India Inc seems to be buzzing with M&A activities these days. But what's heartening to learn (and a welcome deviation) is that the flag bearers of this global march today are not just the IT and pharma firms, but companies across sectors, particularly manufacturing.

With the economy growing at a healthy 8 per cent rate and companies making spectacular profits in the domestic market, venturing on the global path has become the next logical step for most Indian firms. But to assume that the road ahead after acquiring foreign firms or setting up greenfield ventures will be smoother, will be similar to presuming that life's worries shall end after marriage.

As regards the Asian Paints global experience, our strategy was clear-enter fast growing emerging markets growing at a rate of 8-10 per cent as opposed to developed markets expanding at much smaller rates. We identified acquisitions as the preferred mode of market entry, because it gave us a brand, distribution network, manufacturing facility and people. Acquisitions also gave us size and in some cases-a readymade platform to scale up.

From 1999 to 2003, we acquired quite a handful of global firms, right from Delmege Forsyth & Co. in Sri Lanka to SCIB Chemicals in Egypt to Berger International in Singapore, an acquisition which gave us rights to the brand in over 70 countries. When we look back in retrospect, we can say that the acquisitions were the easy part. Getting a grip on the myriad operations of these firms, some of which were spread across continents, was the tougher challenge.

One of our most essential learnings was realising the importance of local knowledge. You cannot build your brand from 30 feet above the ground. We might have been leaders of the Indian paint market, but when we went abroad we realised that it was a whole new ball game; the market dynamics were all together different. We had to align our products and customer offerings to cater to each individual market. Speed is also critical element here; the sooner you understand your overseas customer, the faster you will succeed in these markets.

Along with local understanding, comes the core issue of localisation of talent and the need to develop a strong local cadre. A local workforce brings with it a better understanding of the market, operating environment and consumer preferences. The greatest challenge for Indian MNCs lies in the area of attracting and acquiring local talent for their overseas ventures. Size is another critical factor. As Indian companies globalise, they have to acquire size and market shares to stay afloat. Critical size helps you spread your fixed costs. At the same time, one must always be prepared for making course correction on the way. We exited out of our ventures in Mauritius and Malta because after operating for a while, we found out that the growth of the paint market as well as the economy was stagnating. So, we took our call and I feel companies should always be prepared to make such decisions. The process of integration follows an acquisition; but what counts in today's age is the speed of integration and how fast you are able to share organisational best practices within different units. One of the areas, where we have seen the benefits of integration has been in the region of facilitating free flow of information across companies and across functions; be it IT, supply chain or technology. But along with technology and intellectual integration, emotional integration is also critical, because in the end, you need to realise that while there are brands, there are also customers and there are employees.

For our international operations, we accomplished the process of clearing apprehensions about acquisitions through our various connect initiatives, where communication played a key role, followed by effective action. We are now implementing systems and processes to make these operations as efficient as any world class entity. We have implemented ERP across our units to make the transaction process more robust. We have flown in people on special assignments, wherever any unit had any concern area; be it pertaining to supply chain, marketing or any other function.

We have recently rolled out a mega operational efficiency initiative which focuses on issues like productivity, safety, environment, reducing factory level losses, planning and control systems. So, the message is clear-you should be constantly adding value to your acquired operations.

The international fraternity is slowly realising that Indian firms are credit-worthy and can successfully manage global assets. The more we start improving the prospects of acquired global firms through performance, the sooner India Inc. will emerge as a global force to reckon with.