You Entered India. Are You Positioned to Expand?

You made the leap. Your India office is up, the manufacturing line is humming, and local teams are in place. On paper, the foundations are strong. But somehow, growth is underwhelming. The traction you expected hasn’t come, and returns aren’t keeping pace with the investment.

Sound familiar?

At MindStep Consultancy, we see this story unfold often. Global companies enter India with the best intentions and serious capital, yet struggle to translate that into sustainable success. Why?

Because what worked elsewhere may not work in India.

The India Assumption Trap

India is a market of contradictions:
🌏 The world’s most populous country, yet highly fragmented
💰 A booming middle class, yet deeply price-sensitive
🏗️ One of the fastest-growing economies, yet layered in legacy systems
👩‍💻 A tech-forward society, yet deeply shaped by local cultures and habits

Between 2014 and 2021, over 2,700 foreign companies shut down operations in India (McKinsey). Many made big bets—but not always the right ones.

The assumption that India can be treated as an extension of global strategy is a costly one.

What the Ford vs. Hyundai Story Teaches Us

Take the example of Ford and Hyundai, both of whom entered India with significant investment and ambition.

🔻 Ford applied its global product strategy without recalibrating for Indian consumer preferences. Despite being in the world’s fifth-largest car market, it eventually exited India after a $2 billion restructuring hit.

✅ Hyundai, on the other hand, deeply studied the Indian market and designed vehicles that matched Indian conditions, price points, and aesthetics. Today, it’s the second-largest automobile company in India.

As outlined in this Forbes article, Hyundai succeeded because it placed customer needs over global playbooks.

This is the difference between presence and performance.

The Hard Truth: Investment ≠ Expansion

Even with favourable macro trends like

• $1.8 trillion in infrastructure spending by 2025
• Over 40% of global digital transactions
• A young, educated workforce driving innovation

Success in India remains elusive for many.

Why?

Because winning here requires more than setting up operations. It demands a fundamental strategic transformation—a new way of thinking about product-market fit, leadership, execution, and long-term agility.

The Three Pillars of Sustainable Success in India

✅ Pillar 1: Strategic Positioning – Customer-First, Need-Gap Based

Companies that thrive in India rethink their offerings from the ground up. They don’t just localize; they reimagine their products and services to align with India’s diverse and demanding customer base.

• Conduct deep market research across the customer base.
• Identify the need gaps across geographies, languages, and price points
• Build India-specific product variants based on customer needs and operational nuances. 

📌 Case in point: Cummins India’s strategic approach to product localization has been instrumental in its success. The company developed modular, fuel-efficient generator sets specifically for Indian telecom towers, addressing the critical local need for reliable backup power in areas with erratic grid supply and harsh climatic conditions. This customer-centric innovation has enabled Cummins to capture significant market share in India's infrastructure sector, demonstrating how understanding and addressing specific local requirements can drive substantial business growth.

✅ Pillar 2: Building and Structuring the Right Team

Leadership quality is often the hidden lever in India's success stories. Many multinationals struggle because their leadership teams lack local understanding or are too dependent on HQ-driven mandates.

• Hire or coach local leaders with global exposure
• Build leadership depth, not just seniority
• Enable autonomy in decision-making to respond quickly to Indian market dynamics

📌 As highlighted in the Odgers Berndtson whitepaper, cultural misalignment and expat short-termism are common points of failure.

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Siemens India attributes part of its growth—an 18% increase in annual sales—to empowering strong local leadership, which allowed it to respond faster to public sector opportunities and tailor solutions to India’s infrastructure challenges.

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💡 MindStep POV: Building long-term success in India requires more than filling leadership roles—it requires structuring your business to enable empowered local leadership. Your India team must have the autonomy to innovate, make customer-centric decisions, and respond with speed, while your global team retains clear oversight and alignment.

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We help clients position India expansion as a true growth opportunity, not a cost-saving extension or resource reallocation. This distinction is crucial in getting buy-in from international teams and setting up your India business as a fully integrated, future-ready arm of your global operations.

✅ Pillar 3: Executional Capabilities Designed for India

India’s operating environment is unlike any other. From navigating regulatory hurdles to managing fragmented supply chains, success depends on building systems resilient during unpredictability.

• Localize your supply chain to reduce delays and cost leakages
• Plan for regulatory delays and infrastructure bottlenecks

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📌 Case in point: Bosch Ltd has systematically increased localization across its product portfolio, achieving 70-75% localization for established products like BS 4, while reaching 85-90% for specific product lines. In the last year alone, Bosch localized critical components including injectors, power tools, and spark plugs. This strategic focus on supply chain localization has not only reduced dependency on imports but also contributed to a 14% increase in net profit to ₹466 crore in Q1FY25, demonstrating how operational localization directly translates to financial performance. 

How MindStep Consultancy Helps You Activate These Pillars

At MindStep Consultancy, we specialize in helping B2B industrial enterprises turn market entry into market leadership. Our team brings decades of hands-on experience scaling global businesses in India.

We partner with companies to build strategies tailored to your business, your sector, and your goals.

Here's how we do it:

🔍 Current State Assessment

• Audit operations, strategy alignment, and leadership bandwidth
• Identify hidden barriers to growth

🎯 Opportunity Identification

• Conduct deep market studies and VOC research to identify market needs
• Define strategic positioning of the business grounded in data

🧭 Transformation Blueprint

• Redesign Go to market strategies
• Reorganize teams and reporting structures
• Equip teams with execution roadmaps

🚀 Execution Support

• Hire, mentor, or coach your India leadership team
• Enable fast, data-led course correction
• Provide regular strategic reviews with measurable KPIs

📌 Our promise: Customised solutions, Practical insights, simple solutions, and results you can measure.

India Is a Long Game—Play It Right

With its demographic dividend, digital maturity, and economic scale, India remains one of the world’s most promising markets. But it's not plug-and-play.

Your success depends on your willingness to transform, not just enter.

If you're ready to go beyond investment and build a strategy that works for India expansion, let’s talk.

📩 sales@mindstepconsultancy.com
🌐 www.mindstepconsultancy.com

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