Corporates have more cash and greater financial resources than ever

Anand Mahindra, vice- chairman, Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd, in an interview speaks on the group's brand positioning and ideas plat- form. Edited excerpts: What are you making of what's happening right now and from a corporate standpoint what do you make of the headwinds you see around?

What happened in 2008 was very different, in the sense we got ambushed. People were not ready for this. People did not imagine that there would be such a precipitous decline in the economy and, therefore, the response became extreme- ly slow and people didn't have the tools to deal with this.

The learning we have accu- mulated over the past three- four years is going to be de- ployed. There are new head- winds of the kind we would not have been able to describe be- fore.

I think this means the will- ingness and the alertness to deal with them is of different order. So, do I expect a similar prolonged recession? No. Do I expect headwinds? Yes.

Is corporate India more ready for this rundown?

Absolutely. Frankly, the cri- sis in America is not about cor- porates. They have more cash and greater financial resources than ever and so do most Indian companies.

You were on an acquisition spree from the previous slowdown to now. Are you looking at the pres ent economic situation as an op portunity?

We don't engage in inorgan- ic activities just for the sake of doing it. We do it because it enhances the strategic reach of the 10 sectors we are in. So it is up to the presidents of those sectors, if they say I have a ter- rific opportunity to acquire something, whether it is busi- ness or a competency or a technology which is going to give me greater momentum to- wards my strategic objectives.
We are not going to suddenly sound the trumpet and say we are going to buy everything in sight. That would be suicidal.

You have given your brand posi tioning campaign “Rise“ a whole new context by pegging it to the “Spark the rise“ platform.

We had made some promis- es when we unveiled the “Rise“ movement last time. What we promised was that “Rise“ was not simply an advertising slo- gan. This was a moment of transformation of Mahindra and also a transformation in how we are connected to com- munities and our consumers because we believe in version 2.0 of brand evolution, and brand building is not by simply talking to people, it's by in- volving them. ... Media interactivity, reality shows are telling that people want to reach out and shape their own destinies. They want to have a hand in making the news, they want to have a hand in helping to determine direc- tions of companies through feedback or criticism of your products. So we said why can't we harness that. It is very im- portant for us that if we were going to say that we are going to enable you to shape your destiny how do you manifest that promise.

You leverage technology like everyone else has been doing and you allow people to come and side your company and actually shape your destiny first and then, through the platform you provide, shape their own.

The choice of areas where you pick up ideas from is very interesting.

You have pretty much all the ide as--technologies, energy, agricul ture, rural development. Are these identified on the basis of the groups' larger interest, or do you think somewhere these are the fu ture areas where you will see inno vation rise?

No, we will elaborate on how they came across to decide on these areas, which they did in a very methodical manner, but from my point of view, I will use the opportunity to confirm and clarify that this is not a website for Mahindra partners, private equities to find ideas on the cheap. This is not about mirroring the areas and simply using this as an innovation lab.

Many industrialists are trying to give a legup to the next genera tion of entrepreneurs, because you all benefited from this great sur gery and because you are looking at the next leg of growth. For a corporate like yours, does the sus tainability platform of getting new ideas become that much more im portant because that's also a busi ness need today, to get innovation going?

It is, but we have got many initiatives in the group to spark innovation. Many internal ones, many where we crowd- source, many where we invite the public to give ideas. I have to emphasize this is not about that. This is not in a very nar- row way, advancing Mahin- dra's innovation needs or in- novation agenda.

This is genuinely about re- communicating to the world, who we are and saying, “look we are in this together, this is a journey where we expect you to become a stakeholder in our company“.

Because that's the only kind of company in the 21st century which will breed trust in con- sumers and in society. There is a trust gap we know that. It started in the US, even before 2008, when this agency came to us and held up a mirror to us and said, “I think you are a remarkable company because your people are always looking for higher objectives. I talked to your tractor people and they said, no we are not selling trac- tors, we are fermenting the next green revolution.“...

That was nice to hear but he said you have to walk the talk and that's what we are doing.
This is really about redefining and recommunicating who we are. This is about creating, hopefully, one of the new tem- plates for organising the 21st century and building a new re- lationship with consumers that helps our perform and shape their destinies.

We are in an era of wild move ments, right? We have Facebook, we have Twitter...

It is going to be difficult.
There is obviously going to be cynicism, credibility gap initially. But if we can prove our credentials and remain con- sistent with what we are doing and if people can sense hones- ty in what we are trying to do, why shouldn't they use this platform.

We have seen many in the last 6-7 months. Many move- ments arise in India... In a de- mocracy such movements are not to overthrow a govern- ment. But in a democracy you can suffer sometimes when people feel they are not in- cluded in the process of shap- ing the country and hence their own destinies.

So, instead of looking at so- cial media, the only things which cause controversies or movements which raise heat and noise, why can't some- body in India Inc. create a platform which allows people to enhance the democratic ex- perience and participation in- herent in a democracy. That's a really lofty idea but why not.