The genetic code of the AV Birla group company has changed in the last 10 years with 70% of the company’s workforce under the age of 40 years. The group has become a trans-Atlantic and multi cultural entity, said AV Birla group chairman Kumar Mangalam Birla. He was giving his inaugural address at the 31st AIMA - Naval Tata National Management Convention. The topic for the two-day seminar was "Transformation through the people, For the people." Mr Birla said that the process of transformation is mostly about leadership.

"The first lesson for us has been that the process of change is perhaps 90% about leadership and 10% about managing," he said. Another point which Mr Birla called as a critical area in any change process is that of communication. "The process of transformation is about communication, communication and more communication. In the case of an organisation going through the pangs of change, I do not believe that you can ever over-communicate.

Looking back, however, several instances do come to my mind, when in retrospect, I think we could have communicated more, better and faster," he said Mr Birla also spoke of the role different people play in the process of change. "While the high performers are sharply in focus, what is equally important is to focus on that bulk of the organisation who are dismissively referred as stayers. These are the people who make the day-to-day, month-to-month, quarter-to-quarter things happen. Drawing a parallel," he said.

He added that just as 70% of the human body is made up of water, 70% of any organisation is made up of people who follow the rules and who keep the organisation moving ahead at a steady pace. Mphasis CEO & chairman Jerry Rao said that Indian corporates have huge potential and six of the top 10 multinational companies can be Indians by the year 2014. "We will have companies in the league of Honda and IBM," Mr Rao said. He sees opportunity for IT and pharma companies in this context and some are already moving in that direction.

Mumbai-based management consultant Sunil Alagh sees international companies emerging out of India, rather than MNCs. For a start, Mr Alagh finds regional Indian food companies growing faster than their MNC counterparts and moving towards becoming national players. Indians have solutions but fail to implement them many times, said Tata Sons director JJ Irani while speaking at the convention. Indians have one of the finest minds in the world, but there is a need to change the mindset. "Apart from the conventional financial bottomline, companies also need to pay attention to environmental and social bottomlines." added Mr Irani.

While talking about the art of real world real time strategising, Cadbury India managing director Bharat Puri took up the case study of the turnaround of Cadbury brand in India after the worm infestation controversy last year. He added that strategy is all about the choices that one makes and one cannot wait for eternity for all obstacles to get cleared, before getting into action. Talking further on the aspect of changing mindsets, from a leader’s perspective, Boston Consulting Group chairman Arun Maira said: "Society, government and corporates are the three most important stakeholders who need to work in tandem for the common good."