Arvind Mahajan, director, AF Fergusson feels that in a regulated economy you had to keep watching the government instead of the customer. Today the situation has changed. Stability is desirable, even awfully important, but it's not happening in a hurry. Politicians will come and go. With elections forthcoming, there's no likelihood of stability in the next six months, and therefore no prospects of improved performance in the next year.
Environmental uncertainty is a new thing here - it's common the world over.
Indian managers have to understand that the environment will stay this way for the short to medium term, and only those who can manage the environment effectively will survive, says Sid Khanna, managing partner, Andersen Consulting. Political shenanigans are no longer by any means the only destabilising factor. Thanks to the moves towards a market economy, world events, international trends, competition, as well as policy direction are all strong forces interacting together to produce a general environment of uncertainty. At the macro- level it might mean less efficiency. But overall uncertainty leads to opportunities and is not at all restraining.