Mr Rahul Bajaj, Chairman Bajaj Auto ltd, which was in the list of the 100 in the BCG list, said that the opening up of the Indian economy in 1991 taught Indian companies to be competitive.
He said that the greatest guru for business was competition. Mr Bajaj said low cost was not always the advantage as India had high transaction costs. It was a cooperative competition of cost arbitrage and technology imports
Mr Wim Elfrink, Chief Globalization Officer, CISCO Systems said that a combination of GROWTH in asia/east, INNOVATION connecting the huge and growing markets and the availability of TALENT drove his company to invest heavily in India and in asia. He said that they were aiming at 20% of the top talent coming from India
In the discussion that followed and in response to questions from participants, Mr Kamal Nath mentioned that human skills development and education would determine success for developing countries and referred to the huge investments in India on skill development and education.
Mr buerkner, in conclusion mentioned that competitiveness, higher productivity and raising levels of education and skills would be key drivers for companies and countries to succeed.