NAME: VENUGOPAL DHOOT AGE: 52 DESIGNATION: Group Chairman STATE: Videocon Group

The Indian multinational." that's not just a tag line for the Rs 14,000-crore Videocon Group's Venugopal Dhoot. It's an ambition that he is pursuing with a vengeance. In fact, he is already among the world's top 10 colour television manufacturers, but he's aiming higher-he wants his company to be among the world's top five. "Being global doesn't mean having a presence in x number of countries. Being global means reaching a critical scale and being counted among the big boys," says the man whose business interests range from consumer electronics to oil. And for the record, his business interests are spread across nine countries-Italy, Mexico, Oman, Poland, China, South Africa, Sudan, Jordan and, of course, India. His market share in the global CPT business: 30 per cent. Then, he also has interests in the oil sector and a presence in Australia, Japan and South Korea.

He has adopted the acquisition route to fulfil his global ambitions. Videocon acquired five consumer electronics businesses in the past one year; including French electronics major Thomson SA's CPT and CPT glass business in Italy, China, Poland and Mexico for around Rs 1,700 crore and Swedish consumer electronics company Electrolux's loss-making Indian operations. And now, he is all set to snap up another one-South Korean chaebol Daewoo's consumer electronics business. The grapevine says Dhoot is close to winning the deal, but the man is not spilling the beans. "Our bid has been shortlisted. The final decision is likely to be announced early next month," he says, and then gives it away, saying: "With this deal, we will have a truly global footprint and access to the us and European markets." His growth philosophy is simple, but effective. "We will continue to acquire small and loss-making ventures outside India and turn them around," says the man, who, with his brothers, parleyed his father's small sugar mill in Gangapur, Maharashtra, into the global empire it is now.