Why Has India Failed To Create Next Gen Business Icons?

#1 No New Sunrise Sector

Unfortunately, today’s business people are not able to come up with sunrise sectors.

The first-wave-business-icons mostly emerged out of sectors that were new, not capital-intensive and were relatively free from government controls. Starting with the novel sectors like IT and telecom industries, these icons grew up as they were sectors where even newcomers with little capital could built up business empires in a short span of time.

"A rising tide lifts all boats," says Pankaj Ghemawat, global strategist and professor. The first generation businessmen who acquired iconic status rose at a time when India was growing rapidly. From almost nothing, the IT and BPO sectors are shining at $100 billion in annual revenue today.

Ever since, India has not seen the rise of new sunrise sectors — unshackled from government controls — and that missing factor has become another obstacle for the Indian businessmen to achieve the status of business icons.

The lack of proper reforms may be the reason for this. "The first wave of reforms in the early '90s created a lot of headroom for entrepreneurs to take advantage of. The lack of significant second wave of reforms since then may have constrained the emergence and expansion of other entrepreneurs," says Ghemawat.

From retail to aviation, the government is delaying the second-generation reforms, what the Indian economy needs badly. Such delay has made the new sectors to come in and it, in turn, holds back the rise of next generation business icons too.