India Mission

As we fly out of India, we are confident that we have meaningful immediate and medium term opportunities for new investment, technology and jobs for our Region.

We have met with 28 companies in 5 cities across the Northwest, Central, Southwest and South of India over 13 days. These top Indian global companies are strong in both our traditional automotive market as well as our emerging sectors such as aerospace, defense/homeland security, logistics, medical device, IT/consulting. Typical annual revenue of each company we visited is greater than $1 billion per annum with active global operations.

We have 5 short term investment deals that we made significant progress on and hope to announce in the near future; and medium term opportunities for which a sound business case will be built with our investor partners. These investment opportunities as a result of our in-country visits with the top executive owners/decision makers. These opportunities would not have surfaced without in-country visits to the home parent's operations by our executive management.

We represent a diverse collaboration of economic developers and expertise from all of our public/private investors. This trip represents a strong track record of 5 years' of missions that Dick Blouse, CEO has lead with our staff and our investors. Our Chamber has strong recognition brand as we have consistently visited India and some of our former contacts we now see at other companies.

They all are interested in the future of Detroit. Hopefully, they will buy in to our strengths and experience our positive approach toward diversification and global strategies. Our planning for the trip and the calls are just the first phase. We now have work plans for each company to develop our best business case. We look forward to announcing new investments soon and the opportunity for our companies to partner with these top global Indian companies.

We continue to build our top Indian subsidiary cluster in Michigan, with more to add soon. These companies have a long term strategy for the North American strategy and benefit from the Indian market demand, profits and equity to strategically invest in North America.

"Incredible India" continues to capture our spirit of adventure and vast opportunity.

Mission Team:
-Dick Blouse, DRC CEO
-Blaire Miller, DREP Interim SVP-Economic Development
-Maureen Krauss-Deputy Director-Oakland County
-Linda Ehrhardt-Oakland County Business Developer
-Stephen Cassin-Executive Director, Macomb County
-Atul Shul, Consultant for Logistics & Business Attraction

Goal of Mission: new operations/facilities, jobs, technology, research and development for our Region.

Key investment strategies highlighted during our meetings:

1) If new to North America, discuss export supply chain/logistics through region and potential sales/distribution operations in our region. Introduce key OEM and top suppliers for business expansion in automotive and other emerging industries. Talk about potential joint venture, acquisition criteria, technology licensing to gain faster foothold in North America. Review R&D needs for partnering with our universities. Discuss sector incentives from federal/state/local entities and time windows and recent approvals in their sectors. Illustrate significant foreign investment by 1500 companies and top 50 Indian companies in our region.

2) If already in North America, probe current and future strategies. Identify supply chain and current customer base to find linkages to our region. Review challenges and diversification strategies into our targeted emerging sectors. Review global logistics to see if Halifax/Montreal to Detroit can be more effective as inland port. Identify potential joint venture/acquisition candidates for expansion. Identify labor shortages and immigration issues. Review key R&D needs that could be partnered with our universities.

It's our last day of corporate visits in India, and we head through the morning fog and traffic to meet with the logistics team of the top OEM that we met with yesterday. They have been working diligently in the U.S. to create the most efficient supply chain for their exports from India, China and Europe. They are partnering with ports and rail lines around the world to create the optimal weight and load with the quickest delivery time and lowest price. They have been effectively matching weight loads to fill containers to their weight limits, thus reducing prices for all parties by layering the loads for the highest weight per container allowed.

Although, they have formed alliances, they are very interested in working with us and our transport modal partners and we will explore the best value options for their freight movement, especially from Europe.

Secondly, they are sourcing scrap metal from the U.S for their OEM group, and are interested in identifying sources, services for transport and consolidation of shipments back to India. We will work on this proposal upon our return as we are aware of such services currently in our Region.

Lastly, they are interested in representing companies interested in accessing their global logistics expertise and will visit our Region to meet with our global companies.

We had arranged a second call to a new prospect, but upon arrival found out that the executive's international travel plans changed and he could not meet with us. We left our information and took theirs and will follow up with a conference call from home.

One interesting point that I always find interesting in India is how English is spoken here. Due to the numerous distinct languages spoken in India with so many different dialects, the second official language is English. English is used as the bridge language between the different regions. So, when our Indian team mate needed to communicate with our driver from a different region, they would use English or English words to communicate. So, speaking English here certainly eases the ability to build business relationships.

We enjoyed our last few hours meeting with the "godfather" of our Indian team mate, who had been long time family friends and sponsored him as a young man to come to the U.S. We told him how important it is to have Indian-Americans who can provide the bridge and links in our understanding of the Indian history, culture and politics that shapes Indian business strategy and practices today. We understand the 75,000 Indian-Americans went back last year to take advantage of the growth opportunities. We hope they are all looking for ways to bring business back to our Region.

