One, correct your business practices. Sense the mood in the country. It is turning slowly, but decidedly, against you. If trust in politicians is at an all-time low, your perception is no better. Sector after sector has been tainted with scams and financial misdemeanour - energy, telecom, real estate, roads, defence, etc. The list of businessmen who went to jail in 2013 is not short. The citizens doubt if you will play by the rule book, pay the right price for natural resources, write honest contracts, complete projects on time and create jobs. The image of the conniving and exploitative businessman, cultivated by writers and film makers through the fifties, sixties and seventies, is all set to return. Watch out. The rise of the Aam Aadmi Party, with its unabashed socialist agenda, is a clear pointer to what India wants. What should worry you more is that it draws support from the post-liberalisation generation: people who haven't seen first-hand the gloom and hopelessness of the licence raj and yet hanker for better control over you.
For as long as I can remember, businessmen have complained of excessive red tape and the necessity to grease palms to get the work done. There is a systemic problem, they argue, and they cannot be blamed for it. While that is true, it is also true that many businessmen see corruption - especially at the highest levels of decision making - as an investment. Remember the various investments into ventures floated by family and friends of politicians and donations to their charities? It is no longer petty cash that is changing hands; corruption is now institutionalised in the country. If a businessman says he is an unwilling partner in the unethical venture, then he isn't telling you the full truth.
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Two, get your manufacturing in order - or else Made in India could become a liability once again. Nothing showed the rot better in 2013 than the pharmaceutical sector. India, owing to its long history of process chemistry, combined with inexpensive labour, has emerged as a large exporter of medicine. (Some would say this strength was built wrongfully by not recognising product patents till as recently as 2005.) But we found out to our horror last year that many leading names in the business have merrily been cutting corners. Foreign particles like hair, and possibly even glass, were found in Indian medicine shipments. Factory after factory received warnings from drug regulators abroad. Ranbaxy paid $500 million to close a case of data misrepresentation in the United States. The stories that tumbled out after the settlement were horrific, to say the least. Many of those remain uncontested. And if you thought that the malaise was restricted to one sector, think again: 2013 will go down in history as the year of automobile recalls in India. Frugal engineering does not mean scrounging on processes.
Three, do not live beyond your means. Nothing hurts shareholders, employees and bankers more than the promoter's lavish lifestyle when the business is not getting anywhere. You can't cut lucrative private deals when your employees are going without pay. And you can't keep rolling over bank credit endlessly. Stop assuming that public sector banks are a till into which you can dip your hands at will. The lid has been blown off this scam. The banks have done what they should have done ages ago: name and shame willful defaulters. Though it required a nudge from none other than Finance Minister P Chidambaram, it had to happen.
Four, learn to trust the professionals. N R Narayana Murthy's return to Infosys last year, with son Rohan in tow, was cheered unequivocally by investors, but it also caused many senior leaders to depart. If this can happen in a company that has always been the model for corporate governance, what hope is there for lesser companies? Infosys has, till now, been led only by a promoter; I haven't seen any apportioning of blame for the decline in its performance in recent years. Should the company not announce its succession road map, given the hue and cry over Mr Murthy's return to the company?
Five, please do your homework better. Apollo Tyres' $2.5-billion offer to acquire Cooper Tire fell through in six months after much bickering over disclosure of material information. Apollo wanted the price to be reduced because of a new wage agreement with workers in Cooper's Ohio and Arkansas facilities and the refusal of the Chinese partner to be party to the deal. Such was the relief among investors that the Apollo stock hit a new high after the break-up was announced. (It is not certain if there will be a liability on the company because of this.)
Finally, grow a spine. If you have a problem with a particular leader, say it openly - with dignity, of course. The private discussions of businessmen, where they spit venom on the leaders of the United Progressive Alliance, and their public statements, which are always drenched in praise, are as removed from each other as chalk and cheese.
What the country needs today is a statesman among businessmen - one who can show others the way.