Sunil K Alagh: ‘focus on requirements of customers’

By Ramesh Mathew/Staff Reporter

Entrepreneurs need to concentrate more on effectively managing cash flows, rather than making huge profit margins at a time when the global economy is struggling to tide over the current financial turmoil, said veteran Indian management professional Sunil Kumar Alagh.
Alagh, who is in Doha to participate in the 10th anniversary celebrations of the Qatar Indian Management Association told Gulf Times yesterday that businessmen need to be more practical while taking decisions to achieve success when the economy is facing a grim future.
The former CEO of Britannia Limited, India’s widely acclaimed food company said, “If one asks for an effective solution to overcome the ongoing economic perils, pundits may come up with numerous explanations that may in all probability be only academically possible and practically difficult.”
“Never before has the world markets experienced such a huge cash crunch. So companies will do well if they sold products for cash at lower margins than waiting to market them at credit and earn huge profits later,” said the globe-trotting Alagh, who is a much sought after management consultant.
Entrepreneurs also need to look at customers’ actual requirements while launching, rebranding or reintroducing a product. “One of the best examples for such rebranding is Volkswagen, which has made a big turnaround in recent times with the introduction of an array of innovative vehicles against their traditional and conventional models,” said the management expert.  Another major success story is the entry of iPod, he said. Such success stories, he said, showed the relevance of one’s product in contemporary times.
Talking about economic developments with a global perspective, the management guru said there is nothing as a “world of nations” any longer. “For all practical purposes, economies all over are region-centered and each country is known by the region where it is positioned,” he said.
The top management consultant said unlike what it used to be, economic comparisons could no longer be made between the West and the Rest. “Rather it’s a race for economic supremacy where an aggressive and fast growing South is positioned against North which used to be the dominant player,” he said. At a time when managers need to demonstrate their abilities, they need to go by the economic fortunes of those countries which have showed more accountability in their governance. “This is where countries such as Qatar and China really matter,” he said.
Alagh also felt that both too much of democracy and too much of dictatorship could spell doom to an economy. “We have examples of Libya and other places where autocrats have ruined the growth of their countries and we also have examples of countries like India where too much of democracy is causing considerable delay in decision-making at different levels,” he said.     
The southern economies such as Brazil, India, China, South Africa, Malaysia and Indonesia are among those who really matter in global business presently, said Alagh.
The management consultant also made an appeal to politicians all over, especially in  countries where the economy is in shambles after having shown good results at one stage. “Let them impart better lessons to their people, rather than informing them on what is happening all over. There is a big difference between educating and informing people”
Alagh feels it is easy for many politicians and so-called social activists to make issues out of absolutely nothing in those places where nothing is really happening. “Compare this situation with the developments happening in countries like Qatar, where the government has demonstrated its commitment to improve the living standards of its people, without postponing it for tomorrow,” said Alagh. “I doubt if any other country in the region has prospered in recent years like the way this nation has come up.”

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