India has enormous knowledge, craftsmanship, science, philosophy, food traditions, medicine, textiles, engineering and business know-how. But knowledge does not automatically become a global brand.
Some of the reasons we often hear are:
We built for India first
India’s enormous domestic market allowed businesses to become large without having to think globally from the beginning.
We learned to compete on price
Frugality and cost efficiency became major strengths, but they sometimes pushed businesses toward “value for money” rather than premium positioning.
We became suppliers before we became brand owners
India became very good at manufacturing, engineering, IT services and back-end execution, while the customer relationship and brand often belonged to someone else.
We create products, but don’t always create perception
Product quality, design, packaging, storytelling and customer experience have historically received less attention than the product itself.
We have not commercialised our knowledge enough
India has enormous traditional and modern knowledge, but knowledge becomes economically powerful only when it is documented, standardised, protected and converted into products, services or intellectual property.
Too much knowledge remains with individuals
A master craftsman, doctor, entrepreneur or practitioner may possess extraordinary expertise, but that expertise doesn’t always become a repeatable system that thousands of people can deliver.
We underinvested in R&D and original product innovation
India has exceptional scientific and engineering talent, but much of our historical advantage has been efficient execution and adaptation rather than creating globally dominant proprietary products.
Risk-taking has often been limited
Building a global brand requires entering unfamiliar markets, investing before returns are certain and accepting failure. Traditional businesses have often preferred predictable expansion.
Short-term business thinking can overpower long-term brand building
Revenue, profit and cash flow are visible today. A global brand may require years of investment before its value becomes obvious.
We haven’t always understood foreign consumers deeply enough
Success in India doesn’t automatically translate abroad. Global brands study local culture, behaviour, aesthetics, purchasing habits and aspirations market by market.
Global distribution is a different capability
Creating a product is only the beginning. International distributors, retail networks, e-commerce, logistics, service and local teams are essential to becoming a global brand.
We have historically lacked global brand-building talent and ecosystems
Brand strategists, designers, international marketers, product specialists, IP experts and global distribution networks have become stronger, but were less developed historically.
Our businesses were often built around relationships rather than systems
Relationships are a huge Indian business strength, but global scale requires processes and institutions that work even when the founder or relationship holder isn’t personally involved.
We sometimes hide the Indian identity instead of owning it
There has been a tendency to make an Indian product look “international” by making it look Western. But countries such as Japan and Italy demonstrate how cultural identity itself can become part of a premium proposition.
We have not consistently converted culture into commercial categories
Yoga, Ayurveda, Indian cuisine, textiles, spices, handicrafts, wellness and traditional knowledge contain enormous cultural capital. The challenge is turning that cultural capital into modern, scalable global categories.
IP has not always been treated as a strategic asset
Patents, trademarks, proprietary formulations, processes, designs and licensing can allow a company to own value beyond its physical operations. Historically, this has received less attention than manufacturing and distribution.
Capital was historically expensive and harder to access at scale
Building a global brand requires sustained investment in R&D, inventory, marketing, international teams and distribution. Limited access to patient capital constrained many businesses.
The business environment created friction
Regulation, taxation, logistics, infrastructure and the complexity of operating across India’s fragmented markets historically consumed management attention and resources that could otherwise have gone toward global expansion.
We often measure business success too narrowly
A company can be highly profitable without becoming a global brand. Revenue and profitability matter, but brand equity, intellectual property, international presence and ownership of the customer relationship create different kinds of long-term value.
Perhaps most importantly, we didn’t always believe the world was the market
This is the mindset underneath many of the other reasons. The ambition was often to build a successful Indian company and then consider the world. A global brand usually thinks differently: the world is the market from the beginning.
But there is a problem with this list.
If we look closely, many of these are not independent reasons. They are symptoms of a few deeper realities. Domestic-market orientation, price competition, short-term thinking and limited risk-taking are connected. Weak packaging, design, storytelling and premium positioning are connected. Lack of documentation, IP and institutionalisation are connected.
So perhaps the real question is not why India has twenty problems. What are the two or three underlying conditions that produced most of them?
India historically built for the domestic market, not the world
This is probably the biggest one. For decades, the Indian market itself was difficult, large and sufficiently attractive. A company could spend its entire life expanding within India and become enormous.
–> That creates a very different ambition.
A Japanese company had to think about exports relatively early. A small European market could force a company to look outside its borders. An Indian entrepreneur could build a ₹1,000-crore business without necessarily understanding a customer in Germany, Brazil or America.
So the historical mindset became –> “How do I become big in India?” rather than –> “How do I build something the world wants?”
And there is an important distinction between the two.
