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this podcast is brought to you by india
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knowledge at wharton please visit
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knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu
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india for more information
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india imagine was the theme of the 2008
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wharton india economic forum that was
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held in philadelphia recently the
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day-long event attracted several leaders
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including apj abdul kalam former
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president of india as well as ceos of
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indian companies non-profit groups
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consulting and private equity firms
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indian knowledge at wharton brings you
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one-on-one conversations with these
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leaders we are here today with tp singh
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chopra ceo of ge india tp thank you so
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much for joining us at the knowledge at
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wharton podcasts
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at the wharton india economic forum
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thank you very much for having me here
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moko
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uh it's so good to see you again i
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remember the first time you you spoke to
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the readers of knowledge at wharton was
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soon after you became the ceo of ge
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india how's your first year shaping up
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michael the first year has been great
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we've seen a lot of change happen
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in the marketplace
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a lot of change in our own company
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i think
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we've done a lot of
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work
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on what i would say localizing our
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company
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because at the end of the day our
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ability to win this market is going to
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depend upon our ability to localize and
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think about it we have
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15 000 employees roughly in india
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and we really have
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very very few i'd say about 10 folks
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with non-indian passports so really for
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all practical purposes we are an indian
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company
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and
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it's been great fun in that whole game
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of coming up with new products for the
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indian market
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to change the way to get more focus in
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our whole organization to develop
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products in our market to develop new
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technologies
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not only for india but for the world and
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that's our break uh that's what big
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focus has been i wonder if you could
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tell us a little bit more about that
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i've heard that ge does a lot of r d in
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india catering to the world market could
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you tell us a little bit about what
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you're doing michael we have a facility
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in bangalore and a couple of other
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centers as well but the big research
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facilities in bangalore where we now
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have
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well over 5 000
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technologies engineers and phds doing
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pure research not only for the indian
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market but for the global market
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a few of the innovations and some of the
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work that's come out is for example
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they've been doing work on the gen x
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aircraft engine in terms of blade design
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in terms of compressor work they've done
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work on the evo
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locomotive
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they've done work on
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in terms of medical diagnostics and
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imaging so a lot of the cutting edge
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technology that you're seeing around the
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world is actually being done in the labs
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down in india but what excites me the
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most
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is the fact that they are actually
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developing these products not only for
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the global market but for the indian
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market as well
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a class example is we now have this ecg
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device which is about
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an a4 size of paper which has actually
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been made
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for a few for a fraction of the cost
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over the normal ecg device cost purely
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for the rural market of our country so
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today we can actually provide ecgs at a
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few dollars which would normally cost a
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hundred dollars with the large big
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device so that's what we're really
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trying to do is reinvent the game
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and change the way we make products to
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really serve a completely different
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market than we ever did before
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that that's really fascinating in fact
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having heard you speak on this before
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you refer to the way that some indian
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companies have become game changers in
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in the way they transform different
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industries through innovation and i
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think one example i've heard you give is
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of the tata nano could you could you
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tell us a little bit about what work you
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did on
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uh with the tatas on that project yeah
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at the initial part of the program
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our plastics division actually worked
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with them to try to you know help them
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uh to become a supplier to the program
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so we've done a little bit of work in
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terms of designing uh you know working
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with them in terms of coming up with
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products that works for the car but what
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i tell folks is
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what i call i call it frugal
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manufacturing the tatas have reinvented
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the business model in manufacturing
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to be able to produce a product at half
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the cost of one of the cheap of the
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cheapest car out there in the world and
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to come up with a good product
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is quite a feat
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so it is this kind of thinking that's
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really
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thinking out of the box in terms of
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really redefining a price point that's
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changing the way indian corporates are
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doing business
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and the nano is a great example
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of a company that's innovated to win in
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the local marketplace
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in ge's own manufacturing exam
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operations
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can you think of any examples where that
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kind of frugal manufacturing technique
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might uh provide value
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i think it could go across a lot of our
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business lines i think
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again given the fact that we have such a
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wide variety of products you know
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it may not be applicable in everything
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but
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uh the ecg mobile the ecg device is a
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classic example we started off from a
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clear clean sheet of paper and really
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you know started off at trying to meet a
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price point that just doesn't exist or
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didn't exist in our product range today
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so that's a classic example so we will
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continue to look
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at
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all the products that we have that are
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required for the indian market to see if
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we can actually
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use what i see you know what i call
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frugal manufacturing to get there to
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make it work for this market
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right
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soon after becoming the ceo of ge india
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you had identified three priority areas
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infrastructure health care and financial
