What would be your top three tips to Indian CEOs to achieve profitable growth, resilient execution, and capital-smart strategy?
First, innovate for India’s mass market and then take those innovations to the world. If you can win in India, you can win anywhere.
Second, double down on manufacturing. India cannot grow on services alone. CEOs must invest in operational excellence, supply chain resilience, and globally competitive plants that create both employment and export strength.
Third, invest aggressively in data and AI not as a side project, but as a core value engine. Companies that embed AI into pricing, operations, R&D, and customer engagement will unlock new revenue streams while becoming far more capital efficient.
In this current environment of uncertainty, what are the main strategies that CEOs should adopt to survive?
Forget ChatGPT. Focus on FactoryGPT.
India’s opportunity is not in building consumer AI tools, it is in leading the world in Industry Foundation Models. We should build AI systems trained on manufacturing data, supply chains, energy systems, logistics, and industrial processes. That is where durable advantage lies.
CEOs must regionalise supply chains, reduce overdependence on any single geography, and build digital visibility across operations.
Finally, treat uncertainty as strategy, not noise. The winners will be those who combine geopolitical awareness with technological ambition.
India needs to grow manufacturing if it is to generate more jobs and growth. What advice do you have for CEOs of Indian manufacturing companies on how to revive their companies?
The future belongs to those who fuse the physical with the digital.
Manufacturers must stop thinking of themselves as factory operators and start thinking of themselves as data-driven value creators.
Every machine should generate data. Every product should have a digital layer. Every process should be optimised through analytics.
Fusion Leadership means integrating hardware, software, and intelligence into a single strategy.
Smart factories, predictive maintenance, digital twins, AI-enabled quality control, and connected products are not buzzwords. They are the foundation of competitiveness.
Those who master this fusion will move from low-margin manufacturing to high-value solutions. Those who do not will be trapped in commodity competition.
