‘인도의 값싼 제품을 소비자에게 신속하게 공급---주가드 경영’

   
 
세계 경제가 휘청거리는 가운데 인도 대학을 졸업한 인도 경영인들은 오히려 다국적기업의 CEO로 활약 중이다. 이에 기획재정부는 힌두스탄 유니레버(英-和), 네슬레(瑞), 타타자동차(印) 등 주가드식 경영 사례를 요약정책적 시사점을 제시했다. 주가드 (jugaad)란 힌두어로 ‘즉흥적인 창의력’을 뜻한다.부상하는 인도 출신 글로벌 CEO인도는 다민족, 다언어, 다문화, 다종교 국가로 타인이나 타문화에 대한 포용력이 높고 적응력이 뛰어나다.인도 출신 기업인은 서구식 교육을 받아 영어를 유창하게 구사하며, 생각은 영어로 하지만 행동 기준은 인도식이다. 영미권 경영 방식을 인도 문화에 맞게 내재화하는 능력이 뛰어나다. “기업은 사회의 일부분”이라는 경영마인드를 가지고단기이익보다 장기적 관점에서 더 높은 차원의 이익을 추구한다.이윤추구를 우선시하는 서구 기업인들과 구별되는 특징으로, 주주의 이익실현은 물론 기업이 속한 사회에 의미있는 공헌을 해야 한다고 여긴다. 대표적인 인도출신 경영인 및 경영학 전문가 식음료 Indra Nooyi (PepsiCo), Sanjay Khosla (Kraft Foods)Vindi Banga* (Unilever)은행금융Vikram Pandit (Citigroup), Ajit Jain (Berkshire Hathaway)Ajay Banga (MasterCard)철강Lakshmi Mittal (ArcelorMittal)IT휴대폰Sanjay Jha* (Motorola Mobility), Nikesh Arora (Google)경영대학원Dipak Jain (INSEAD), Nitin Nohria (HBS)* 전직 임원, 현재는 다른 기업에 영입됨인도식 ‘주가드’경영 방식주가드 경영이란 예기치 못한 위기상황에서 창의력을 신속하게 발휘할 수 있는 능력을 의미하는 힌두어 주가드(jugaad)에서 나온 말로 인도 기업의 경영철학을 상징적으로 보여주는 용어로 제한적인 자원을 가지고 열악한 환경에 적응하고 경영상 문제를 즉흥적으로 해결하는 방식을 의미한다. 인도 기업이 값싼 제품을 소비자에게 신속하게 공급하는 추세를 주가드 경영이라 한다.주가드 경영방식이 나온 배경은 열악한 기업환경과 미흡한 인프라, 제한된 자원을 가지고 그 안에서 살아남기 위한 인도CEO의 생존방식이다. 인도는 세계은행 Doing Business 순위134위로 기업에게 우호적이지 못한 환경이다. 인도에 공장 하나를 설립하려면 80군데의 각기 다른 기관에서 80가지의 인허가를 받아야 하는 등 절차가 매우 복잡하다.야심차고 우수한 경영진을 갖췄으나 기본적인 전기공급 등 인프라에 차질이 빚어져 경영이 어려운 경우도 많다.인도식 리더십이 뛰어난 위기 대처능력을 갖춘 것으로 평가됨에 따라 주가드 경영방식이 주목받고 있다.유연한사고, 신속한 위기대응력과 적응력 열악한 환경 및 인프라를 오히려 기회로 삼는 기지를 발휘한 인도의 사례를 참고할 필요가 있다. 기후와 자원환경이 열악해도 인재 교육 및 양성을 중시하면 약점이 강점으로 작용할 수 있다. "기업은 사회의 일부분"이라는 경영마인드는 기업의 사회적 책임(CSR)이 강조되는 현 시점에서 유의미하다.유연한 사고력, 신속한 위기 대응력과 탁월한 적응력 및 영어실력과 더불어 윤리경영마인드를 갖춘 경영인은 불확실성과 다양성의 시대에 부합하는 CEO상이다.Banga 형제의 유니레버, 네슬레社 경영 사례인도의 대표적 경영인 Vindi Banga(前유니레버 사장)와 그의 동생 Ajay Banga (前네슬레, 現마스터카드 사장) 형제는 서양 MBA가 아닌 국내파로 군인 아버지의 잦은 이사로 인해 새로운 환경에 빠르게 적응하는 법을 배웠다. 신흥 시장의 불확실성 속에서 기업을 이끌어야하는 다국적기업 경영진이 되기 위한 최상의 훈련이 됐다.Vindi Banga는 1987년 힌두스탄 유니레버 재임 시절 농어촌 여성을 유니레버 제품 판매 대리점 직원 형식으로 고용하여, 이들이 자사 제품을 구매할 수 있도록 대출을 해준 뒤 구매한 제품을 자신들이 속한 지역사회에 되팔도록 했다. 결과적으로 여성들은 유니레버 덕분에 일자리를 얻었고, 회사는 신규 판로를 개척하는 성과를 거두었다. Ajay Banga는“네슬레의 상품이나 가치를 걸고 타협은 절대로 하지 않는다”는 원칙을 고수하기 위해 최선을 다했다. 기온 38°C를 웃돌며 냉장설비나 전력공급이 없는 마을에서 킷캣(Kit Kats)초콜릿 판매를 위해 냉장공급망 자체를 제작했다.특수 제작한 냉장카트로 녹지 않게 초콜릿을 마을로 운반한 뒤, 매장 온도를 시원하게 유지시킬 냉방시설 가동을 위해 전력발전기를 자체 설치가동 했다.타타그룹의 주가드 경영 사례인도 글로벌 기업의 성공요인을 분석한결과 주가드를 그 주요원인으로 평가됐다. 대당 가격 10만루피(약260만원)의 경제적인 Nano를 개발한 타타그룹은 주가드 정신의 유용성을 잘 보여주는 대표적 사례이다.타타그룹의 Nano는 ‘5천달러 이하 자동차는 불가능하다’는업계의 통념을 뒤집은 주가드 경영의 산물이다. 라탄 타타 회장은 인도 저소득층의 구매력을 감안할 때 적정한 차량 가격은 10만루피(약 2,400달러) 선이라 판단하여, 과감하게 부품을 없애거나 생산공정의 모듈화를 통해 목표를달성했다. 비싼 용접 대신 저렴한 화학 본드로 차를 조립하여 비용을 낮추었다.‘현실성 떨어지는 지나친 즉흥 경영’이라는 비난도 있었지만 나노는 출시 전부터 무려 100만대가 예약 판매되었고, 2010년 미국 최고 혁신 상으로인정받고 있는 `에디슨 어워드` 금상을 수상하여 상품성을 인정 받았다.India`s Leading Export: CEOs Monday, Aug. 01, 2011India`s Leading Export: CEOsBy Carla PowerWhat on earth did the Banga brothers` mother feed them for breakfast? Whatever it was, it worked: Vindi Banga grew up to become a top executive at the food and personal-care giant Unilever, then a partner at the private-equity firm Clayton, Dubilier Rice. His younger brother Ajay, after heading Citigroup`s Asian operations, was last year named CEO of MasterCard - all without a degree from a Western business school and without abandoning his Sikh turban. When Ajay took over at the credit-card company`s suburban - New York City headquarters, the Times of India crowed that he was the first "entirely India-minted executive" at a multinational`s helm. The brothers laugh when asked for their mother`s breakfast menu, deflecting suggestions that they were raised by a Bengal-tiger mom. Instead, they cite an itinerant childhood as a key ingredient in their success. The sons of a lieutenant general in the Indian army, they moved to a new posting every couple of years - perfect training, it turns out, for global executives facing new markets and uncertain conditions. "You