Bajaj Auto Ltd.

Though Bajaj was never new when it came to motorcycles, it could never really match up with numero uno Hero Honda. Right at the moment when the biking scene in India was taking shape, Bajaj came out with the KB100 RTZ and the four stroke 4S Champion, but could not play a conclusive inning as competition in the form of Hero Honda’s Splendor and Yamaha RX100 was just too hot to handle. Bajaj realized that in order to break the shackles of its scooter making image, the company will have to do some thing radically different. And radical it did! Bajaj, a company that was ubiquitously & globally known for its scooters, decided to discontinue manufacturing almost all of its scooter brands. But most importantly, it transformed itself into a niche segment leader, beating Hero Honda at its own game. Even though the executive segment is led by Hero Honda, the 150 cc plus premium segment became the domain of Bajaj. With the launch of Pulsar, Bajaj entrenched itself considerably well in the Indian bike market with sales touching almost 700,000 units annually. Hero Honda, despite launching the brilliant 223 cc Karizma, has still not been able to match Bajaj’s indigenously designed & produced Pulsar.

Ranbaxy

If a list of true Indian multinationals were to be compiled, pharma major Ranbaxy would undoubtedly be one of those that have done India proud in the global arena. Launched way back in 1961, today the company is ranked amongst the top ten generic pharma companies worldwide and has manufacturing operations in 8 countries with ground presence in 49 countries & products available in over 125 countries. Consider this – the company’s sales were valued at US $1.178 billion, out of which overseas markets accounted for 76% of global sales, the company’s largest market is USA, apart from robust operations in UK, France, Germany, Russia, India, Brazil and South Africa. At the same time, Japan, Italy, Spain and several other markets in the Asia Pacific are also being proactively targeted. “While Ranbaxy aggressively pursues its internationalization strategy, it focuses equally on growth through the enhancement of its market share in India,” the company statement reads. Ranbaxy aims at a turnover of $5 billion by the year 2012, and aspires to be among the top 5 global players in the generics space. Whoa! And the secret for its success – the company at a very early stage of its existence realised the importance for R&D and invested in the same; investments that are clearly paying off now. Since its first R&D centre in Gurgaon set up in 1994, today the company spends around 6% of its turnover on R&D. If you can think of another Indian company with that much attitude, tell us, and we’ll build the world a better mousetrap.

ICICI

As many a burgeoning bank attempts to lasso the cash cow of consumerism that runs rife, ICICI Bank is doing a better job than most at roping the elusive beast. Millions of Indians are discovering that living it up by swiping credit cards and cashing in on car loans isn’t such a bad thing at all. ICICI isn’t complaining either, and India’s largest private sector bank (with total assets worth a walloping Rs.2,513.89 billion) is chasing in on this growing trend to telling effect by focusing squarely on aggressive retail banking. With the rapid overhauling of the Indian economy, ICICI’s initiatives have seen them surge forth and not only emulate international biggies such as Citigroup and HSBC but also beat them at their original game, capturing the middle class retail market. Be it their innate desire to reach out to the hinterland (by instituting a rapidly swelling network of rural Internet kiosks for farmers to use teleconferencing to apply for micro-insurance), or a fanatic focus on building its ATM network across India, ICICI has beaten even India’s largest bank, the State Bank of India, in growth and innovative technology. ICICI’s makeover to an entrepreneurial outfit signals the onset of an epochal era for the Indian economy. Innovating internet banking, mobile banking, online bill payment systems and much more, ICICI has already established a 600 strong branch network within a decade. With their steadfast belief in promoting women entrepreneurs as heads of various business units, and with India’s retail-banking business expected to grow 16% a year over the next four years to $34 billion a year, ICICI is now making sure innovation becomes a way of life.

SBI

In the deluge of banks that started to sweep across the face of the nation, it was far too easy not to take notice of a ubiquitous government enterprise that had been perceived as a stodgy, fuddy-duddy institution. Being one of the oldest and largest banks the world over, it followed to reason that SBI inadvertently ended up losing touch with ‘generation next’. So how did the story end? Did SBI even try to bridge the virtually insurmountable gen-gap? The novel answer to this customary conundrum was as simple as it was brilliant, and enough to position them in this list of innovative corporations – and that was, conjure a campaign that doesn’t carp on the drudgery that banks normally evoke, and use the important ‘f’ word liberally... fun! In fact, Mediaedge:cia (SBI’s agency) have had their labour of love nominated for Best Media Innovation. SBI have also looked to give back to society as much as they get from it, best understood from their announcement of the SBI Social Card, a first-of-its-kind affinity card featuring 4 NGOs as beneficiaries on a single credit card. Another distinction notched up by this great grandfather of the Indian banking system is that it has the largest number of branches of any bank in India, a feat accomplished less by innovation and more by adopting a factory approach to its establishment and employing an assembly-line process to facilitate the rapid migration of branches. As the (once) plodding giant gets set, it surely seeks to gain a decisive edge over its rivals, and the most impressive tactical tool they have is also the oldest available to the corporate world: advertising!