Prahalad exhorts India Inc to unearth resources

There's enough money in the country, only the resources are misallocated, C K Prahalad, acclaimed management guru and corporate strategist, said at a corporate gathering on Saturday.

Prahalad did what management thinkers of Indian origin are best at: cheerleading India Inc. And he did that with missionary zeal, tearing down conventionally held beliefs that lack of resources were impediments to business growth.

The points to ponder:

• There's enough money in the country, only the resources are misallocated. An example- when India's rice stock is much more than the entire world's trade in rice, why do we provide support prices and encourage people to produce more of the same stuff.
• The hidden resources in 100 shanty towns across India -each equivalent to Dharavi- could be to the tune of $1 trillion (2.5 times the GDP). "We are sitting on top of the largest stockpile of cash and not realising it," said Prahalad.

Prahalad, who is the Harvey C Fruehauf professor of business administration and professor of corporate strategy and international business at the University of Michigan Business School, also chalked out grandiose plans for India Inside- every product across the world would have at least one made-in-India component.

"We have all the pre-requisites to do it," he said.

The 17,000 pharmaceutical companies which are present in India was touted as an advantage.

"We have developed a large skill-base, due to bad policy. So why not leverage it," enquired Prahalad. Another instance was the outstanding achievements by HR departments in the country.

"Indian companies recruit 4000 people every year, after screening applications of three lakh people as a matter of routine," says Prahalad. Foreign companies would find it difficult to match this, he pointed out.

Talking about how Indian call-centre companies had taught nearly one lakh employees to 'play-act' in two weeks flat, or how Indian software firms managed off-shore projects across the globe, Prahalad explained that, "There are fundamental innovations in project management. Nobody documents it here."

So what is the recipe for growth?

• Indian businesses do not have a shared agenda. The last time India had a shared agenda was in 1929 for purna swaraj. Sixteen years later that was achieved.
• Don't start from where you are (the fundamental fault in our planning process), but from where the future could be. Plan the desirable future and then fold it back, on what to do to get there. Run 400 metres at a time, but run the marathon.
• Best practices never take you to leadership. It is the next practice that will. Gather courage to invent the next practice. Prahalad's parting shot: "India Inside is for yours to take. If you don't someone else will and I'll haunt you."