had to adapt to new friends, new places," recalls Vindi. "You had to create your ecosystem wherever you went." The Banga brothers are two of a growing roster of global Indian business leaders, a roster that includes CEOs such as Citigroup`s Vikram Pandit and PepsiCo`s Indra Nooyi as well as the deans of both Harvard Business School and INSEAD. Yes, ArcelorMittal`s Lakshmi Mittal had the advantage of growing up in the family business, but now the family business has grown into a global powerhouse under his leadership. What factorsaccount for the rise and rise of India-trained business minds? "Our colleagues in our Asian offices are asking the same question," laughs Jill Ader, head of CEO succession at the executive-search firm Egon Zehnder International. "Their clients in China and Southeast Asia are saying, `How come it`sthe Indians getting all the top jobs?`" It could be because today`s generation of Indian managers grew up in a country that provided them with the experience so critical for today`s global boss. Multiculturalism? Check. Complex competitive environment? Check. Resource-constrained developing economy?You got that right. And they grew up speaking English, the global business language. It`s risky to generalize about India, a subcontinent of 1.2 billion people, just as it`s simplistic to stereotype the Western executive or the Chinese business leader. Motorola`s Sanjay Jha or Berkshire Hathaway`sAjit Jain, one of those tipped as Warren Buffett`s successor, succeed due to talent and drive, not because they`re Indian. And bosses like Nooyi spend most of their formative career years outside the country. Is it that they may just happen to be Indian? As Ajay Banga notes, "You are who you are because of what you do, not the color of your skin."The data suggest Indians are scaling corporate heights. In a study of SP 500 companies, Egon Zehnder found more Indian CEOs than any other nationality except American. Indians lead seven companies; Canadians, four. Among the C-suite executives in the2009 FORTUNE 500 were two mainland Chinese, two North American Chinese and 13 Indians, according to a study by two professors from Wharton and China Europe International Business School. For multinationals, it makes good sense to have leaders experienced in working with expanding Asian markets. AndIndia is already the location of many of their operations. "If you look at companies like Pepsi or Hewlett-Packard or IBM, a huge chunk of their global workforce is sitting out in India," says Anshuman Das, a co-founder of CareerNet, a Bangalore executive-search company. "India and China are also the countries of future profits for the multinationals, so they may want their global leaders to come out of them." Competitive and complex, India has evolved from a poorly run, centrally controlled economy into the perfect petri dish in which to grow a 21st century CEO. "The Indians are the friendlyand familiar faces of Asia," says Ader. "They think in English, they`re used to multinationals in their country, they`re very adaptive, and they`re supremely confident." The subcontinent has been global for centuries, having endured, and absorbed, waves of foreign colonizers, from the Mughals to theBritish. Practiced traders and migrants, Indians have impressive transnational networks. "The earth is full of Indians," wrote Salman Rushdie. "We get everywhere." Unlike, say, a Swede or a German, an Indian executive is raised in a multiethnic, multifaith, multilingual society, one nearly as diverse as the modern global marketplace. Unlike Americans, they`re well versed in negotiating India`s byzantine bureaucracy, a key skill to have in emerging markets. And unlike the Chinese, they can handle the messiness of a litigious democracy. "In China, you want something done, you talk to a bureaucrat and a politician - it gets done," observes Ajay. "In India, if you talk to a