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services can you tell us a little bit
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about in the in the
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year or so that you have been in your
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job uh give us an update of what you are
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doing in each of these areas right local
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the focus remains the same it is very
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much an infrastructure with an
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infrastructure it includes energy oil
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and gas water aviation rail
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for example we're looking at we're
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evaluating putting up a locomotive plant
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in india we're actually looking at the
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potential of setting up more
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manufacturing facilities
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in most of these infrastructure
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businesses in some of our product ranges
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so infrastructure continues to be a big
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focus area in focus area for us in the
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country and we've had a lot of wins you
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know we worked on a couple of pipeline
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projects we've we've been working a
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couple of refinery projects
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in the areas of steel industry
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in the area of water in the water field
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so we are actively been focusing on the
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infrastructure side on healthcare
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which is another big focus here for us
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like i said not only we are trying to
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first of all redesign our products to
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bring it down to a price point that
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works in our country
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but also we are working with a lot of
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the big hospital chains
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to actually help them
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provide a more packet solution for them
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as well in terms of financing and
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products etc so that's a big focus area
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for us and financial services the third
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area that you mentioned
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both on the corporate side lending side
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and on the retail side we continue to
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make
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a lot of
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you know positive improvements in
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everything we do we've actually
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dramatically grown
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our book uh on the financial services
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side of the last one year have you seen
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any impact uh considering everything
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that's happening in the u.s financial
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markets have you seen any impact in
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india of that
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you know
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there is an impact uh you see it an
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impact of that in our growth rates gdp
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growth rates again it's still
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it's still you know at eight and a half
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to nine percent it's still a phenomenal
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uh gdp growth rate
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uh but one does see an impact of that in
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the stock markets uh when you bring it
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down a few notches that for us as a
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company
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sure there is uh there has been a
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difference you know liquidity is tight
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in this market and that impacts all of
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us
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uh lending norms have been tightened uh
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given what's happening in this market
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but again i think uh it's all relative
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right um the uh
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the impact it's having in in india is
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far less than what one one is seeing in
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the us so i'd say there has been an
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impact but
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not as as big an impact as you'd see out
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here we're still seeing huge positive
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momentum and growth in the indian market
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right
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one of the things that i've heard you
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speak about is
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how critical winning the war for talent
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is in india
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what is ge doing to win the ball for
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talent in india right
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i think it boils down to a few things
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one is
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the value the ge value system right
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uh i think that's important not only for
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for our company but it's important for
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all the stakeholders that work with us
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our suppliers our customers
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uh the government the regulators so
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everybody we touch it's important that
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they they
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they understand what we stand for now
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that has a lot that has a big strong
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impact on the employees we hire
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so we'd like to bring in employees that
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actually share our value system to help
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us grow so that's one
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two is
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we are constantly trying
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to provide employees the challenges
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and the opportunities to grow in this
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company
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so
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a person being recruited in india after
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a few years he has the opportunity to go
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and work in one of our other facilities
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around the world
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the folks in our research our r d center
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is able are able to work on projects
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that
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are literally a cutting-edge technology
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our labs are there provide them the
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opportunity to go and work on on all
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these the number of we have we produce
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one of the highest number of patents out
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of our labs in india versus some of our
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uh
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versus some of the other facilities
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around the world so i think in a
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combination of providing
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obviously
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the right environment the right job
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challenges the right training the right
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opportunities to grow
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and the right value systems helps us
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attract
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uh train and and retain uh the best
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talent out there in the market
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that's great and finally one last
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question
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since you're coming up to i think your
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first year anniversary in june that's
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right uh what has been the biggest
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surprise uh either pleasant or
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unpleasant of of of the job that you've
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been doing
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you know
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the biggest surprise
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in my view uh has been
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and it's a good surprise
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is
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this growing sense of confidence that's
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coming out of our country in india
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um
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i tell folks there's a strong
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nationalistic pride developing when i
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see all this growth that's happening in
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india
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and
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and i'm proud to say that it's a great
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thing it's a great thing to see the kind
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of confidence that's developing in the
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country to
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compete with the best in the world
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you know and i enjoy that and i see the
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passion
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that's coming out of
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our employees
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and generally from our supplies and
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everybody around
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is fantastic i think the next
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five to ten years would be an incredible
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period in the history of the country
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great thank you so much for joining us
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too thank you very much michael for
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having me here
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for more information please visit
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knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu
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india
