2009 - Indian MAKE Winners

Key Findings

• Newcomers to this year’s Indian MAKE Winner’s circle are: HCL Technologies and ICICI Bank. Larsen & Toubro – E&C Division, a former Indian MAKE Winner, returned to this year’s list of top companies.
• Enterprises failing to repeat as Indian MAKE Winners were: Bharti Airtel and Reliance Industries.
• Many of the Indian MAKE leaders began implementing their corporate knowledge strategies during the early 2000s – several years after Japanese and South Korean companies took the decision. Even though they started later, the 2009 Indian MAKE Winners, especially in the IT solutions sector, have reached parity with Asia’s knowledge driven leaders in most of the critical MAKE knowledge dimensions. Indian based organizations have been very successful at benchmarking and transferring knowledge best practices from both Asian and global MAKE leaders.
• Asian MAKE leaders, especially located in Japan, South Korea and Taiwan, have made great strides in their ability to innovate and develop new knowledge-based products and services. Only a few years ago Asian firms were considered innovation ‘followers.’ In many business sectors they now are considered equals. Although Indian companies are narrowing the gap with their competitors, they need to adopt new innovation management strategies in order to be viewed as true innovation leaders.
• Although Indian MAKE Finalists and Winners publicly state that they are intellectual capital (IC) driven organizations, most of them do not have in place strategies, methods and processes for actively managing, measuring and reporting their enterprise IC. This is revealed in the significant gap between Indian and Global MAKE leaders in this critical knowledge performance dimension. Without strong corporate direction, Indian companies will have difficulty in reducing this gap and achieving their stated aim of becoming world class IC firms.
• While Indian MAKE leaders emphasize the importance of employee training and development, the vast majority of Indian enterprises still are not allocating sufficient resources to improve employee skills and competencies. While India has several internationally-recognized institutes of higher learning, a significant number of Indian universities are producing graduates whose skills do not match the requirements of Indian companies. A stronger academic/government/business partnership is required to ensure that India has the 21st workforce it requires.
• One area where Indian MAKE leaders are making progress when compared to their Asian counterparts is in ‘Creating Value from Customer Knowledge.’ However, except for some outstanding Indian MAKE leaders in the IT and telecommunications sectors, most Indian companies still have a long way to go in implementing state-of-the-art, customer-focused knowledge processes found in the world’s best enterprises. To compete on the global stage, Indian companies will have to devote considerable management time and resources to this knowledge performance dimension.
• Financial reporting for Asian companies (including Indian firms) is more opaque than found in North America and Europe. As a result, Indian and other Asian companies have placed less emphasis on managing, measuring and reporting their effectiveness in transforming enterprise knowledge into increased shareholder value. Investors and national / global financial regulators are increasingly demanding greater ‘transparency’ in reporting this information. Indian firms will come under growing pressure to implement best practices in this area.
• This 5th annual Indian MAKE study has revealed that the country’s knowledge leaders are still few in number and concentrated in a small number of business sectors (57% of the Finalists are from the IT solutions sector), indicating that there continues to be few knowledge ‘role models’ available throughout Indian society.
• Return on Revenues for the 2009 Indian MAKE Winners averaged 15.0% – over five times the Global Fortune 500 median. Return on Assets for the 2009 Indian MAKE Winners averaged 16.3% – over seven times the Global Fortune 500 median. The leaders in both metrics were Infosys Technologies, MindTree and Tata Consultancy Services.
• It should be noted that there continues to be a significant gap (in the total composite score) between the Indian MAKE Finalists and other Indian companies nominated in this year’s study. The result continues to reflect a two-tier Indian knowledge leadership ranking table. In other words, the Indian MAKE Winners and Finalists have knowledge processes which match those of MAKE leaders from around the world. On the other hand, the remaining Indian MAKE nominees are still in the early stages of implementing their enterprise knowledge strategies and must spend more time and effort before they can join the Indian MAKE Winners’ circle.
• The Indian government and national business associations continue to face the challenge of creating programs that encourage and facilitate the sharing of best knowledge practices between the Indian MAKE Winners and the rest of country’s business and industry. This structured transfer of knowledge skills and competencies will enable all of Indian society to more effectively compete in today’s global knowledge economy.