Author: Stephen Manallack

Former President, Australia India Business Council, Victoria and Author, You Can Communicate; Riding the Elephant; Soft Skills for a Flat World (published by Tata McGraw-Hill INDIA); Communicating Your Personal Brand. Director, EastWest Academy Pty Ltd and Trainer/Speaker/Mentor in Leadership, Communication and Cross Cultural Communication. Passionate campaigner for closer western relations with India. Stephen Manallack is a specialist on “Doing Business with India” and advisor/trainer on “Cross-Cultural Understanding”. He is a Director of EastWest Academy Pty Ltd which provides strategic advice and counsel regarding business relations with India. A regular speaker in India on leadership and global communication, his most recent speaking tour included a speech to students of the elite Indian university, Amity University, in Noida. He also spoke at a major Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) global summit, the PR Consultants Association of India in Delhi, the Symbiosis University in Pune and Cross-Cultural Training for Sundaram Business Services in Chennai. He has visited India on business missions on 10 occasions and led three major trade missions there. He provides cross-cultural training – Asia and the west.

Diverse India on show as new MP’s sworn in this week

Multicultural India was on show this week when newly-elected members of the Indian Parliament (Lok Sabha) were sworn in.

Linguistic diversity was in full play with the oath being taken in different languages as several newly-elected members sported colourful attire, traditional shawls and headgears while a section wore a saffron look.

320 of the 542 MPs took the oath during the first day of the two-day long swearing-in ceremony.

Prime Minister Modi was the first to take oath as member of the lower house, nearly four weeks after leading the BJP to a resounding victory in the Lok Sabha polls with the party retaining power winning 303 seats.

Addressing the media outside parliament before the commencement of Parliament session, Modi set the tone for the business in the House, saying the opposition need not “bother about their numbers” as their every word is “valuable” to the government.

The remaining 222 members will take oath on Tuesday.

The world’s biggest democracy is on show!

The next steps will be critically important for Adani in Australia

Now that the Adani mine in Queensland has passed what seems to be the final hurdle, while it will still be a focus of protests it is now important for Adani Group to create and build a long term image and relevance in Australia. Adani Group is widely misunderstood here.

Few if any Australians are aware of the diversified role of Adani in areas such as solar power (below).

There have been mistakes. While “overstating” projects might be good communication in many countries, it is a disaster in Australia which is the home of the “tall poppy syndrome” (want to chop you down) and cynicism. In Australia it is best to under-estimate a project and then deliver beyond expectations.

This initial approach hurt the project and much of the bravado might well have been the Queensland Government – but dealing effectively with local politics is another important task for the group.

Here are some challenges, opportunities and ideas for the future brand of Adani in Australia:

Build up the media, political and community profiles of your local Australia team
Create some leadership profile opportunities for Mr Adani
Clarifying the Adani approach of “vertical integration” which is not well understood in Australia
Accept that protests and negative media will continue but strive to at least get your proper share of media space
Carefully select the media you will deal with – and provide media tours of Adani in India – with full transparency
Support and become involved in coordinated media relations programs with Indian High Commission in Canberra
Have Mr Adani seen as a “promoter of Australia” by leading an annual group of Indian business leaders to visit and explore opportunities in Australia
Bring some scientific R&D work to Australia – for example with RMIT University as a collaborator – this has the advantage of giving Adani relevance outside of Queensland
Create an alliance with Indian foundations which are high profile here – for example ASHA Foundation educates slum dwellers and is well known for having a slum young person graduate from Melbourne University. Provide scholarships for more to come here
Create or support a meeting of leading Australian and Indian resources and environmental scientists in some annual dialogue
Have a regular presence in Canberra
Develop some “owned media” content that is highly professional, well written and not propaganda
Facilitate Australian business and political missions to India, leveraging close contacts

Australia’s Cotton On enters India market

Cotton On, Australia’s largest fashion retailer, has made its entry into the Indian market through online shopping platform Myntra.

This is a smart move – low cost, quick results and great active market researh.

The brand plans to compete with the likes of H&M and Forever 21 in India, by opening its flagship store — either in Delhi or Mumbai — in the third or fourth quarter of 2020.

AVS Global Network, a retailer of global fashion brands that focuses on retail through digital platforms, is responsible for launching Cotton On in the country.

AVS Global Network has managed to secure an exclusive contract with online retail platforms Flipkart, Myntra and Jabong to sell Cotton On products in India for the next year and a half.

Cotton On Group was established in 1991 and is present in 19 countries including New Zealand, South Africa and Singapore, with about 1,500 stores across the globe.

The Australian giant has eight brands in its kitty, namely — Cotton On, Cotton Kids, Cotton on Body, Factorie, Ruby, Typo, Supre and Lost. Each one of them caters to a different market segment.

Cotton On is testing the Indian waters by selling its products online before investing in stores.

I like this strategy for India, China and other South-East Asian countries – they are increasingly buying apparel online, compared to other Western markets.

Perhaps online is your starting point for India too?

Some inspiring quotes from Indian PM Narendra Modi

We are harbingers of peace. We come from the land of Gandhi and Buddha.

All religions and all communities have the same rights, and it is my responsibility to ensure their complete and total protection. My government will not tolerate or accept any discrimination based on caste, creed and religion.

The diversity of India, of our civilization, is actually a thing of beauty, which is something we are extremely proud of.

I believe that a government has only one religion – India first. A government has only one holy book – our Constitution. A government has only one kind of devotion – towards nation.

Our country does not believe in the concept of your God and my God. We believe that all gods are one. We have different ways of accepting Him. All ways lead to Him.

Modi 2.0 – What will Modi do in 7 major policy areas?

