 |
|
|
Press Statement By At function to release ‘Business Superbrands’ New Delhi – August 20, 2008 I am very pleased to be with all of you this evening. This programme is special for me. I have attended many functions of businesspeople over the years. I have also given away awards to them. But it is for the first time that I am participating in a programme that honours business brands – rather, superbrands – and felicitates the super-businessmen behind the superbrands. I heartily congratulate Shri Anmol Dar and his colleagues for producing this excellent compendium called ‘Business Superbrands’. I also warmly commend all the companies which have been featured in it. ‘Brand’ concept in India Brand awareness, brand building, brand management and the whole concept of ‘Business Organisation as a Brand’ is relatively new in India. It is an outcome of the liberalised and competitive business environment that was created in the early 1990s. This environment brought greater choice before our people, a choice that was denied to them previously because of the model of excessively state-controlled economic development that India had followed since Independence. During the ‘License-Permit-Quota’ Raj, there was no opportunity, incentive or compulsion for Indian companies to prove themselves. This is because the ruling party of that period did not trust the Indian entrepreneurial class. As a result, India’s economic growth was severely stunted. My party was strongly opposed to this Soviet-inspired economic model that successive governments had followed until the arrival of the 1990s. And when this model was jettisoned, we supported the change enthusiastically. The change enabled thousands of new private sector companies to enter the marketplace and meet the needs of the Indian consumers. Many public sector companies also restructured themselves to better meet the requirements of the consumer. When Jet Airways and other private airlines came, Indian Airlines also improved. When private telecom companies came, MTNL and BSNL also improved. Of course, a case can be made that government-owned airlines and telecom companies need to improve much more. Thanks to the new liberalised environment for trade and investment, our people were also exposed to the products, services, technologies and business management practices from abroad. As a result, Indian companies realised that they had to not only compete amongst themselves, but also compete, survive and succeed against foreign firms. Healthy competition boosts excellence Friends, competition is a foe of complacency. I say this out of my own political experience. If you are complacent, you cannot compete. This is true not only about business, but also about every sphere of life. But competition is also a friend of quality. Where there is healthy competition, quality always thrives. And so does excellence. Where there is competition, companies pay greater attention to customer satisfaction. This is because they know that their success or otherwise is judged at the marketplace by discerning and demanding customers. Hence, in the new environment of economic development in India, Indian companies took competition – both domestic and foreign – as a challenge. And within a short period, many of them proved their mettle. Brand, therefore, is a testimonial or a certificate of how an organisation has succeeded in earning a distinctive name for itself in a competitive marketplace by winning the trust of the consumers, confidence of the stakeholders, and praise of the people at large. And this book chronicles the success stories of the best among the business brands in India. National pride replaces inferiority complex There are many reasons to rejoice at the emergence of Indian Superbrands. The most important reason, according to me, is associated with national pride. Many of you in this hall will recall that in the past – and I am referring here to the era of the ‘License-Permit-Quota’ Raj – many Indians had a craze for “foreign brands”. And because these imported goods were not easily available, the craving to have them was even more intense. The flip-side of this craving for foreign brands was that many Indians believed that India could not produce goods or provide services of matching quality. This created an inferiority complex among these Indians. The emergence of globally competitive Indian companies has dispelled the inferiority complex. “The Made in India” label may not yet be very popular across the world, and this is because India’s share in global trade is still very low. But nobody can deny that scores of Indian companies — the ‘Superbrands’ featured in this book — are today as good as the best in the world. They are second to none in the world in manufacturing excellence, in innovation, in customer service, in corporate social responsibility. It is these great Indian companies — Tata, Reliance, Aditya Birla Group, Moserbaer, Infosys, Wipro, etc — that have enhanced the reputation of India as an emerging economic power. I believe that the national pride associated with this phenomenon has tremendous transformational power. Friends, I must confess that my understanding of the concept of “brand” is that of a layman. Nevertheless, I would like to emphasise certain aspects of this concept that have a significance beyond the narrow parameters of the marketplace. For example, as I leafed through the pages of this book, I was happy to note that among the organisations that have succeeded in being recognised as ‘Superbrands’ are also those that are not business entities in the traditional sense of the term. Idealism : The intangible sustainer of ‘Brand’ value One of them, for example, is Sankara Nethralaya founded by Dr. S.S. Badrinath