Maharajas ruled long before Viceroys did. That's the simple reply Indian companies must give to foreign companies that resist an Indian takeover on the grounds that Indian ownership will lower the brand image. Orient-Express Hotels, a global luxury hotel chain, has rejected Tata's offer of talks towards a friendly takeover, saying that any association of its brands and hotels with a predominantly domestic Indian hotel chain will hurt its brand image and ability to charge premium rates. This is close to racism, barely camouflaged in the language of branding. And it is only one of many examples. The US association of car dealers said recently that the brand image of Jaguar and Land Rover, two premium brands being sold by Ford, would be affected if the brands were sold to either of the Indian bidders (Tata and Mahindra) rather than One Equity Partners, a private-equity company. Last year, another Indian entrepreneur Vijay Mallya bid for the French champagne company, Tattinger, was turned down on the ground that the French cachet of the brand would be hurt by non-French ownership. But the days of white supremacy are disappearing rapidly, and white brand value with it. When Arab financiers are needed to rescue Citigroup, notions of white cachet seem ludicrous. After the subprime mortgage fiasco, Citibank has turned to Vikram Pandit as its new CEO, to refurbish its image. So, an Indian name is actually rescuing a tarnished Citigroup brand. The turning point historically was surely the takeover of Arcelor by Lakshmi Mittal last year. Guy Dolle, the Arcelor CEO at the time, sought to disparage Mittal's takeover bid by saying that Arcelor produced perfume whereas Mittal Steel merely produced eau de cologne. But this supposedly suave put-down fell flat. Shareholders could see that Mittal's track record in building shareholder value was extremely good, and voted him in, however the company's share price skyrocketed after the takeover.
and yet 90% of India's population live in disgusting poverty and ignorance, and Indian brides are stilled killed by their husbands for their dowery's. Lets not even get started on the caste system. Yeah India is really something to shout about. What a wonderful PR story for any company to embrace. Don't let me stop you. Carry on....
Indian pride, I have heard it before..... Let's just say that India has a long way to go, looong way. Just because a couple of guys got couple drachmas together and are trying to buy one name or another does not make a country prosperous. There is plenty that need to be fixed before India can move on. I have never been to India but from what I have heard and seen, there is a lot of work ahead.
Well I don't mean to be funny in the sense of Ha ha funny. I think the post raises serious questions. In my opinion, what limits India today, is its past and present social policies and its continuing caste system. If I were head of a large corporation, I would want nothing to do with the continent until I saw some improvement in human conditions, in education for ALL the population, and significant changes to the legal system. I have been to the country by the way, although I don't think that is necessary to offer a valid opinion. Steve
we have a societal caste system here India is better because they have it out in the in open. No wasteful government programs propping up non performing members of society.
Thank you sir or madam for proving my point. We wouldn't want to waste resources on those "non-performing" members of society would we? What then shall we do with all that human refuse? Whatever you decide, but please be efficient about it.... Perhaps you could start a business harvesting the organs of "non-performing members of Indian society" and sell them on the open market for medical research or transplant. That would be exceedingly efficient don't you think? Pardon me, but it looks like the most insidious form of racism comes from inside India rather than outside. Lovely hearing from you. Goodnight
The biggest problem facing India is its unrelenting population pressure. India is drowning in a sea of humanity. Have you ever seen a can of worms? You feel like one of the worms, constantly gasping for any bit of fresh air. The environment of India is not going to be able to support an exponentially growth in Indian population. It's biology 101. Unless India does something drastic about its population, India's future is dim.
I understand that English probably isn't your first language, but did I understand this correctly? You are saying that the caste system in India is desirable? You're saying that from the point of view of economic output, it is desirable to have hundreds of millions of people systemically marginalized, as opposed to increasing their personal productivity? Also, with regard to 'government propping up non-performing members', it is my understanding that there is a quota system in place for Indian government jobs, which stipulates that members of the lower castes must comprise xx percentage of the work force. I believe this is the case in some of the southern Indian provinces at least. I could be wrong but that is my understanding. I agree with the comment above that India has to get its population growth under control. This is obviously much harder to do in poor rural populations.