About India Business Forum

The India Business Forum (IBF) was founded in the year 2002 under the guidance of Late Prof. Sumantra Ghoshal. IBF aims to further the role of India in the global business and academic community. With London Business School as the platform, IBF is a confluence of business leaders, leading academics, financiers, entrepreneurs and students to discuss and debate pertinent issues relating to doing business in and with India and its overseas community. The core activity of the IBF is to host an annual summit where the most dynamic thought leaders from India and Europe engage in diverse audience mix with insights on current business trends related to India.

Entrepreneurship in India – its evolution and way forward

Before 1991, Indian business success was a function of ambition, licenses, government contacts, and an understanding of the bureaucratic system. Liberalization, however, changed the very nature of entrepreneurship in India. Post liberalization, businesses succeeded because they were customer focused and professionally managed. The old, family-managed businesses, which formed the backbone of the economy, needed to evolve and become more institutional, if they were to extend their life cycle.

India saw unprecedented growth from 2004 to 2011, but the successful Indian growth story appeared to suffer in more recent years. Expectations of an investment-led economic turnaround after Prime Minister Narendra Modi's victory have brought in copious amounts of capital, sending the total value of the Indian stock market to over $1.5 trillion, for the first time. What will it take to bring more entrepreneurs forward? How can India break the perception that its entrepreneurs lack what it takes to achieve scale and go global?

The theme for IBF 2016, “Disruption in India” focussed on the different ways emerging startups and established companies forge new pathways, and react to the resultant scenario. Indian startups emerged at the cusp of a new consumer landscape, shocking the market and forcing larger companies to rapidly change their marketing and distribution strategies, amongst others. IBF 2016 brought together a host of different voices drawing from both large business and startups across varied industries, to provide a holistic view of the changing landscape of Indian business, and its promising future. Last year, our conference on “Disruption in India” brought together Mr Sanjiv Bikchandani (Co-founder, InfoEdge Ltd), Dr Janmejaya Sinha (Chairman BCG Asia Pacific), Mr Tom Albanese (CEO, Vedanta Resources Plc) and Mr Karan Thapar (India Today Group).