The recently-concluded 28th National Management Convention organised by the All India Management Association has thrown out one central conclusion -- for India Inc to gain a sustainable competitive advantage, it should embrace change and adopt 'change management' to manage change.
Delivering the valedictory address, J J Irani, outgoing chariman of Tata Steel, said: "Going forward, organisation should develop better execution capabilities rather than ownership of resources for sustainable competitive advantage. And, they should be agile and change with the environment". Management of change is far more difficult than financial analysis, he said.
Stressing the need for change management, he said that, to manage change effectively, the company should open channels of communication with every stakeholder, including employees, to generate momentum.
More From This Section
Sanjay Jain, country managing partner of Accenture, said: "Indian companies should 'Think big, Act small and scale fast' and should have clear strategies for both front-end and back-end. It should value entrepreneurial behaviour among employees by creating a right environment".
Narrating the experience of Accenture in India, he said that in most of the companies, 5 to 20 per cent cost reduction could be achieved through increased operational performance and by re-engineering business process,. "Thus, the scope for cost reduction is enormous," he added.
Almost all speakers stressed the need for managing change effectively in tune with dynamic customer preference as a mean to develop competitive advantage.
Earlier, K V Kamath, managing director & CEO, ICICI Ltd, said that 'change management' should be adopted by companies to recast themselves in a globalised environment. He agreed that despite some inherent 'competitive advantage', India Inc, was not able to tap them owing to lack of proper infrastructure, adding financial institutions and banks with surplus funds could finance viable infrastructure projects.
However, Mukesh Ambani, vice-chairman and managing Director, Reliance Industries, dismissed the need for greater government spending, saying that all good ideas should be supported by the capital market.