In order not to miss our 2am flight to Amsterdam connecting to Detroit for 24 hours of travel, we wound our way back to the airport area, so we wouldn't miss our flight due to traffic even in the evening hours! The suitcase of brochures and sector research profiles and flash drives has been depleted and replaced with company brochures and some small souvenirs for family and staff....a lighter load to check!

Our first full business day in Mumbai is a testament to managing the traffic here. If you leave early in the morning, you can beat the commuter crowd that needs an average of 2 hours to get from their homes to the office and another 2 to get home. Staff tends to start after 9-10am to allow for commuting, then stay later to avoid the crunch.

Our first call was with a new prospective global Indian name that supplies our retail sector with the finest worsted wool and denim. They have diversified into other sectors through acquisitions, joint ventures and alliances in the Midwest for specialized components and provided us a list of acquisition candidates that they are interested in. We also discussed our global logistics capability for their export market into the U.S. This was an excellent first call to support their North American operations.

We then moved on to another global consulting giant that is expanding in Michigan with one of our top OEMs to provide outsourcing of their global supply chain management and other support areas. Instead of taking the jobs to India, they are establishing new operations near this OEM. This is the new model that we are seeing as labor rates rise and skill shortages appear in India. We agreed to work with the top executives assigned to our Region to assist them in their business and brand development.

Our last call of the day after an amazing labyrinth ride through the packed streets, was with the top OEM of India. Surprisingly, they had read this blog on our travels through India, once again demonstrating how social networking makes the world transparent! They have been successful in the U.S. with their tractor business, and now plan on exporting their first trucks to the U.S. We discussed their North American strategy and what has been successful and their strategy of partnering with top suppliers to learn the market nuances. They have already partnered with top OEMs and tier one names throughout Europe and Asia, so these relationships should bring new opportunities in the U.S. We spoke about our Region as the automotive "brain center" with 330 R&D centers and our key location for global logistics from India and Europe. We were referred to their global logistics unit for further discussion the next morning. This company should be in our Region to access innovative R&D and key suppliers and build their U.S. brand, so we have invited them to visit with us and we will follow up on our plan that we discussed.

We finished the night at a nice hotel for Indian-Chinese food to give some of our party spice relief! Security continues to be high at all major hotels throughout all of the major cities to maintain protection for foreign business people, which I appreciate as I travel around the world.

Today was a warm, hazy Sunday in Mumbai and we were off to explore the city! We saw the classic Victorian architecture from British colonialism in the form of the train station, court buildings, fountains and residences. There has been no real zoning until recently, so you see every period and look from one end of a block to the other. The amazing feat has been the construction of massive causeways that connect the 7 islands of Mumbai that continue to reclaim land from the sea for expansion. We see the slum washing basins, where they earn money for hotels, residents beating the clothing clean and drying the clothing on the rooftops in the ancient fashion. Then, we were invited as honored guests to an Indian wedding which takes place over several days. We were so fortunate to see the ceremony with hundreds of guests, and where the groom acted as he would leave and the bride's parents had to coax him back for some fun drama! It was so fun to hear the music, see all of the customs, experience the gorgeous floral and staging arrangements and be treated like the most honored guests as the bride was carried in a golden coach! We had to sneak out, because they were insisting that we stay all day and evening for food and entertainment!

We did have to get back for a great dinner meeting with the Indian representatives of the Port of Halifax, Canada. Halifax is the fastest port for west Indian shipments out of Mumbai's new port. We are building more volume into Halifax with the Indian companies to rail the freight down directly to Detroit for some value add. We are collecting more information for inland port logistics strength, and these representatives will help us here in India with competitive information and relationship connections.

We finished the evening with a carriage tour around the seaside for some fresh evening air and to see all of the outdoor wedding stages and lighting that were in full swing across this area on a hopping Sunday night. Does this city ever wind down.....?!

Well, it's Saturday and we're off to two company visits and then by car through the mountains to Mumbai.

First, we visited with another successful engineering IT company that has been operating on a smaller scale in our Region. The majority of their business is in the U.S., so we discussed how we could help them build their brand, build new and deeper client relationships, and innovate through collaborative alliances/associations. We discussed some of the work around battery management and defense/homeland security, two areas of interest for them. They are also acquisitive, and provided us some parameters for ideal candidates. We will assist them in the site location for their proposed North American office as they ramp up their client projects.

