Accenture

This article originally appeared in the January 2009 issue of

The journal of high-performance business

India

A passage to India

By Armen Ovanessoff and Anish Gupta

When it comes to cracking the conundrum of the Indian consumer, the key to success is adaptability. The winners will be those who enter into the fabric of society and work with Indians as partners.

The numbers say it all: India’s consumers spent close to $450 billion in 2007, twice as much as in 2000. And powered by a predicted doubling in household income, that figure is expected to reach $802 billion in 2012, according to a late-November report from the Economist Intelligence Unit. To be sure, India’s growth trajectory is not immune to either the current global economic slowdown or November’s devastating terrorist attacks. In fact, growth in the third quarter of 2008 was already the lowest in four years: 7.6 percent. But 7.6 percent growth still shows a robust engine at work. Small wonder that one-quarter of the world’s leading retailers are either operating in India already or plan to do so soon.

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segment of the subcontinent’s vast and varied population. But it is urban youth—affluent, brand-conscious and Internet-savvy—who are transforming the consumer landscape. Fully half of all Indians have yet to celebrate their 25th birthdays. And it is this group, which wields huge influence on its parents’ purchasing decisions, that is driving unprecedented demand, particularly in the country’s cities, for a wide range of Western-style consumer products and services, from gaming consoles to fast food. The boom in consumer goods is also having a trickle-down effect on other industries, fueling dynamic growth in entertainment, real estate and travel. Moreover, just as in Western markets, customer service standards for consumer goods are becoming a benchmark across a raft of other industries, from healthcare to banking.

The participants in India’s extraordinary...