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The Rediff Business Interview/Sir Christopher Benson

'Competition never did anybody any harm'

Sir Christopher Benson, chairman of the chemical giant Albright & Wilson, is an expert on managing global companies. During his recent holiday in India, he made a presentation on the subject at a function organised by the Confederation of Indian Industry in Bombay. Sir Christopher had stints as chairman of as many as 14 companies like the Royal and Sun Alliance Insurance group, Costain Group, pharma giant Boots, and Housing Corporation. He is also the ambassador for British Business Scheme of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office. He was knighted in 1988 for public service. He shared his views on doing business with India, in an interview with Joydeep Ghosh. An excerpt:

What is the outlook of the British business towards India?

The attitude of my own company, Albright & Wilson, will be reflected in many others. Colin Marshal of British Airways was recently in Delhi and he was complaining that he did not have enough slots in India. But he was not complaining about India. I thought he was very enthusiastic, and we are also very enthusiastic. At the moment we have two plants in India and we would like to have more.

We are importers, manufacturers and exporters and that is not because Indian labour is cheap but because the output does meet our quality standards. We are very comfortable here. We have got some very good people, we would like to go further.

I think many others like ICI, Rolls Royce and other British companies also find themselves very comfortable here. We all have, as you know, a lot of Indian people in the United Kingdom and we rely heavily on these people. So I think that the relationship is a good one, one which can further bloom and develop.

There is a perception here that the Indian economy is crawling. What is the perception abroad?

I do not know the Indian economy as well to answer that. But we all read with enthusiasm the fact that Indian economy has not been affected as badly as other parts of southeast Asia. This shows that the economy has a certain amount of resilience that can be built upon.

What is your opinion about the insurance sector in India?

I am no longer involved with the insurance sector. So it would be improper on my part to speak as an insurance man.

As the former chief Royal & Sun Alliance, what are your personal views on the global insurance sector and the Indian insurance sector in the global perspective?

I think that the insurance world is such a sophisticated one that it is being developed very carefully in many countries in the world and by that, I do not mean only the United Kingdom.

There is experience and opportunity and, of course, ultimately investment because insurance companies take money to invest.

So, they cannot be out of the prosperity line. Having said that, I would add that I would be the wrong person to judge the operations of the Indian insurance sector. But I believe that the world of competition is not a bad world to be in.

What are the differences between the Indian and British insurance sectors?

I would not be the right person to answer that. What I can say is that talking to my colleagues in the UK, I feel that the Indian insurance companies that India had years ago, were rated very highly by these people. They would, of course, say that they had trained the Indians in this field. But that thing is history now.

People in insurance in India today have been trained in India and by Indians. I have not heard anywhere that the people in the Indian insurance sector are not up to it like anyone else. But I will still add my little word -- competition never did anybody any harm.

You have headed many as 14 companies. What qualities should a company head have?

I think that the chief executive really has to be a man of vision. But the vision should not be so much that he looks beyond the horizon. It is important for him to see an end and has to wish for that end.

He must be a man who inspires leadership, which implies that he should be a frontal man himself. More importantly, he should encourage people to criticise him in a constructive way, not himself so much as his strategies, but without losing his authority.

He must be a man of some considerable standing and be respected. It is not important to be liked so much but he has to be respected by the people who are with him and working for him. This respect has to be to the extent that they feel that they want to assist him in whatever he does or, again, to move him sideways and ask him to think of something he might not have thought. To create a team, he must be the team leader.

How do you find the CEOs in India?

I do not know enough about Indians companies. I know a lot of Indian people who run extremely good Indian companies. But I do not know enough about the internal operations of their companies to even discuss or be critical about them.

However, I feel that you live in a very entrepreneurial country. There have been a lot of fascinating things that have been done in India. It is not just today but these fascinating things have been happening for a lot of years.

I do not think that this entrepreneurial spirit should change as time goes on. I think that India will continue to grow; the relationship between India and the UK is one of mutual respect for each other's ability.

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