 Welcome to the get. This is part two of our recent episode on U.S.-India relations. We're glad you're able to tune in and join us for the continued discussion between Vikram and Shankar. We believe this episode will expand your understanding and your ability to make the right decisions regarding the economic opportunities and pitfalls between India and the U.S. So let me flip the coin over now and ask you both about India business leaders' views of the United States as a destination for their investment and their intentions for growth. Can you talk a little bit about how Indian business leaders view the USA currently and its strengths and weaknesses as a destination for their investment? Maybe we can start with you on this, Shankar. Good questions. After the IBM and so I sit on a few boards and then we talk to these people, entrepreneurs and companies who have built businesses in U.S. First question, Chris, when you ask them about U.S. and market and investment and establishing, the first word that comes out of their mouth is to say exciting. They say it is exciting. The reason is because of the size of the market, the ability to set up the operations very quickly, friendly regulations and the capital announcements that they are able to do. And if you have a value proposition, it is apparent that they get their customers as early as possible. But when I look at, when I ask them what are the challenges, some of the companies which I really like is that even though they are very small to start with, they have made a decision that market-facing employees of them will be locals. For an example, they are hiring only Americans to do the market-facing job and the delivery functions are being done by 70% India and 30% a combination of locals. They haven't said difficulty. They are saying is that because of the brand, what they have may not be a big brand out of U.S. They are just a company which is coming up very fast in India, but they have difficulty in recruitment and also keeping them on board, but they are slowly succeeding in that. The second thing they find is that conversion from a lead to a closure compared to India apparently takes much longer time. And obviously one of the challenges for the Indian businesses in U.S. is cost of operation, obviously. But they are saying the pluses and minus outweigh because the businesses are more profitable in U.S. They are able to manage the cost of operations. But the cost of operation is becoming an issue. The couple of other issues which they said is that if there is an IP, intellectual property to be getting the recognition, particularly for the pharmaceutical industries and others, getting that recognized, they might have an IP in India, but going through the IP processes in U.S. and getting that recognized takes a long time, a lot of litigation expenses and again more cost. Overall, Chris, if you ask me, I talked to a couple of them who have set up their businesses, one from financial services industry, another is from cloud industry and their gungo. They love being there. But one of the main difficulties I forgot to mention is that the resource movement, they're saying in India I could move the resources very quickly across. But in U.S., given the visa challenges and visa regimes, it is an issue. So for them to scale as fast as what they did in India becomes a challenge. I hope both the governments address that, so that if there is a competency, if there is a value addition for the U.S., they must help these companies to move their resources without disturbing the ecosystem of their host country. So overall, plus plus. Very interesting, Vikram. Shankar is spot on. In addition to that, for our group companies, we have three businesses that have physical offices in North America. We have a clinical research business that has an office. We have an automobile tire business as an office and the auto component business that we have that has an office and a warehouse in North America. Market is large. Indian businesses look at it as a very large customer base. It's a massive market size. What's interesting is it's one country, unlike the EU, which is while they're together, but there are a multiple bunch of countries and the way you do business in the EU, you in a way have to do in multiple countries differently, languages, et cetera, et cetera. So the U.S. is one country, one market. So a product that you can get out there has the ability to be panned out to the entire North American market unlike Europe where you've got to do some bit of local work. Language is not a problem. What I always hear from friends in the U.S. and collaborators and partners is slightly costly to get into, which could be regulations, which could be approvals, which could be certain specifications. But once you're in it, when you do your business correctly, there is money to be made. So to keep it going, you need to have the highest standards and not slip up on any of those. It's an exact thing market. It's a demanding market. If you have that thing sorted out, then there is money to be made and to be done. Shankar, any thoughts? One of the things you always, when you talk to these people who have set up their businesses, the first thing that comes out of their mouth when you talk about investing in the U.S. and also doing business, it's very positive. They say first words that comes out is exciting. The reason it is exciting for these people is that they are able to get into a market where business-friendly regulations, if we follow the certain processes and execute them well, you could set up the businesses quickly and scale. And also the business potential is pretty high. Each state has its substantial size of market. So they do appreciate that and they're able to get their businesses reasonably, profitably. But on the challenges side, what they tell me is that one of the things they struggle with is that is the recruiting talent for the local talent. Some of the companies whom I've talked to, they have taken a decision of employing for market-facing employees. All are local like the Americans and the delivery is a mix of Indian and local combination. But when they have to recruit with a brand that may not be so popular in U.S., they do have some difficulties, but once they get in, they're able to employ them and go forward. The second difficulty they say is that with respect to closure of deals, particularly compared to India, from a lead generation to a closure, apparently it takes much longer time. And then obviously the cost of operations goes up. With respect to the third challenge is that the link to this, generally the cost of operations are here, but given that they make better profitability out of U.S., they are happy to deal with the issue and move forward. The next one is the movement of resources. This is one of the biggest challenges most of the companies, given the visa regimes and difficulties, they are unable to scale depending to service the client's request as fast as they would do in India because of this. My expectation and my request is that if both the governments can look at this and enable those businesses that add value to the United States and make them remove the