Corporate India boasts of some of the most stunning success stories. While stalwarts from the brick-n-mortar era such as the Tatas and the Birlas have become legends on their own merit, the post-liberalisation era witnessed the emergence of new age entrepreneurs who would take the world by storm. Most Indians are familiar with the remarkable life story of JRD Tata, who joined Tata Steel at the young age of 21 years, and rose to become the Group Chairman at the age of 34.

With their runaway success in their respective businesses, which are being run from the country, they have made the world sit up and take note of India as a modern, influential nation. Today, personalities like Narayana Murthy and Azim Premji have become role models for the rest of the world. Not just IT firms, other companies have also posted progressive growth rates to become globally competitive. For example, Tata Steel and NALCO are the lowest cost manufacturers of steel and aluminium in the world. Moser Baer is one of the top three manufacturers of CD ROMs in the world.

Bharat Forge is one of the leading suppliers to auto giants, so are Ford, General Motors, and Toyota. And India's Hero Honda is the world's largest motorcycle manufacturer. India as a country has a diversified and large industrial base. Growth rate of the industry in 2003-04 was 6.9 per cent and manufacturing registered a growth of 7.2 per cent. Most of the companies have been able to generate the funds from their own operations.

The areas whose output is being scaled up are automobiles, auto parts, metals, chemicals, pharmaceuticals and electronics. What make these business magnets tick? On scrutiny, it can be noticed that they'll have some common traits, such as flexibility, agility, creativity, innovativeness, fluidity, futuristic visioning, clear communication, technology-savvy, sensitivity to human values and highly ethical business practices.

The industrial economy of any country depends upon the role and performance of corporate leaders. Be it sustained growth of national income, balancing of international trade or payments, meeting the foreign exchange requirements or mitigating national resource disadvantage, the country banks upon them to attend to such national tasks and challenges. They are the ultimate deliverers, as neither the government nor the bureaucracy can do it.

It is said that nothing succeeds like success. But with the changing times, the dimension of success has also undergone tremendous changes. Today being successful would mean being innovative, positive thinking, confident and trend-setting. This holds true in today's world where new products and newer strategies have become an absolute necessity in order to thrive  in business.