New Delhi: Lord Kumar Bhattacharyya has spent at least 30 years advising companies on their manufacturing processes. Warwick Manufacturing Group (WMG), which he founded in 1980, has built a formidable reputation among companies and governments in Europe and Asia.
On a recent visit to India, Lord Bhattacharyya addressed chief executives at a Confederation of Indian Industry forum and pointed out how the gap between India and China is widening rather rapidly.
Technology focus: Lord Kumar Bhattacharyya says that while the slowdown and the resulting credit crunch have caused several problems, the upside is that companies have become more design-oriented. Rajkumar / Mint
He spoke to
Mint about how the downturn has affected manufacturing and the significant innovations that have taken place as a result of it. Edited excerpts:
The ongoing slowdown has resulted in a lot of manufacturing being hit. What are the changes that companies have made to tide over this downturn? What are the smart innovations they’ve made?
One of the big things is that although there have been a lot of problems because of the credit crunch, there’s a tremendous amount of opportunities as well. The whole area of low carbon is a huge area in the world, then, new industries are setting up, new types of technologies are coming on stream. It will be much more science and technology oriented.
When (US President Barack) Obama came to power, he said that the only way the Americans can come back again is by having the ecology of innovation in science and technology. Those were his famous words. So when he came, the first thing he did was to empower science and technology organizations to bring out new products and bring America back again to the forefront. Now, he might have articulated it, but most people are thinking about it anyway.
That’s one. Then, there are many things—by fiscal measures, by deregulation, a country can become more competitive. Just look at China, their economy is huge. A lot of my Chinese ex-students are billionaires.
What are the major innovations that have taken place as a result of the slowdown?
The major innovation that has taken place is that companies have become far, far more design-oriented because competition (has gone up). Take a simple thing like a car. Everybody in the world is making a car. How do you survive? Companies have realized that you cannot survive only on the basis of low-cost manufacture any more. You have to have certain things in a car that make it attractive, and people are prepared to pay. And that’s where the major changes have taken place.
There are only two or three things that companies can do. They can...improve their technology and make themselves more competitive that way. By and large, companies do not have any major slush in them any more. Over a period of 10-15 years, they’ve become so competitive in that area, it is now entirely technology-driven.