'China 120 India 7': How Indian brands can make a global mark

Delivering the keynote on the first day of the Star FLOW festival was W Chan Kim, co-director of the INSEAD Blue Ocean Strategy Institute. 

 

The professor started his session by throwing down a challenge to Indian marketers are asked them why India only has seven brands in the 500 Global Best Brands, while China has 120.

 

The key answer to produce a global premier brand according to Kim was talent. 

 

He explained, "India doesn't have a lack of global talent. The world has seen great Indian leaders like Sundar Pichai (CEO, Google), Satya Nadella (CEO, Microsoft), Vinod Khosla (co-founder Sun Microsystems) and more. But yet, we see only seven of the top brands from India. Some people say diversity is good, some say it's bad. I don't know the right answer to that. But, I do know India could do better on a global scale. Change is very important. We have been talking about change and transformation for a long time. The issue is not only for Indians, but on a global scale."

 

Kim went on to explain about why companies have slow growth. He spoke about a research about how one can have a strong brand and achieve high growth. 

 

Two macro approaches to strategy

 

Market-competing (Red Ocean Strategy)	Market-creating (Blue Ocean Strategy)
Structure shapes strategy	Strategy shapes structure
Fight for existing demand	Create new demand
Attract existing customers	Attract non-customers
D or LC	D and LC
Segmentation	Desegmentation

A few examples of brand's that fell under the Blue Ocean strategy according to Kim were Apple, Google and Netflix. 

 

Referring to the table, Kim urged marketers to look at the right side for growth. According to his research, companies that looked at the Blue Ocean Strategy had a higher profit of 61 per cent compared to those following the Red Ocean Strategy. 

 

“Brands that follow the Red Ocean Strategy move from competing to creating. For a successful Blue Ocean, one needs a roadmap with market-creating tools and humanness in the process.” 

 

He ended his talk by laying down the five-stop process of the ‘Blue Ocean Shift’.

 

1: Get started.

2: Understand where you are now.

3: Imagine where you could be.

4: Find how you get there.

5: Make your move.