in Chennai. This book tells us that Sankara Nethralaya has published a staggering 406 scientific papers — indeed, more than one-third of all ophthalmic research publications from India. Here, then, is a fine example of an eye hospital that is on the one hand motivated by the spirit of ‘Seva’ and, on the other, is equally strongly driven by the quest for ‘Gyan’ through scientific research. Hence, at the core of the brand value of Sankara Nethralaya are ideals that have little to do with the narrow pursuit of profit or fame. The hospital’s karma itself is its reward and the well-spring of its brand reputation. Also featured in this book is Dainik Jagran, which, according to the World Association of Newspapers, is the largest read daily in the world. However, what attracted my attention is the information about the courageous stand that this Hindi newspaper took during the Emergency, when strict censorship was imposed on the media. The day after the Emergency was imposed, on 26 June 1975, Dainik Jagran carried a blank editorial column titled ‘New Democracy? – Censorship Enforced’. The newspaper’s founder Puran Chandra Gupta and his two sons Narendra Mohan and Mahendra Mohan were arrested. As the Information & Broadcasting Minister in the Janata Party Government after the Emergency was lifted, I had remarked, “Many in the media chose to crawl when they were asked to bend.” However, some publications and journalists neither bent nor crawled. They stood straight in defiance and paid the price for it. Hence, for a media organisation, the brand value lies being true to its ‘dharma’ or its duty towards democracy, towards its readers, towards society. Credibility and trust are at the core of reputation I find that the term ‘brand’ is now being used in political parlance, too. Political parties and leaders are also supposed to have a ‘brand’ value. Insofar as this concept is not used loosely in politics, I think that the true reputation of a party or a leader should be judged by the credibility they enjoy. One must be true to one’s own beliefs. One’s practice should match one’s precept. The test of the survival of a free society and a vibrant democracy is whether our public life has sufficient number of people who value their own credibility, who safeguard the trust that people have in them, and set an example for the rest of society. In this respect, society’s expectation from politicians and businessmen is not fundamentally different. Businessmen and business organisations are also expected to preserve the trust and confidence that customers and stakeholders have in them. In the ultimate analysis, reputation cannot be earned or retained through advertising and other superficial brand-building exercises. It comes only by delivering consistently what you promise, to the satisfaction of your customers. Urgent need to remove hurdles to faster development Distinguished businessmen, as we celebrate the success of Indian companies, I should also express a few concerns on this occasion. As I have mentioned earlier, there is a close linkage between the brand value of individual companies and the value of ‘Brand India’ as such. The value of ‘Brand India’ depends on how good are the infrastructure facilities in our country, how attractive is the environment for investment and doing business, how efficient, transparent and corruption-free is the functioning of various government bodies and how good is the law and order situation. If investors and businessmen are satisfied on all these counts, naturally trade and businesses will thrive and many more ‘Superbrands’ will emerge. Sadly, the environment for investment and business in many parts of India is far from satisfactory. I am told that there is still a lot of red-tapism, bureaucratic harassment and delay for small and medium companies. As many as 17 different forms are still needed to be filled and clearances obtained from different agencies for starting a new business. Infrastructure is improving in some states, but it is still very poor in many other states. Corruption is rampant. Judicial delays are the order of the day. Our education system, especially the system of higher and professional education, is in need of radical reforms. We have a strange situation in our country where on the one hand tens of thousands of young men and women are in need of employment, but, on the other, properly skilled and trained people are not available for the jobs that do exist. All this is unacceptable. We must change this situation. Without changing it, the true potential of India’s development cannot be realised. I wish to assure this audience that we shall take bold and decisive steps to change this situation – to enhance the value of ‘Brand India’ – if people give us the mandate to form the next government. With these words, I once again congratulate all the award-winners and wish them best in the future. I also thank Shri Anmol Dar for giving me this opportunity to interact with all of you. Thank you. Lord Macaulay’s remarks in his address to the British Parliament I have traveled across the length and breadth of India and I have not seen one person who is a beggar, who is a thief. Such wealth I have seen in this country, such high moral values, people of such caliber, that I do not think that we would ever conquer this country, unless we break the very backbone of this nation, which is her cultural and spiritual heritage, and, therefore, I propose that we replace her old and ancient education system, her culture, for if the Indians think that all that is foreign and English is good and greater than their own, they will lose their self esteem, their native culture and they will become what we want them a truly dominated nation. |
 |