bureaucrat or a politician, there are going to be 600 other people with their own points of view." There`s an old saw about Asian business cultures: "The Chinese roll out the red carpet; Indians roll out the red tape." Maybe that`s why Indian managers are good at managing it. They have cut their teeth in a country ranked 134th by the World Bank for ease of doing business. To be fair, it`s also the reason some of them left home. They`re practiced in the exasperating culture of local, state and national permits. "Tobuild a factory in China, a CEO will have to get two or three different permissions from various departments," observes Signe Spencer, a co-author of The Indian CEO, a 2007 study from the HayGroup consultancy. "An Indian CEO may have to get 80 different permissions from 80 different places." No wonder Indian executives spend much of their time networking and lobbying - tasks Western CEOs leave to their corporate public-affairs departments. India`s economic liberalization, which began in 1991, was another blessing for this generation of executives. It gave them exposure to a young and fast-growing consumer market. "Liberalization unleashed a level of competition that makes you stand on your toes," recalls Vindi. "We had to learn to compete with international players but also with very good, extremely fast local ones." In 1987, when Vindi was CEO of Hindustan Unilever, the company`s leading detergent, Surf, faced off against Nirma, a locally produced brand. "It didn`t cost 5% less, or 10% less," says Vindi, shaking his head. "It cost a third of our product. We had to make a product that was better, for the same price." Within 12 months, they had. Competition starts early in India, asstudents vie for admission to the state-funded Indian Institute of Technology and the Indian Institute of Management. The system produces a self-selecting and highly disciplined elite; there are tales of children starting to study at age 7 for the exam they take a decade later. When the current crop of CEOs came of age, it was typical for 300,000 applicants to vie for 2,000 places. "People in India think Harvard and MIT are second choices and an IIT is their first," says Spencer. (Ajay Banga, an IIM alum, just like his brother, disagrees: "I`d have given my right arm to go to a Harvard or MIT!") There`s a spartan quality to these institutions, including shabby buildings and tiny dorm rooms. Two years ago, 1,500 IIT faculty members went on a Gandhian fast to protest their low pay. But what the institutions lack in glamour they make up in prestige and a tight-knit global network. "They all still know each other`s test scores and class rank when they`re 60 years old!" says Spencer. Once they leave and begin climbing the ranks, Indian managers tend to look abroad - or to multinationals within their country - more than their Chinese peers do. "In China a lot of the senior executives are political appointees," says Ader. "You get much more credibility leading a Chinese organization. If I call a Chinese candidate and say, `Do you want to go on a board in the U.K. or U.S.?` they say, `Why would I?` If you call an Indian, they will." The HayGroup study on the Indian CEO found Indianleaders` networking to be particularly "bold and focused," with the intent of obtaining useful information. One of Indian managers` great advantages is their native disadvantage: they have learned their skills in a country with huge aspirations but an often faulty infrastructure. Ajay remembers hisfirst day at Citibank in Chennai, when he wondered what the banks of machines "big enough to power jet engines" did - preserve data in case of power cuts - and then found out that this was only the first line of defense. "I learned that not only do you need a backup, you need a backup to the backupto the backup," he says. "That`s not a bad way to think about management. You`ve got to have a Plan