the same time period - when our country attained independence. Both of us have transformed a lot in the past six decades and have shown great potential and fuel to go further.

As a kid I had a great fascination with the globe. Observing it and trying to figure out details about strangely named places, it was all about giving food to my thoughts...to my dreams.

What is it that fascinates a business-conglomerate to go global? Business, growth, money... some will even say fame and brand building. But then there is also another aspect to it - recognition. Recognition for both the company itself and for the country it belongs to. The very fact that a company calls itself a 'German-Multinational' or a 'Japanese-Multinational' reflects this point. You may call it some sort of symbiosis, where the company uses its country as an initial brand-ambassador and then thrives to become a brand-ambassador for the country itself. For example, one of the first thoughts that came to mind on mentioning Japan is its electronics heavyweights. For automobiles pioneers it's Germany and Italy.

MNC Products as a reflection of Culture and Ethos

Mahindra & Mahindra is experiencing the same in the automotive sector with its increasing global presence. Today, when we enter a new global market, we are seen as an Indian company. A company that brings, with its name, the images of Indian culture, colours, tradition, hospitality and even music and spices. M&M today stands as one of the few foremost flag bearers of a changing India. An India that is developing into a major superpower, an India that is ambitious and an India that is now prepared to embrace the world with open arms.

Catching the attention of customers in a new market can be a tricky deal and converting that attention into sales is a step further. The question is, "what is it that a customer searches for in a multinational product?" It's the cultural footprint of a different country, a country that holds a specific image in some part of his brain. He looks for the values that the company brings with it.

Being an Indian company we have the biggest advantage of our country's image as a very hospitable country, a country where one gets welcomed with a lot of warmth and love. We are also seen as a country with much diversity, shaping the expectation of getting something very different from what other companies and countries have to offer.

The British East India Company, established on December 31, 1600 was set up by the Royal Charter to trade with India. The Dutch, French and the Portuguese also had similar companies or government / royal bodies set up to trade with India. The most active of them was obviously the English one. The premise for this was that Europe was going through the Industrial Revolution and needed raw materials to feed the industries and markets which created end products. 

Well, that is history. Someone said, "History repeats itself". It surely does, just in the reverse. 

India is undergoing a neo-industrial revolution, if I may call it one. Indian companies are today increasing the scale of their operations, venturing into diverse fields and conquering the world, in a manner of speaking. Gone are the days when the country produced goods for the Indian market and had the Indian consumer in mind, while creating those products. 

Today Indian companies have the world in their sight. IT companies earn a majority of their money from customers located off site (read outside India). Indian automobile manufacturers like Tata Motors and Mahindra and Mahindra are exporting vehicles and capturing market share in Europe, Africa, and South America. 

Talking about scale, the first thing that comes to mind is the Reliance refinery in Jamnagar, which has become a hub to process Middle-East oil for south East Asian countries. This is one of the largest refineries in the world. Indian railways, the largest employer in the world manages the largest and busiest network in the world. In the forging space, the largest and the third largest forging companies (Bharat Forge and Mahindra Forging respectively), in terms of capacities are both Indian companies. India is already the second largest market for mobile phones in the world and would become the largest market in a short while. 

But there is a long way to go, for Indian companies to be truly global and be able to say "the sun never sets on the British empire". We need to be at par with our Japanese and European counterparts in terms of quality. Indians are ingenious undoubtedly, but the benchmarks set by the Japanese in terms of quality are truly outstanding. There is movement in the right direction. When the Farm Equipment Sector of Mahindra and Mahindra won the Japan Quality Medal, the first tractor company to do so, it announced that Indians have arrived to take the world by storm. 

The question thus arises..."can Indian companies be as successful as the Company Bahadur?" - That is something all the fortune tellers and the stock brokers of the world want to predict. But one thing is for sure...the Indian ability to adapt to changing environments, think and care about fellow beings and society at large will go a long way in determining the future success of Indian companies. 

India has the largest middle class of close to 400 million people in the world...what that means is that there are 400 million people who believe in typical middle class values of honesty, hard work, loyalty, care for fellow beings, commitment to work...the list goes on. The other Indians, though not typecast, follow the same motto in life. These values will drive Indian businesses to be successful in the global arena. 

These companies, unlike the erstwhile East India Company, are not conquering countries. Instead, they are conquering the business arena. Indian companies are acquiring foreign companies in almost every space. Companies in IT, steel, automotive and the automotive components sector have all registered acquisitions outside India. Indian real estate consortium have bagged contracts to build international airports. Today, Indian companies are conquering foreign shores but via market share, not land.

Former Under-Secretary-General of the United Nations, Dr. Shashi Tharoor, addresses students and faculty of the Mahindra United World College of India (MUWCI) in Pune, India. Dr. Tharoor was a special guest at the inauguration of the Van Vihar Biodiversity Park & Reserve which aims to preserve and protect the flora and fauna of the Western Ghats region.