By Dr. C. Srinivasan, Chairman/A.T. Kearney

Jim Clemmer, the Canadian management expert, has described passion as "a burning commitment to a cause". This study is born of such a consuming passion-the passion of the Business Today team to discover and share with its readership the secrets of success of India Inc.'s best managed companies, coupled with the passion of the A.T. Kearney team to leverage the firm's global leadership in this subject-our firm has over 75 years of global client experience. Having successfully used our methodology and built rich research knowledge across over 35 countries and multiple industries, through a 10-year longitudinal study of more than 10,000 companies, we were especially keen to unlock the mysteries of sustainable value-driven leadership among Indian companies.

The fundamental premise behind this study is a shared belief that "best managed" companies must be defined and viewed through the lens of the reader. Business Today's expert knowledge of its valued readers told us that while they tend to be primarily interested in the pure quantitative assessment of a company's financial fundamentals, they are also very curious about the qualitative aspects of what defines and gives a company its character. Strategic direction, calibre of leadership, customer focus, robustness of corporate governance processes, environmental and social friendliness are all issues that we investigated and questioned the leaders of corporate India on. We are confident that this attempt offers a holistic definition of "best managed" (incorporating both quantitative and qualitative parameters) and will distinguish our effort from similar studies that tend to focus solely on one or the other.

Our study reveals a microcosm of the diaspora of India Inc.: the ecstasy of its achievements, the agony of its stumbles, and its perplexing complexity, all in the face of a teasing mix of opportunity and adversity. Yet, many companies survive, thrive and lead the way in creating sustainable value for their stakeholders with customised, individualised recipes of management styles and actions. This, in a nutshell, is the story of what separates the wheat from the chaff: the eclectic combustion of financial performance and managerial excellence. Before coming to a conclusive decision, our findings were presented to, discussed and challenged by an expert panel of leaders spanning the full spectrum of industry, academia, management consulting and the media. The arguments were incisive and conclusive. While, holistically, Reliance Industries Limited emerged India's Best Managed Company, it must be understood that, in reality, we have 16 winners that display best management practices across several parameters and a time period covering the last five years.

We hope you will take home some of our learnings from this exercise in terms of what India's Best Managed Companies do differently-what makes these companies tick and perform better than their peers. Do consider spending some time with this offering- these lessons form the common fabric of a success recipe that, we believe, can be applied across all major corporate sectors.