Book Review - Navigating India, A $18 Trillion Business Opportunity

When I read a book titled “Navigating India – A $18 Trillion Opportunity”, I expect to be feeling positive and invigorated about India; at the very least, I expect to know a lot more about the why, what etc about India and its Business opportunities. Sadly, this is not the case in this book. Not that it isn’t well written – that it is, yet it does precious little justice to its title. There is nothing in the book that is inaccurate, and yet it is an unbroken chain of negative and, in some cases, irrelevant aspects regarding India – cultural observations that have no connection with Business per se, beyond a certain point

So much so, that I am at a loss to pen anything on this review; for I cannot say the content is inaccurate – it isn’t; most of it is very accurate and includes astute observations, data and analysis. Most of it is relevant – and yet, most of it is also very well known and understood. There is no value addition for the most part, it is like regurgitation of the same scenario – but with fresh data, facts, observations and a fresh approach. While it is relevant, how relevant it is to business and economics is debatable.

THE BOOK

The first chapter is a summary of the overall economic scenario of India, and does a good job of summarizing it, all said and done. It also includes the schemes of the Modi Government, though without any real analysis. It then abruptly changes track to using anecdotal evidence, abandoning for the most part the data driven approach espoused in the first chapter. The second chapter purports to be on Market, but is a series of demotivating examples of cases like the Satyam Fraud, Coke’s experiences – and it uses this highly negative demotivating approach throughout.

The third chapter is on our Democracy – giving a short summary of the GST, Taxation, FDI Policies, and a set of anecdotes on foreign policy and its relation to Business. The fourth chapter is on our Demographic Dividend, look at the the caste-education-religion factors in our country. The fifth chapter is on the ease of doing business in India, again almost purely anecdotal though with a small useful section on steps taken by the current Government. Problem is the excessive use of anecdotes, and the negative examples, which feature in this section.

The 6^th chapter contains segments on Intellectual Property, Contract enforcement, Law and order etc – again with limited relevance. The 7^th chapter is exclusively on corruption. The last chapter is a small short summary analysis of why India is set to get better. The difficulty is the overall lack of connecting arguments and proper detailing; all of these above is short and anecdotal, with a few supporting data sets here and there.

THE ANALYSIS

As I said above in the introduction section as well as in the Book Blurb section – the problem is not with the accuracy of the content; it is, most of it – along one side of the argument. It lists a series of pitfalls of doing business in India with anecdotal evidence- evidence of individuals, or companies that faced problems. It also digresses into areas that have at best a highly limited relevance to business, and is a listing of what to avoid while doing business in India.

While that is indeed important – it could have done a far better job even in this approach, had it gone into detailed analysis of the well known business failures of MNC companies – like the Kellogg’s example, which is a case study in business schools. In place of short anecdotes, like in Kelloggs example stated in the book, what was required was a detailed analysis of what went wrong. Other such examples could have been gone into – that looked at the overall business scenario; most of the content pertains to the regulatory or legal or related environment and the difficulty it poses to International business.

The lack of sufficient detailing and proper arguments in support lessens the learnings and the impact; thus, despite the correct facts used & a different approach, the impact is just not present. Overall, the tone become, in my opinion, slightly negative; maybe for other readers it will come across as different. Also, the inclusion of a few irrelevant aspects, in one or two chapters, does leave you wondering at the same, and feeling slightly disoriented.

If you are writing a book on a Business Opportunity in a country, or the prospects of growth for that country – it is vital that it should come across to the reader as to specifically what makes this country such an attractive proposition – as well as lay out the pitfalls. It should look not just at Democracy, Regulations, Corruption, Contracts, Laws, Demographic Dividend etc; the book should have looked at India as a Market – what makes it attractive; what makes a business succeed here in a sectoral analysis, cultural examples of success in consumer category, as well as in B2B / Core / Industrial category. This is does not do, which is a major shortcoming…