We became very good at being the engine behind someone else’s brand
This is perhaps the most fascinating part of the Indian story.
India has built enormous capabilities in manufacturing, IT services, pharmaceuticals, textiles, jewellery, chemicals, engineering and many other sectors.
But frequently, the Indian company sits behind the value chain.
- We manufacture
- We develop
- We engineer
- We provide the service
- We supply
Someone else owns the consumer relationship, the brand, the distribution and often the intellectual property.
That creates a strange situation:
India can create enormous value without necessarily owning the name attached to that value.
But this story is no longer completely true.
Something is changing in India….
India’s domestic market is now large enough to provide scale, but Indian companies are also increasingly thinking globally from day one. Digital distribution has dramatically reduced the cost of reaching international consumers. Indian founders are more comfortable with design, technology, intellectual property and global marketing. India’s startup ecosystem has also created a generation of entrepreneurs who don’t automatically see India as the boundary of their market.
More importantly, there is a growing confidence that Indian does not have to mean inexpensive.
Indian companies are increasingly attempting to sell premium products, technology, culture, food, beauty, fashion and services to the world on their own terms.
This transition is already visible in several Indian companies. Tata, TCS, Infosys, Wipro, Mahindra, Tata Motors, Royal Enfield, Bajaj, Sun Pharma, Dr. Reddy’s, Airtel, Asian Paints, UPL, MRF, Zoho and Freshworks are examples of Indian businesses that have built substantial international businesses, brands or customer bases. The Tata Group, for instance, now operates across more than 100 countries, while TCS has a workforce and delivery presence spanning 56+ countries.
These companies represent different versions of the same transition. Some have taken Indian engineering and manufacturing capabilities to international markets. Some have built global technology and services businesses. Others have taken distinctly Indian products and brands overseas. The important point is not that all of them have become household names everywhere in the world. It is that Indian companies are increasingly moving from simply participating in global value chains to owning businesses, capabilities and brands within them.
But there is an important caveat –> A company being large, exported, or internationally recognised is not automatically the same as having created a truly global brand. Tata, TCS, Infosys, Wipro, Mahindra… are examples of Indian businesses that have built substantial international businesses, brands or customer bases.
So is capital the problem?
Not entirely. Capital certainly matters. Building a global brand requires years of investment in product development, distribution, marketing, talent and international expansion.
–> But capital alone cannot explain it.
Is ease of doing business the problem?
It matters enormously, especially when compared with countries where companies can scale internationally with fewer frictions.
–> But again, it doesn’t fully explain it.
Is mindset the problem?
Perhaps more than the others, but even “mindset” is too simplistic. The deeper issue may be the economic environment in which Indian businesses learned to grow. For decades, Indian businesses learned to survive scarcity, regulation, fragmented supply chains, high costs of capital and an enormous but relatively protected domestic market.
That environment rewarded:
Frugality, relationships, distribution, volume and survival.
rather than:
Design, differentiation, IP, brand, global distribution and premium pricing.
And now the environment is changing….
But why is this happening now?
The Indian market has become a launchpad
A large domestic market can provide the initial customers, revenue and scale needed to develop a product before taking it overseas.
Digital distribution has changed the equation
A business can now reach customers across the world through software, e-commerce and social platforms without first building a physical presence in every country.
Indian entrepreneurs are more globally exposed
Today’s founders have grown up consuming global products, working with international companies, travelling, studying and participating in global digital communities. The psychological distance between India and the rest of the world is smaller.
Access to capital has improved
India now has a much deeper ecosystem of venture capital, private equity and other forms of growth capital. Capital remains a constraint, but it is no longer the same constraint it was for earlier generations.
Our capabilities have matured
India has developed substantial capabilities in technology, engineering, pharmaceuticals, manufacturing, automotive, specialty chemicals and other sectors that can support global businesses.
And perhaps most importantly, ambition is changing…
For an earlier generation, the question was often: “How do I build a successful company in India?”
For a growing number of entrepreneurs today, the question is becoming:
Why shouldn’t I build for the world?
India’s problem was never a lack of knowledge. It was the historical gap between knowledge and commercialisation, and between commercialisation and global ownership.
- We learned to create value
- We learned to build businesses
- We learned to operate at scale
–> What we are now learning is how to own the value, package it, brand it and take it to the world.
Something has changed, but we are still in the middle of the transition. Perhaps India’s next economic story is not about becoming the world’s back office or factory. It is about becoming the owner of the brands, ideas and intellectual property that the world pays for.
We may finally be entering a phase where India’s ability to create value and its ability to own that value are beginning to converge.
Disclaimer: I don’t have a PhD in Indian economics. I just have too many thoughts and a keyboard.