Health

Telemedicine and diagnostic laboratories

More medical colleges

National immunisation programs

Modernisation

50 cities to have metros

Toilets for all Indians

State road network expansion

Inclusion

Banking access for all

Pension for small shop keepers

Poverty reduced to single digit

Economy

Grow to $5 trillion by 2025 and $10 trillion by 2032

Infrastructure spend

Credit scheme for MSME’s

Governance

Simultaneous elections

Time-bound delivery of public services

Upgrade governance standards

Education

Indian institutions to rate in top 500 in world

Medical and specialist doctors

Foreign Policy

Increase diaspora interaction

Multilateral cooperation on terrorism and corruption

Increase diplomatic corp

PLUS since this is PM Modi, expect the unexpected in this new 5 year term as Indian Prime Minister.

Gandhi’s inspiration lives on today

Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi was an Indian activist who was the leader of the Indian independence movement against British colonial rule, becoming known as “The father of the nation”. Employing nonviolent civil disobedience, Gandhi led India to independence and inspired movements for civil rights and freedom across the world.

I well remember campaigns against the Vietnam War – I was one of so many who used silent protest, peaceful marches and so on, all inspired by Gandhi. It was so special recently to visit his Ashram in Gujarat, and I have previously been to his burial site and other special locations in other cities.

Apparently he also influenced Martin Luther King in the USA who used peaceful means, also Nelson Mandela and the Dalai Lama.

Incredible wisdom.

“In a gentle way, you can shake the world.”

Thank you Mahatma Gandhi.

Australia – just be quiet and accept that China and India are the new powers and we are not top of their minds

Australia should calm down on Asia and just build healthy relationships.

Media and politicians react hysterically to even the smallest policy shift out of China. We sweat over the relationship. And if China has any dispute with a neighbour, we want to jump in and offer our advice.

We should just quietly get used to the new reality that China is now the world’s second biggest economy and is about to become the biggest.

And when it comes to India, Australia cannot see beyond divisions and communal unrest. Objectively looking at the numbers will tell us India is a stable, growing economy that in our region will be a close number two to China.

Australians will agonise over whether getting closer to India is a good buffer to China.

Forget it – just get closer to India because that in itself is a good idea. Same for China.

Get over it. Things have changed.

Now – how do we build sensible and quiet relations with China and India – two countries that probably don’t think about Australia too often?

Be inspired! Some great quotes from Australian-Indian business leader Vivek Chaand Sehgal

I recently saw some inspirational quotes from Australian-Indian business leader Vivek Chaand Sehgal, Chairman of Samvardhana Motherson Group (SMG).

“In Sanskrit we say that what doesn’t grow is dead.”

“A river, without other rivers flowing into it, will never reach the sea.”

“In Hinduism we believe in four stages of life … the third is where you hand over what you have done, before going to the mountains, so I’m probably just about there.”

“There’s a saying in Sanskrit – ‘the world is a family’.”

“Only the most brainless businessman arbitrages labour or walks away when he doesn’t have to. He ignores the genius of a whole people, and our university partners have shown us that out-of-the-box thinking is still everywhere in Australia.”

Be inspired!

Australia’s PM Morrison should visit India to protect our education trade

Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison needs to move fast to protect Australia’s education trade with India, now that the world’s biggest democracy has given Prime Minister Narendra Modi a second term in power.

Modi is a reformer – he can move fast and in surprising ways. We know he wants to transform education and there might be some shocks ahead for Australian universities.

Modi knows Indians mainly study abroad because their Indian universities are not up to standard. So he wants to change that.

The second Modi Government is aiming to boost India’s very low rankings among global universities. Freeing up his university sector will see closer ties with elite universities in England and America, and we could fall down the list if we do not act now.

Based on his track record so far, the Indian PM could make massive changes, deregulating up to one hundred of its best universities at any time soon.

Many in Delhi are critical of Australian universities which they claim have simply wanted a one-way transaction to make money out of Indian students. While some of our universities have created serious collaborations with India, in general this criticism is valid.

The next wave of education will see success for those who can create real collaboration, with two-way exchanges of students. Whether Australia can move fast on this is in doubt.

PM Modi is a politician who is not afraid of delivering surprises, as shown with his demonetisation move in his first term aimed at reducing corruption and driving the economy to digital rather than cash transactions. Surprises can transform into shocks if the leaders do not have a close personal connection – that’s why PM Morrison needs to act now to shore up our education trade.

Could the flow of Indian students to Australian universities dry up?

It seems the flow of Indian students to Australia will dry up as India raises the standard of its own higher education system – this is the view from no less than the NITI Aayog, the government’s leading think tank.

This means Australian universities will have to work harder to have a presence in India – reforms have happened and more is to come. Collaboration and joint education of a student could be the way of the future. As we reported in an earlier blog, RMIT University is one pioneer of this approach.

“The present relationship of only sending students to Australia is not a sustainable one. Australia needs to look at this in a very creative and innovative manner.” Amitabh Kant, chief executive, National Institution for Transforming India. Christopher Pearce

The comment came from the chief executive of the National Institution for Transforming India (NITI), Amitabh Kant.

Why could the supply of Indian students dry up? One main reason is India is determined to improve the quality of its own universities and colleges. Improvements could happen within 3 to 5 years, so it is an urgent issue for Australia.

“It’s important for Australian universities at this stage to collaborate with India’s universities to do joint courses and build up alternative business models.”

Mr Kant, who is one of the top planning advisers to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, said the first stage of reform involved deregulating India’s top-60 universities and allowing them to charge fees, hire staff and create courses without any official intervention. The aim was to create universities of global standing, similar to Harvard and Stanford.

Since India would eventually train most its own graduates, it would be better to be part of the changes in India and not just charging fees to students to come to Australia.

What does Mr Kant recommend? As a first step do joint courses and degrees, and take a stake in Indian campuses.

So there it is – right from the top.