NAME: MALVINDER SINGH AGE: 33 DESIGNATION: CEO & MD STATE: Ranbaxy Labs

He is yet another entrepreneur who wants to make it big outside India. "we want to be among the world's top five generic drug firms. And we should get there by 2012," gushes Malvinder Singh. Ranbaxy is already among the top 10 generics firms in the world. So what's he doing to get there? To start with, he's shopping for companies across the globe.

Ranbaxy acquired GlaxoSmithKline's (GSK's) generic business unit, Mundogen, in Spain last week for an undisclosed amount. This was its fifth big acquisition in the last five months. On March 30, this year, it bought Belgium's seventh largest generic company, Ethimed, for about $50 million (Rs 225 crore then). Just a day before that, it had closed a deal with one of Romania's largest independent generics company Terapia, for $324 million (Rs 1,522.8 crore). Two days before that, it had bought GSK's unbranded generic business in Italy for an undisclosed amount. And on March 21, Ranbaxy had acquired the rights to us-based Senetek's auto-injector device as well as the company's assets.

The objective of these acquisitions, says Singh, is to strengthen the company's base in the CIS and the European market. The former is the fastest growing and latter, at around $15 billion (Rs 70,500 crore), the second largest generics market after the US. "The results of these acquisitions will soon show on our balance sheet," says Singh. But he quickly clarifies that inorganic growth is not the only way his company expects to achieve its growth targets. Ranbaxy has set itself a goal of $2 billion (Rs 9,400 crore) in revenues by 2007; total revenues in December 2005 were $1.2 billion (Rs 5,640 crore). What's his management style like? "A free atmosphere is essential to unleash the capabilities of team members. So I delegate responsibilities to my team members, create an enabling atmosphere and give them space to work." At the core of all these endeavours, he says, is the commitment to create value for shareholders. "I am an entrepreneur at heart and value-creation is the ultimate objective of any true-blue entrepreneur," he says.