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| Small today, big tomorrow |
| "Have a regional management policy; motivate each geography by showing inter-country results; and incorporate individual market intelligence and best practices on a global scale" |
Rajneesh De
MUMBAI: CEOs of an esoteric mix of companies gathered on the sidelines of the Nasscom Leadership Forum today to fix a mantra for emerging companies to embark on their second phase of growth.
They included Anand Deshpande of Persistent Technologies, an Indian software company that has become a name to reckon with in the OPD space; Pradeep Kar of Microland, Patrick McGovern of IDG, Sanjay Kamlani of Pangea3, Joel Perlman of Copal Partners and Deep Kalra of Makemytrip.com.
Note the diverse nature of companies and that gives the picture: the 'emerging' tag is not just associated with any specific genre of companies. Microland, strictly speaking, has emerged as a global company long back; but currently, it is again re-establishing itself in a new avatar. IDG again is a global giant in the field of technology publishing and business research and now exploring more and more new geographies; Pangea3 is involved in outsourced legal services; Copal Partners is a Gurgaon-based global business and research firm, while Makemytrip is now a leading name in online travel.
According to Kar, in whatever way you define emerging companies (either less than $10mn or $100mn), the road ahead for them would be to find niche/emerging markets, look at fast changing industries and collaborate to form an external network. McGovern cited some interesting statistics about IDG to show how an emerging company can successfully go global; in 1964 when it started nearly 70 per cent of its business was from US, the number has dwindled down to 35 per cent by 2000. The McGovern tips for emerging companies: "Have a regional management policy; motivate each geography by showing inter-country results; and incorporate individual market intelligence and best practices on a global scale."
Perlman's prescription: "Don't dilute early until you have a clear value proposition, be profitable from day one, be focused on bottomline and not revenues and don't sell too early."
As for inorganic growth, it's important to keep in mind whether the deal is accretive to earning, will it distract the company from core activities and will it impact the emotional balance between the collaborating companies. Kalra's best bets on tomorrow's companies could come from first-generation e-commerce, m-commerce, search companies and gaming while his wildcards could come from service intermediaries, specialty shopping, hyper-classifieds and Web 2.0.
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