At first glance, TCS' sponsorship of the New York Marathon - one of the three pre-eminent long distance races in the US - can be regarded as little more than a splashy brand-building effort for a software major facing an endemic public relations problem in its biggest market. But if corporate India were to look beyond these narrow concerns, the endorsement of such signature global events sends important messages about its power and clout in the globalised business environment of which it patently wants to be a part.
For instance, Indian footballers may be conspicuous by their absence in the moneyed, increasingly multi-racial European football leagues with their steadily growing Indian fan following. But the bigger concern for India-watchers perhaps should be the noticeable lack of an Indian corporate presence at any of these games. In contrast, the brand names of a raft of Thai, Malaysian, Chinese, West Asian and South African companies can be seen flashing on the electronic hoardings surrounding the pitch or on team jerseys - though their countries have no or minimal sporting representation in the teams. In some cases, entire stadiums bear their names. Advertisements from Air Asia, Singha Beer, South African Airways and Emirates all get to send their subliminal message of globality for over 90 minutes to audiences in the 100-plus countries that watch the matches. Chinese soft drink maker Wahaha and China Construction Bank now sponsor Manchester United, England's richest and biggest football club. Sure, rising Indian companies can be seen sponsoring elements of the TV broadcast of, say, the popular English Premier League - such as the extra time, the scoreboard, the half-time talk and so on. But this is essentially local advertising embedded in a global event, which isn't quite the same as affixing your company's name and logo to a global event overseas viewed by a widely dispersed global audience, the way Tata has done in long-distance running or Kingfisher/Sahara have done in Formula 1. It is possible to argue that Indian companies enjoy a strong presence in cricket, but this is, all said and done, an India-South Asia-centric sport, as reflected in India's dominance of the ICC.
On the face of it, this minimalist presence in the global sporting arena should not really matter. It could, after all, be argued that Indian companies have infinitely better things to do with their hard-earned cash than splurge it on events for which the returns are not that tangible. True, but there is an invaluable intangible benefit that can accrue. Indian companies are venturing abroad like never before, not all of them in the business-to-business segment that demands brand building of a different nature. Several of them - like Sahara, Eureka Forbes, Bharti Airtel, Himalaya, Apollo, Kingfisher to name a few - are emerging in the consumer space where they battle established brand names in crowded arenas. This is a lesson the Japanese giants learnt early in the 1970s and 1980s.
In addition, sponsorship of global events does wonders to a country's collective corporate reputation. This is a commodity that is sorely needed for India, where names like Sahara, Kingfisher and Satyam (which won the contract to handle the software for the FIFA World Cup) come attached with controversy in their businesses, reinforcing the notion that Indian companies are unfit to operate credibly in the global business arena. Recall, for instance, the shaded criticisms to Tata Motors' acquisition of Jaguar-Land Rover or the opposition from the Orient Express chain to Indian Hotels' bid that implied an Indian company would never really understand the concept of luxury or the global market. TCS' sponsorship of the New York Marathon changes all that. That is why making its presence felt in one of the most vibrant segments of the entertainment business - as other Asian companies have been doing - is a great way to signal that India Inc has truly arrived.
