MANAGEMENT SPECIAL.......................... RAVI VENKATESAN

RAVI VENKATESAN

 Ravi Venkatesan came back to India in 1996 to help craft the Cummins success story in India. Then he joined Microsoft, which he subsequently quit to write a book on what it takes to succeed in emerging markets like India. “Most multinational companies struggle mightily in India and as a result, India contributes an irrelevant 1% or even less of their global revenues and profits. The truth is that India is an incredibly challenging market but can also be incredibly rewarding,” he says. While a large part of the book drew upon his own experiences, Venkatesan also spoke to 30 other business leaders as a part of his research. “I am not an academic; I am a practitioner who has lived in the trenches, so my perspectives and advice are practical and empirical. My book is aimed primarily at practitioners and students and less at academics although I do hope some scholars take some of the ideas and try to validate them with greater rigour,” he says. Realising that the market for business books might be dwindling, Venkatesan has taken to using multiple avenues – from TedX and the recently concluded Jaipur LitFest to writing newspaper columns and blogs. He’s taught a 10 session course around the ideas contained in “Conquering the Chaos” at IIM Bangalore and made this available through Harvard Business School. Venkatesan is now Chairman of Social Venture Partners India and is investing in early stage social enterprises through the Unitus Seed Fund. His research and writing though is now focused on two issues – improving the quality of public governance in India and how the country should approach trade and commercial relations with China and the US.

CDET 140131