On the parameters in assessing the global winner
Global scale is important. Today, we have a presence and manufacturing operations in 10 countries across 4 continents. Currently, about 25 per cent of our turnover will come from overseas operations. We recently did an IPO on the Australian stock exchange for one of our companies there.
Further, we are already there on the global pecking order in a number of industries that we operate in and we will try to build upon that.
On the direction of transformation in the group in recent times
The geographies that we operate in have undergone radical changes. Second, there has been a sea change in the profile of our people in the group.
The average age of the people has come down. Finally, we have gone in for inorganic growth rather than organic in recent years.
On whether conglomerates can be entrepreneurial
I think conglomerates are very entrepreneurial. They are so large that you have to give the running of the group to professionals. Every business has a clear strategy.
On the Aditya Birla group's vision
Our aspiration is to be a Fortune 500 company by 2010. We now have a group turnover of about $8 billion. Today, we may be there on the Fortune 500 scales from a profit perspective but not on the revenue side.