hurdle as much as possible. And the last one has an hurdle in their eyes, particularly with pharmaceutical and product-related companies is to get the intellectual property recognition. We know that even though they may have an IP in India, but for them to get recognized in U.S., they have to file, and that process is long and expensive, all the costs related to that. But let me curse in my opinion, their statement is that the pluses outweigh the difficulties and they are very happy to do business in U.S. Vikram, anything to add? In addition to what Shankar said, as businesses, we have three different offices. Three of our businesses have physical offices in the U.S. meant by individuals and one warehouse. So we have the entire business, the automobile entire business has an office and warehouse in North America. Automobile component company has an office and warehouse in North America. And we have a clinical research business that conducts their local trials. So the way we've seen it is initially it is slightly more expensive to get into, to make sure that regulations are correct. We meet all the standards, the specifications are correct. But once you set that up and you make sure you follow the correct processes and the correct systems and methods and the highest quality, there is money to be made. So the market is a large market. It is one market. It is one language. The same product works across most of North America. The challenge of course is the cost of manufacturing. We are all used to a low cost of manufacturing in India and that's why in our entire business we set up a manufacturing plant in Mexico to supply to North America. Even in our auto component business, at this time, we're in the middle of setting up a plant in Mexico to be able to serve the North American market. It's certainly a great opportunity. Languages are well understood. Methods of doing business are well understood. Accounting systems are similar and common. So from that perspective, Indian businesses see this as a very large opportunity, especially on the market front. Similarly on the technology front. There are a whole bunch of relationships that one can develop and are being developed between India and the US on where R&D can be done on both sides for the same project. The 12 hour time zone, the nine hour time zone is also complementary in some ways. So it helps to do one 12 hour window there and one 12 hour window here, which gives it a turnaround time which becomes unbeatable to match lots of countries. So over on Indian businesses are bullish about being able to operate in America. Just need to make sure that the model is right for us to make sure that there are no other liability issues and other other issues as we go forward. Shankar talked about brand is the other thing that Indian companies need to build up as we go forward before us to be able to really make a great success. Thank you both for that. It's clear that in the United States, Indian executives and Indian management talent are excelling at leading some of the finest companies in the world and in the United States. So there is a lot of talent and insight residing within the Indian community about how business can and should be done. Before we close, we always like to take a minute and ask our guests to give our listeners some strategic insight to think about and put on their radar. We call it our emerging critical issues moment. In one word or phrase, please tell us what emerging issue you see on the horizon that business leaders need to put on their consideration list. Perhaps we could start with you Vikram. Sorry, I'll give you three now to one, which is because at this time is becoming an ambidextrous environment, technology and this whole digital disruption and what it means to my business, what it means to society, what it means to the millions that work for us or consumes products. The other one is if you connect the dots globally, this whole social disruption. So there are issues around have and have nots and the disparity of incomes and there's a whole bunch of social disruption happening in every country around the world, causing lots of local challenges from time to time erupts in different ways. And of course, you cannot miss thinking about what the impact of climate change. It is real. It is impacting us in what does it do to societies? What does it do to countries? And what does it mean for us as businesses to think about how we mitigate against each of these three challenges or opportunities, whichever way you look at it. Thank you. Shankar, your thoughts. All points, maybe Vikram, are very valid. I would only extend the technology aspect over to which is in the top of the mind of most of the business leaders, particularly the whole topic of a generative AI, machine language, and so on. The generative AI promises to make coming years as some of the most exciting years in for artificial intelligence. But as with every new technology, business leaders must proceed with eyes wide open because the technology today presents many ethical and practical challenges in my opinion. Before I go to those challenges, just look at already this generative AI is finding its uses. Just I'll give you the headlines, marketing and sales, operations, IT engineering, risk and legal, R&D, R&D particularly in drug discovery and all that stuff. The technologies are working out the teams. Plenty of practical and ethical issues remain open. I'll just enumerate a few. Like humans, generative AI can be wrong. Chat GPT, for an example, sometimes hallucinates, meaning it confidently generates entirely inaccurate information. And then filters are not effective enough to catch inappropriate content. Systemic biases still need to be addressed. Individual, if it is to be applied in the company, but I'm thinking this generative AI ML and will come to play a much bigger role in the coming years in the companies. But individual companies, norms and values have to be reflected in that. And it cannot be bypassed. Then we'll have a major problem. Last, I would leave it on the table, is the intellectual property questions are up for debate. When a generative AI model brings forward a new product design or idea based on user prompt, who can lay claim to it? So what happens when it, pleasure is a source based on training data. So in my mind and top of my mind, and when I talk to leaders is that great potential for generative AI, already we know AI ML data analytics is playing a huge role. I'm already seeing it in the industries, but going forward, the world has to look at this much more carefully. But I think there is a transformation time coming in the near future, Chris. Well, thank you both and for our listeners. We've had an episode on generative AI recently with Tom Friedman and Sam Palmisano. So I encourage you to listen to it. And Vikram and Shankar, thank you for being with us today and for your time and insights. I'm sure we'll come back to a number of the topics you've mentioned in future shows. You have been listening to The Gap, sponsored by the Center for Global Enterprise, celebrating 10 years of convening global enterprise leaders around the most important business transformation.