Indian entrepreneurs are reining in their wanderlust for globalisation and making more selective bets. In the process, they are rediscovering their home market too
Sanjay Reddy shudders as he remembers the nine months of competitive madness. The GVK Reddy group scion recalls the media frenzy sometime in 2007, when arch rival GMR group won the bid for expanding and managing a secondary airport near Istanbul. Stock market analysts, who often compared the two groups, wanted to know if GVK had a matching global strategy. GMR’s share price had zoomed. And as the head of new business development, 42-year-old Reddy was feeling the heat.
He quickly formed a core team to evaluate transactions in infrastructure all around the world. “We literally combed the world,” he says. GVK chased projects in Russia, Prague, Mexico, Singapore, Spain and many other places. The team even looked at a small airport next to a church in London. Such was the hurry.Anand Mahindra: Indiatodayimages.com; GV Krishna Reddy: Indiatodayimages.com
Prashant Ruia: Vikas Khot; Sunil Duggal: Indiatodayimages.com
(This story appears in the 22 October, 2010 issue of Forbes India. To visit our Archives, click here.)