Its numbers may have taken a beating, courtesy temporary setbacks to both its generics and research plays, but that hasn't changed Dr Reddy's Laboratories desire to be a discovery-driven pharma major by 2010. Not surprisingly, then, the company believes in mistakes. "We give a lot of freedom (to the extent of tolerating mistakes and allowing people to learn from them) to our scientists and managers so that they can create an impact," says G.V. Prasad, CEO and Executive Vice Chairman, Dr. Reddy's. By 2008-10, he reckons, the company will be able to launch several new products, currently in its research pipeline, in the international market.

E-Serve International
Citi-slicker

It isn't merely its astounding growth rate (a CAGR of over 40 per cent over the past six years) that sets apart India's oldest business process outsourcing (BPO) firm from its peers. It is the systems that e-Serve, which delisted from the bourses on December 14, 2004, has inherited from parent Citigroup (it services the parent's operations in 36 countries) that do. These include best practices in operations, infrastructure, technology and human capital. "We have time-tested models for transition management and performance metrics management and have consistently set global benchmarks in these areas," says Rahul Singh, Managing Director and CEO, e-Serve.

Eicher Motors
Aspiring For Overdrive

The Indian auto market is booming and Eicher, a minnow with a 6 per cent share of the total commercial vehicles market, is growing faster still. "Our strategy is simple," gushes a visibly pleased S. Sandilya, Group Chairman, Eicher. "Bring new products to increase the overall market and thereby grow faster than industry." In addition to several planned launches in the light commercial vehicles segment, Eicher proposes to target the heavy vehicles segment as well. That should help, as should the fact that Eicher Motors is one of those companies that has consistently grown profitably.

Goodlass Nerolac Paints
Getting Soft

Goodlass Nerolac has always been a force to reckon with in the 'hard' industrial paints segment (it boasts a 65 per cent share in the automotive market, for instance). Now, the company is getting aggressive in the decorative segment too, and H.M. Bharuka, the company's Managing Director claims: "The new strategy of increasing share in this segment (from the existing 14 per cent) has already started yielding results." The strong emphasis the company places on understanding customer needs (of 180 technical people, 50 are on site, elaborates Bharuka) should help its cause, as should an ad-blitz featuring Amitabh Bachchan.

Gujarat Gas Company
Leveraging Service

B.S. Shantharaju, managing director, Gujarat Gas, believes his company is not "a commodity supplier" but a "service provider". Not surprisingly, Gujarat Gas focusses not on the price advantage of natural gas, but the convenience it offers, easy handling and storage, for instance, and guaranteed availability. "We have an array of options so that the customer can use what suits him," says Shantharaju, who is now seeking to concentrate more on the retail business (domestic usage, small industries, auto-CNG). Expectedly, Gujarat Gas sells 92 per cent of its output at market-determined prices and boasts profit margins around 30 per cent.

HDFC Bank
Balancing Growth And Risk

HDFC bank is the finest example of what a best-managed bank should achieve. high growth in revenues, high profitability, and very good asset quality (it has been, for two years running, #1 in the BT-KMPG study of India's best banks). The company has achieved this by concentrating on areas such as loan against shares and transactional banking. And to augment retail growth-the fastest growing segment-the bank is focussing on growing its reach. "We have been adding 100 branches for last two years and expect to do so for the next couple of years as well," says Aditya Puri, Managing Director, HDFC Bank.

ICICI Bank
Professional To The Core

Once there was ICICI, a better-run-than-most development financial institution. Today there is ICICI Bank, an aggressive universal bank. The transformation has been accompanied by growth, in retail, wholesale and transactional banking. So, how has this been possible? First, of course, it is the technological advantage that ICICI Bank has gained over its rivals, both domestic and foreign banks. Second, it is this professionally-managed bank's ability to attract, motivate and retain talent. "It is the sheer depth of talent that is working in our favour," says Kalpana Morparia, Deputy Managing Director, ICICI Bank.

Infosys Technologies
Honesty For All

Unlike other software majors, Infosys is a widely held company. For example, its promoters' holding is just 21.85 per cent, and that is split among six people. The stock market adores this company for a still better reason. "We respect Infosys' management for two important reasons: honesty in dealing with all stakeholders, shareholders, employees, customers and government, and competence in running the business," says Rajeev Thakkar, Head of Research at Parag Parikh Financial Advisory Services. With India's share of the global it services pie still low (around 10 per cent), this efficient management is expected to maintain its high growth in the future as well.

Larsen & Toubro
Core Is All

Having spun off and sold its cement business to the Aditya Birla group, L&T can now concentrate on what it does best, engineering and infrastructure development. And A.M. Naik, Chairman, L&T is aiming high. "Effective cost needs to come down-and not just in absolute terms; what we target is at least half a percentage point below than that of the competitors." That means L&T has to improve efficiency at every level, material costs, overheads, even labour costs. Then, it is also planning to exit from marginal businesses. "I can't reveal how many businesses will be sold or acquired," says Naik. "You will see the result of our rationalisation at the end of five years."

Ranbaxy Laboratories
A True Multinational

India's largest pharmaceutical company is already a global company. Overseas markets account for 78 per cent of its revenues; its products are sold in 100 countries; it already ranks among the top 10 generics companies in the world; and it boasts manufacturing facilities in seven countries. Now, to become a "true global pharma company", it is focussing on people. "We have to make sure that we have people, say, in the us (it contributes 40 per cent of our sales), who understand the Indian scenario and people in India who understands the us scenario," says Brian Tempest, CEO, Ranbaxy.

Satyam Computer
#1 Aspirations

Satyam computer may be the fourth largest software company in India, but it has not given up all hopes of being #1. Indeed, the company boasts a leadership position in some of the areas in which it operates, such as enterprise business solutions (it has over 3,000 business associates working on this business alone). With its customer-centric approach, reasons Chairman B. Ramalinga Raju, Satyam is well positioned to take advantage of the emerging market landscape. "A consistent track record of delivering sustained value to its customer base makes Satyam Computer the partner of choice for businesses the world over," says Raju.

Tata Power
Efficiency Equals Power

If people of south Mumbai consider power failure as possible headline news, the credit should go to Tata Power, the best power company in India. And its high technology based "islanding system" protects its customers from normal national grid failures by separating its system well in advance if there is any power overdraw by other service providers. The company is trying to replicate its Mumbai success (in customer satisfaction levels) in Delhi too. "I am personally monitoring customer satisfaction levels here and I could spend a whole day just talking about the kind of work we are doing in New Delhi," says Firdose Vandrevala, Managing Director, Tata Power.

Wipro
Not A One-man Show

Despite concerns expressed in some quarters-these largely rise from the fact that promoter Azim Premji holds 83.4 per cent-Wipro is not a one-man show. In fact, Wipro prides itself on its succession planning. At any point of time there are at least three candidates identified to fill a particular position not just at the senior level but even the mid level. The board has a clearly laid down succession planning process even for Premji's own position. "We have very good people working for us, but nobody is irreplaceable," says Premji. "We have had cultural continuity and we are able to plan ahead for all eventualities."