The next call was most interesting as we have been working with this leading global Indian name for some time and we met again with the global founder and chairman and his key management team. They are interested in expanding their North American footprint in the alternative energy field, and Michigan has the inside edge based on the work done with them to date. He will be visiting this spring, and we hope to have the right structure for him and support for their new operations ramp up. We left the meeting feeling very pleased with this developing relationship.

We headed off to Mumbai by car to ride for 4 hours through the mountains across to the seaside, which was a beautiful ride and you could see wild monkeys jumping around on the rails.

As we drive along, I find that it's such a pleasure to experience full service everywhere we go. When I arrived at this last hotel, my skirt hem was unraveling, and when I asked for a needle and thread, they kindly suggested that my skirt would be returned fully hemmed, and came back nicely wrapped in a leather box. This is one small example of the attention to detail and service level that is expected. Just having someone smile and greet me as "madam" is a welcome courtesy after a long work day, and it inspires you to give back even more courtesy. When I commented that someone had done a nice level of service, I received a phone from the young lady who profusely thanked me.

As we entered the outskirts of Mumbai, 20 million and growing, the sheer density of this area is amazing. Think of Hong Kong, Tokyo and New York combined, and you can understand why it takes up to 4 hours just to get across town! We drove past sections where the hit movie, Slumdog Millionaire slums were filmed, and it's grim. Then right next to this area are high tenements crammed together, densely packed. Happily, they have built new flyovers (think skyways) built through and above these areas, to bypass these very congested areas. We landed in our hotel on the ocean, which is packed with people walking the shoreline and beaches. The city is so vibrant, noisy and action packed on a Saturday night, where no one eats dinner until 9pm and clubs start hopping at 12am! Mumbai has all the movie stars (think Bollywood), beautiful people, and big prices and places that money can buy, and it's all in demand in this metropolis! It will be great fun to explore more tomorrow!

Note the two windmills in the top of the photo behind the buildings.

We arrived last night in Pune too late to really see anything, but Pune is booming! As the "Indian Detroit" due to its automotive industry with Chennai, one can only marvel at all of the new development going on in the 5 million city, from the new airport to the new roads to our 2 month old grand Westin Hotel on the river banks (the nicest one I've stayed in worldwide).

For our first day in Pune, we met with 5 top Indian companies: one infrastructure/automotive/white goods, 2 wind energy manufacturers, 1 engineering/IT/knowledge company, and 1 two/ three wheeler manufacturer.

We first met in India's top 2 green platinum LEED campus. This company specializes in pumps, large and small for all applications, especially large infrastructure projects and diesel automotive components. They partner with Bechtel for project management in the U.S and have been seeking other acquisitions. They were aimed to acquire one in Michigan and then ran into asbestos removal issues and backed out. We discussed potential candidate criteria and will circle back with Bechtel and their U.S. manager.

The second call was with a top engineering/IT company that has its North American headquarters in our region. We discussed our diversification strategies, but focused much of our conversation around specialized engineering training at the university level. They like the model of Kettering, and want to work with more universities to custom design the skill set that they are employing. We also spoke about easy mobility of their staff (domestic/international) as they land in our region. It's important to have quick access to housing, and other amenities without a U.S. credit history or a social security card. We also had a tour of their sister entity, a super computing center that it used for numerous research and engineering purposes. It has capacity of 14400 cpu and 28 terabytes. We will be working with their North American headquarters who already have 200 open positions to employ.

Our third visit was with a global leader in two and three wheeler vehicles. They do not sell in the US, but have had an alliance with Kawasaki for motorcycles. They do not wish to expand into the U.S. since they are more profitable in the African and South American countries like Columbia and Nigeria. Our discussion focused on new technology transfer to/from India related to their expertise in light, small motor components.

Our fourth call was with a $4 billion top global alternative energy company focused on wind energy solutions. They worked closely with the State of Minnesota to manufacture and install wind energy in agricultural areas that formed together as cooperatives and receive income back in return for installing the towers on their farmland. They have also opened a sales and service operation in Chicago. We spoke about Michigan's mandatory minimums for 2015 and the DOE's for 2030. Essentially, the message is to package an interesting deal and they will evaluate it. Clearly, top State and local support is required to build the business case over opportunities from other states like Texas, California, Minnesota. We'll work with the State and NextEnergy to develop a viable business case.

We finished our day with a late dinner with another multi-billion revenue Indian company that has operations in Michigan and has been expanding in automotive (electric hybrid technology) and wind and solar solutions. We learned more about their European operations supported by the Government of Sweden and Volvo. This meeting with the top operations team was the precursor to the next day's meeting with their Chairman, so we learned more about their operations and spent time reviewing our Region's strengths.

