Overview

In recent years the list of multinationals that have launched or are launching ambitious R&D programs in India includes Intel, Cisco, General Electric, Microsoft, General Motors, Astra Zeneca, Motorola, Texas Instruments and IBM.

Why all this interest and activity? India represents huge opportunities for Western firms with its large talent pool, increasing innovation capability and rapidly expanding economy. Developing and implementing a successful R&D program in India requires an accurate and pragmatic understanding of both the risks and rewards.

Session Leaders

Gunjan Bagla

Managing Director
Amritt Ventures, Inc.

Gunjan Bagla is Managing Director of Amritt Ventures, Inc, an advisory service facilitating technology trade between the United States and India. He provides guidance in entering new markets, global strategy execution, finding and managing vendor partners, and establishing overseas offices. Mr. Bagla has managed teams sourcing technical products and services from China, India, Japan, Singapore, and Thailand. He began his career as an engineer for Larsen & Toubro, a prominent Indian industrial firm, sourcing French machined components. Mr. Bagla came to the U.S. and later worked as director of program management for Tandon Computer. He was born and raised in India and currently lives in the United States while travelling to India frequently.

He is the author of Doing Business in 21st Century India - How to Profit Today from Tomorrow's Most Exciting Market due for release by Warner/Grand Central Publishing on July 31, 2008. Mr. Bagla serves as co-chairperson of the global sourcing special interest group of The Indus Entrepreneur (TiE), a business association including Western and Indian organizations, of which he is also a Charter Member. Mr. Bagla earned his MBA with honors from Southern Illinois University. He received his bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering from the world-famous Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) in Kanpur, Mr. Bagla can be reached via www.amritt.com or by calling 1 (562) 402-4435.

What you will learn

This briefing focuses on avoiding the 10 most common mistakes that Western firms make in India.

1. Choosing the wrong entry strategy, or partner.
2. Enduring basis for Agreement is unclear or misunderstood by one party; getting the lawyers involved too early.
3. Not understanding how to motivate and/or train partners/employees.
4. Executive team has pre-conceived notion of what will succeed without understanding the changing business environment.
5. Time horizons for execution and ROI are unrealistic.
6. Not doing enough homework, or worse doing the wrong homework.
7. Ignoring cross-cultural communication issues.
8. Panic at the first sign of trouble.
9. Awarding R&D work based on lowest quoted price.
10. Believing the good (or bad) news about India in the popular media.

To find out how to avoid and/or correct these mistakes, plan on joining this 90 minute audio session led by Gunjan Bagla on Thursday, March 6, from 1-2:30 pm ET.

Invite your whole team to join you - the fee is the same as long as you are on one line, just put it on speakerphone!