India Inc. Book Review: How Team Riser Brought 10 Indian Founders to Life
Team Riser reviewed India Inc. with a prop for every founder, from a TV remote to a wind turbine. Lessons on going global for Indian students and founders.
On 29 October 2026 I was the chief guest and judge at "Ink & Insights", a book review competition at MKSSS's Smt. Hiraben Nanavati Institute of Management and Research for Women (HNIMR), Karvenagar, Pune. Twenty-one MBA teams presented one business book each, with a skit and slides, on the theme "From Vision to Venture: Learning Through Books".
The second-last team of the day was Team Riser, with India Inc.: How India's Top Ten Entrepreneurs Are Winning Globally by Vikas Pota. By then the hall had been sitting for hours. Team Riser walked in with their hands full, quite literally, and the energy came right back.
What the book is about
India Inc. was published in 2010. It profiles ten Indian business leaders who built world-class companies, including N. R. Narayana Murthy of Infosys, K. V. Kamath of ICICI Bank and Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw of Biocon. It looks at how they grew beyond India, and it finds common threads: strong values, long-term thinking and building trust. Its message fits in one line: made in India, winning in the world.
How Team Riser presented it
They opened with a question to the "top 10 entrepreneurs" on stage: competition is increasing every day, so how can Indian businesses stand up in global markets? The answers came one by one: understand customer needs and deliver quality, earn the trust of consumers, use innovation and technology, and work together as a team.
Then came the part I enjoyed most. Each team member held a product or a model that stood for one leader's company and explained why. Shiv Nadar and HCL, which he co-founded in 1976 from a small garage in Delhi. Narayana Murthy and Infosys, started in 1981 with ten thousand rupees borrowed from his wife, Sudha Murthy, and later the first Indian company listed on a US stock exchange. Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw, who started Biocon in a garage in 1978 and overcame the barriers a woman founder faced in those years. K. V. Kamath, who turned ICICI into a retail banking powerhouse. S. Ramadorai, who scaled TCS across continents. Baba Kalyani of Bharat Forge, representing India's engineering and manufacturing strength. The team also covered Malvinder Mohan Singh of Ranbaxy, Tulsi Tanti of Suzlon Energy, Subhash Chandra of Zee TV and Kishore Lulla of Eros International.
So there were tablets for the pharma companies, a wind turbine idea for Suzlon, a TV remote for Zee. It was simple, and it worked, because a picture in your hand stays in memory longer than a name on a slide.
They closed with five global business strategies from the book: global expansion, innovation, strong leadership, strategic partnerships and sustainability. And five lessons for themselves: dream big and take calculated risks, innovate and adapt, build strong teams, think globally and act responsibly, and give back to society.
What I asked them
My first question was simple: whose idea were the props? One student said it was hers, and that she had worked it out with a teammate. They had asked themselves where each of these ten leaders started and what their products were, and chose an object for each. I asked whether they had really studied all ten founders. They said yes, and their answers showed it.
I told them honestly that this was very creative. Their tagline was "rising with ideas and growing with innovation", and I said they were living it, with the innovation right there in their hands. I also appreciated that so late in a long day, their energy had not dropped at all. That matters more than students think. A client meeting at 6 pm deserves the same energy as the one at 10 am.
5 lessons for students and young founders
1. Big companies start small, often in a garage
HCL and Biocon both began in garages. Infosys began with ten thousand borrowed rupees. Your "garage" could be your hostel room, your family shop or a laptop at the kitchen table. Do not wait for a perfect office.
2. Values are a business asset, not a moral extra
The book keeps returning to trust and values. Infosys built its global name partly on clean governance. When you sell services across borders, your reputation travels before you do.
3. Think long term, act this week
None of these leaders built a global company in a year. They thought in decades but still did something every week. Write your ten-year dream on one page, then write the one thing you will do before Sunday.
4. Make your idea visible
Team Riser's props are a lesson in communication. Investors, buyers and HR heads are human. Show them the product, the sample, the before and after. A demonstration beats a description.
5. Going global starts with being excellent at home
Every company in this book first earned trust in India, then took that trust abroad. If you dream of exporting a product or a service, first make it the best in your own city.
A word on teamwork
With ten leaders to cover in a few minutes, this review only worked because every member owned one piece and knew it well. That is how real companies run too: one shared story, many people each responsible for their part.
If you run a college or company
I run book-review competitions, entrepreneurship sessions and leadership programmes for colleges and companies across India. If you would like one for your students or your team, write to me here and we will plan it together.
With thanks to HNIMR
My thanks to Dr. Priyanka Singh, Director of HNIMR; Mrs. Manjushree K. Nawale, Librarian, and her library team, who organised Ink & Insights 2026; Mr. Vishwajeet Deshmukh, Placement Officer; Mr. Devadatta Sant; and Ms. Minal Kotwal, for hosting me so warmly and making the day run so smoothly. And to every student who stood on that stage with a book in hand: thank you for the courage and the creativity.
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