A very long day, but we identified a number of opportunities for our emerging sector diversification investment goals. Finally, just needed some more time reviewing our pitch for two investment opportunities the next morning. Thank goodness for a comfortable hotel!

Our second day in sunny, tropical Bangalore took us to meet the founder of a medical supply company that specializes in sensors and other patented devises. For the U.S. market, they have purchased two U.S. companies for the unique technology, U.S. distribution and manufacturing. They continue to seek joint ventures to gain access to FDA approved technology for US distribution. They also create and manufacture products in India for domestic and export markets. We discussed our biotech incubators and accelerators at Tech Town with Wayne State and Spark with the University of Michigan and Beaumont Hospital's Commercialization Center. They are very interested in finding these emerging technologies and providing the capital, marketing and distribution of this new technology. They are also interested in applying some of their testing equipment to the automotive market based on early demand indications. This meeting was an excellent start to a new relationship and we will invite their U.S. executive team to our Region to meet with identified entities that should qualify for future alliances.

We then met with a family-owned diversified Tier 2 auto supplier that has strength in aerospace/defense, and alternative energy components. They are seeking alliances with U.S. companies that wish to not only offer low cost solutions, but also access entry into India and other foreign markets with assistance in global logistics and OEM processes. From our current membership, we will identify private/ family-owned enterprises that meet their requirements to see how global growth can be increased through such an alliance. The concept is that the growth potential becomes larger with a global partnership than without and helps diversify our Detroit companies from our Region's cyclical economy. We then went back for a plant tour from yesterday's executive meeting with the electric mobility company. We saw firsthand how an electric vehicle is manufactured, tested and exported to more than 24 countries today, meeting all respective safety standards. It was very interesting to see the componentry stripped down and how it all fits together with the lithium battery technology. After our meetings, we then traveled for 2 hours back across town on a $300 million skyway toll road to the airport for our evening flight to Pune, with a little time for dinner and recharging for tomorrow's full schedule!

Our first day in Bangalore was quite fascinating. First, Bangalore is known as the "electronic city," since it is the home of the top Indian IT campuses. Previously, it was a resort town, so it is very tropical with nice gardens and palatial government offices. The affluence from the IT sector is evident with new offices, roads, deluxe shopping malls with the world's best designers. To get through this city of 10+ million, they have built a skyway to move quickly from end to end.

We started our morning with a smaller auto parts supplier who has bought a West Michigan Tier 2 supplier and is looking for more to acquire. We reviewed their criteria and growth strategies. Although smaller, they have been aggressive in our region, which demonstrates that we need to keep an eye on the smaller Indian firms that are in an acquisition mode.

Our next visit was to the largest Indian IT concern ($4 billion in annual global revenue) with staff in our region. We visited their beautifully landscaped campus of 60 buildings, with thousands of young staff. The campus has all of the amenities of training, sports and wellness, numerous cafeterias and bikes to ride throughout the campus. We met with the top global CEO, who reviewed their performance and growth strategies for each sector. Interestingly, growth is flat due to their sector concentration, so 2010 will be an interesting year. We presented our IT strategy and will follow up with their head of North America on a number of identified opportunities. This relationship continues to deepen due to our visits in India.

We then split up into 2 groups. Dick Blouse, Chamber CEO and I went to an Indian electric vehicle mobility solutions concern and met with their chairman. They are establishing a technology license to an US manufacturer for their EV solutions, so we want our region to be their new home. They have pledges from New York, but have deep roots to our region, so we are working to provide the optimal solution. Later, we had a late dinner with their president and head of global marketing and learned more insights around the future of electric mobility, and how people might use cars in the future.

Our other team from Oakland Macomb Counties called on another top Indian IT company that has operations in our region. They covered our IT strategy and sector areas for more expansion. We have previously assisted them with legal/legislative issues in a quick fashion, so they presented us with more issues that are hindering their expansion in our region which we will advocate and resolve for them. We will also meet with their head of North America to pursue our recommendations.

We finished our outdoor late dinner with our prospect and found our day to be quite fruitful in an globally-oriented Indian region.

Well, our 3:30am wake up call for our early morning flight to Hyderabad in the south meant a fast ride without traffic to the brand new domestic Delhi airport. The whole group exclaimed that this new facility took away the adventure of navigating an antiquated, overcrowded airport. Our quick flight down south landed in the second largest airport in Asia, another giant new airport. Hyderabad, with 8 million, is home to the global IT companies along with Bangalore. The aggressiveness over the past few years in wooing private industry with incentives and related public funding is very evident in all of the new airport, roads, modern office buildings, and apartment buildings.  They have invested $300 billion alone in new airport infrastructure in the past couple of years.  The tropical, green look of the countryside with huge boulders made this city look so dramatically different that Delhi.

