Mr. S Sridhar at International Management Institute (IMI), New Delhi for Silver Jubilee Lecture Series

Indian Multinationals: Challenges and Prospects:

Mr. S Sridhar, Chairman and Managing Director, National Housing Bank, had students spellbound in his hour long lecture on Indian Multinationals under the aegis of the Silver Jubilee Lecture Series at the International Management Institute, New Delhi. Mr. Sridhar was Executive Director of the EXIM Bank before taking up his current assignment, and his practical knowledge acquired during the time he provided finance to many Indian companies venturing outside was conspicuous, especially when the students asked questions relating to financing acquisitions abroad.

While there are no strait jacket strategies for success and every case has to be judged on merit, Mr Sridhar spoke of top management commitment, consummate professionalism low leveraged financing and ability to work and adapt in a cross cultural environment as being among the success factors that cut across all overseas ventures. While developing a framework for overseas investment, Mr Sridhar provided examples of market seeking, resource seeking and efficiency seeking investments abroad. The Bharat Forge, Sundaram Fasteners, Ranbaxy, ONGC and Asian Paints stories were elegantly woven into the talk and provided students with a basis of analyzing other overseas ventures of Indian Companies of which there are surely going to be many more in the days to come.

The Silver Jubilee lecture series of IMI that will continue until the end of this year has had eminent speakers. Among the speakers who have already participated are Swami Bhodananda Saraswathy, Dr. Durval De Noronha Goyos Jr, Mr. Jagdish Sheth, and Mr. D.N. Ghosh and Mr. Vinod Dhall.