B and a Plan C, and they have to be somewhat robust." Indian managers suit tough times, accustomed as they are to making complex systems work, even with finite resources. For Indians, "navigating uncertainties is an art, not a source of complaint," says INSEAD`s dean, Dipak Jain. "We have the training to deal with complexities." Growing up in a nation where resources are often tight "forces you to blow through the constraints and find the answer," agrees Nikesh Arora, Google`s senior vice president and chief business officer. "You tend to take a look at the problem, argue about the constraints, argue about the boundaries and see how to solve it within those boundaries." Early in the 1980s, when Ajay Banga was first working at Nestle, he had the job of selling chocolate in India, where temperatures can hover above 38°C for months. Try selling Kit Kats in towns that don`t have electricity, let alone refrigeration. Banga ended up having to create a refrigerated supply chain - with specially designed carts for cooling the chocolate en route to villages - then installing generators to run the air conditioners to keep shop storage spaces cool. "And we were doing it having been schooled in the fact that `You will not compromise on the Nestle products or value,`" recalls Banga. "Think about that. Think about trying to live that dichotomy!" In Hindi, such adaptability using finite resources has a name: jugaad. Jugaad is the spirit behind Indian products like the $2,500 Nano car, designed to be assembled using chemical glues rather than expensive factory-based welding. It`s also what Vindi Banga employed when trying to figure out how to sell Unilever products to rural Indian women. Instead of spending on advertising, the company established the women as small-business operators, providing loans to buy Unilever products and resell them in their communities. The women got jobs, and Unilever got a new distribution channel, notes Banga. "These ladies became brand ambassadors, brand teachers and brand distributors - all in one." It is not surprising that Indian executives tend to pay particular attention to the lower-middle-class consumer and the so-called bottom billion, the poorest customers. After all, more Indians live on $2 or less a day than don`t. But attention to value pays dividends when profit margins - and pocketbooks - are shrinking. "In emerging markets, companies work very hard to get the value equation right," Vindi observes. That`s an ever more valuable skill in a climate where even wealthy consumers are looking for value. Another reason Indian executives are thriving in a world traumatized by the global meltdown: a sense that businesses need to do more than just make money. "When you talk to these top CEOs, there`s a sense that the corporation is embedded in society," says Harbir Singh, a Wharton professor and a co-author of The India Way. "Mostof the executives we surveyed said, `You cannot succeed if you don`t help society around you to have a better life.`" Research on top executives shows South Asians tend to be guided less by the bottom line than by a bigger goal. "They think about what will not only benefit them but the greater good," says Spencer. "When they make business decisions, they take that seriously into account. You interview an American CEO and it`s classic McKinsey strategic thinking: How do we make money in this market? But the Indians are showing us a level of business ethics that we don`t see in the West." Thoseethics may get tested as Indians wrestle with the demands of institutional shareholders in the large corporations they are now running. But the HayGroup`s leadership survey includes an inner-strength category, examining how morals and values affect leadership. The only groups that scored as high oninner strength as Indian CEOs did? Catholic nuns and monks.
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