What has made Indian companies sharpen their strategic tool and run after these two intangible assets? The first and foremost is, of course, the fierce competitive environment of the post-economic reform era which finally made the Indian consumer king with a multitude of choices, including imported products.

They also became demanding on such parameters like quality, delivery, after-sales service, etc. Thanks to the new rules of the game, Indian companies have been elevated froma "frog-in-the-well" situation. The most fortunate thing about our economic reforms is that they are irreversible, irrespective of the frequent change of guard at Delhi, and pervading uncertainties.

Hence, in order to survive and outlive in the marketplace, companies were forced out of their hibernation, and began vying with each other for a piece of action, even if that meant flouting all rules. As a consequence, three situations emerged - those companies which were unable to be ahead of the change curve, have been left behind, and willy-nilly qualified as candidates for takeovers.

Those non-performing companies which refused to be taken over by the predators, but at the same time did not pay concerted attention to turning their operations, led to their unsung death. Many corporate giants of India which were once rated as examples to emulate had fallen prey to this unhealthy development.

On the other side, a situation of cannibalisation arose - those big fishes which have substantial muscle power interms of finance, marketing skills, etc have begun devouring the small fishes - both friendly and unfriendly. Given the pace of mergers and acquisitions that the Indian business scene is experiencing, it can be safely said that the predators will increasingly play a more crucial role in Indian business. It has been predicted that once all the dust has settled down, there will only be a few jumbo players in each business.

The other aspect is that diversified behemoth companies find that they are unable to focus their attention on all their businesses in the changed scenario and decided to follow, what Tom Peters and Robert Waterman advocated in their path-breaking book "In search of excellence", sticking to their core competence.

They started selling out non-core businesses to harness their competence on core business. Not surprisingly, this has been the gospel of the management gurus for Indian business houses. As a corollary, companies in such industries as pharma, which have a number of brands in theirstables sell of their "non-moving" brands, and utilise the proceeds for investments in their core products. While financial parameters of a company do form the basis of negotiations during takeover and mergers, valuation of brand equity becomes the trump card for the final decision.

On the other side of the spectrum, once the companies have identified core competence, they formulate a process of "deconstruction" ie, concentrate only on the core process, and leave the rest to outsiders. This, in turn, will call for the sub-contractors and vendors to become quality conscious and market driven.

Another related development is that most Indian companies are operating in a low cost, low price and low margin situation which would not allow them to make investments for product improvement or capacity expansion or R&D.

Hence, there is a need to move up in the value chain so as to reap the benefit of high value and high margin of operations. This is particularly true as it is only a matter of a year, before thewinds of the WTO and TRIPS hit the Indian shores.

The other development is that many Indian companies have tie-ups with global leaders, and some of them are willing to have their manufacturing base in India, thanks to the availability of cheap work force and access to a vast pool of professionals in areas like IT, engineering, medicine, etc. The foreign partners would expect the Indian products to be on par with the products manufactured at their other locations.

All these developments have catapulted the Indian industry into the orbit of globalisation, which has been best described by Rosabeth Moss Kanter in her book "World class" as the mega shopping mall, where there are four main processes - mobility of capital, people and ideas; simultaneity or everywhere at once; bypass or multiple choices; and pluralism. However, the moot questions are: Is the Indian industry well-equipped to take on the challenges? What are the road blocks? How do we overcome them and make Indian companies truly world class?Towards this, one could centre around the debate on a 3P formula - products, processes and people.

Products: There is no denying the fact that the quality of Indian products have been significantly improved, and almost all companies have entered into the high portals of quality. Quality improvement is a continuous process, and the focus should be shifted from complying with procedural requirements, like ISO, to meeting the customer needs at best. In other words, the modus operandi of quality movement should surpass the stage of "quality control" to the entire gamut of "customer service".

Process: Process relates to two parameters ie, the technology involved, and the nature of the input material. Partnering with world leaders through technology tie-ups, or joint ventures, or upgradation of technology and import of modern machines are the only way to make the Indian industry world class. This would call for substantial investments in technology as also think "de-novo" the existing processes and productmix, but considering the long term benefit, one should not backtrack on this count.

People: In the next millennium, which will be unfolded in a matter of a few months, it has become clear that the revolutionary changes in the information technology will have a multi-faceted and hitherto unknown cascading effects on our life. A related development is the ever increasing importance for time as a success factor of performance.

Hence, the success of business will substantially depend not on traditional criteria like land, raw material, and money, but on the intellectual capital. Hence "people" will be the most valuable asset of any organisation. Therefore, the high-brows of the HRD department will have a daunting task before them - to recruit and retain high calibre employees particularly keeping in mind the mobility factor. It is also necessary to respect each employee as a human being - and not as a worker - and recognise his contribution to the organisation.

To sum up, making Indian companies world classis a necessity for the next millennium, and companies which do not read the writings on the wall will end up in a lurch. Two important determinants for the smooth transition to a world class tribe are - a paradigm shift in our mindset for looking things from a different perspective and the managerial will and conviction to implement those policies and systems that will steer the company to next millennium.

Earlier, the non-performance of Indian companies was attributed to red tapism, and inadequate infrastructural facilities. Now that we have made substantial dent on both these counts, particularly with the Internet revolution (which facilitated cheap and quick communication and access to all the data), and we have the largest pool of professionals in areas like IT, engineering, medicine, etc, the challenge before the Indian cousins is to transform the Indian companies as "world class" companies to reckon with.

Now that it is the cricket season, one could simulate the situation of the Indian team. We havethe most experienced world class batsman and bowlers and all of them have excellent track records. Even during the current season, we made history on many counts - highest ever partnership; the first century; highest runs, etc. However, in the ultimate analysis, we know where we stand today! Hence, the need of the hour is to change the mindset, and pool together all the energies backed up by our vast experience, so that we could come out with flying colours the next time, if not in the current season!