We experienced the tale of two receptions today. First we met with a global $1 billion Indian IT/engineering and communication concern with operations throughout North America and in our Region. We were met with a grand welcome by the staff with bouquets of a dozen roses for each of us. Then we were taken into a business theatre room with 16 screens across one wall. They had prepared a full agenda and provided their current core strategies, awards, and future market and sector targets. We reviewed our deep relationships with our Michigan global 500 companies that they either work with or on their prospect list, our diversification strategy to expand into aerospace, defense, medical device, logistics and alternative energy. We discussed the government funding/state/local incentives that match this diversification strategy and the education of the purchasing and quality certification processes to our traditional automotive suppliers. The biggest take-away from our meeting was the issue of future labor. Due to their growth in India, they are already running out of skilled labor. They are keen to source talent to stay in the US to work on their global projects. We discussed recruiting strategies for full time positions as well as our Intern in Michigan portal that matches thousands of students from our Michigan universities with hundreds of companies seeking top candidates. This was very interesting to this company and will be a key theme with our other top global Indian IT meetings this week.

Our success with these big global players will be to get them into these new growth sectors, match the key decisionmakers and create new jobs and technology in our region.

Our second call was with a solar company that will be establishing new operations in North America. They are looking at 3 competitive states, including Michigan. Key decision factors will be the land, utilities, labor rate for skilled workers and their key client, and working capital for their ramp up. Our visit was critical to supporting the Michigan Economic Development Corp's development of the solar cluster for Michigan. We will be following up with information needed and will meet with this company in the next 30 days in Michigan to be the chosen site for ramp up in June 2010. This investment is the perfect example of new international technology that will source components from our region and build our expertise in alternative energy sectors plus generate new jobs directly. We left Hyderabad by air, ate the spicy veggie snack in air for our dinner and arrived in another new airport in Bangalore. Another great example of how well India has figured out to build infrastructure with public/private funding. It's a great example for our region's needed infrastructure projects. A great day in three cities finishing around midnight... Can't wait to see Bangalore's top companies tomorrow (or today now!).

Our second day was action packed starting early in Indian morning rush hour to drive 1.5 hours to a suburb of Delhi, Gurgeon. Streets are packed with cars, scooters (where women ride behind the male drivers sidesaddle), bicycles, taxis, and types or rickshaws. Gurgeon, now a suburb of Delhi (a former separate old town), is the home of 1200 foreign embassies and many foreign companies and expatriate housing. Due to construction, we were routed in the back old dirt road way, which provided scenery of the street vendors and the ubiquitous roaming cows. We met with three Indian companies there with annual revenue of half to one billion dollars. Two were auto parts suppliers to the global OEMs for Indian production and sales in India. Their revenue growth was still high in 2009, despite the global crisis due to the constant demand in India. As we walked through the plant, you could see the influences of the relationships with Japanese, Korean, European and American partners in their business terms, plant layout, plant workers, etc. They continue to open greenfield plants throughout India supported by local government incentives. We discussed how we can assist them as the Indian market matures and they cast their eyes on the North American market through exports and eventual investment on their own or through a joint venture. We also met with a Kuwaiti Indian subsidiary that specializes in Indian import/export logistics to North America. We are working with such companies to educate and gather intelligence on how we can develop more freight volume and distribution/consolidation/inspection centers in our Region. They provided us some good insights and we have some good actions from all companies to follow up on. The funniest part of the visit was our lunch when they served us Dominos Pizza slices! We told them that Dominos' global headquarters is in our region, so they made us feel at home!

We also stopped briefly in the Indian Dept. of Commerce to talk about exports to our region, but found the conversation unproductive, so it was good that is didn't last long! The most interesting part of the visit was that the government building was surrounded by wild monkeys...you can infer your own meaning behind this association....

Before our late dinner meeting, I walked around with my Indian friend at a local artisan bazaar, where the artists change weekly. It was fun to barter and pick up some unusual handicraft items that you can't find at a Pier One for family gifts.

Our last meeting was with another top Indian automotive supplier who has been establishing global joint ventures since the 1960s with global Tier One suppliers. They do export back to the US, so saw slower growth of only 15% in 2009. They continue to seek new global relationships and know our region well, so we brainstormed on a number of value ideas around logistics, recruiting, and new joint ventures. The dinner was at a classic Indian restaurant where we ate all of the spicy delicious prawns and tempura style cauliflower and breads with our fingers sitting on low stools.

An action packed day that leaves us 4 hours of sleep to rise early for our 6am flight to Hyderabad in the south....