Globalisation of Research and Development Centre: How GE does it in India

Abstract

Ever since Abhijay Verma graduated from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Madras in 1999, he has been in the US. A brilliant student, Abhijay was also an intelligent and hardworking scientist. He worked in a well-known research and development centre in New York as a scientist. His boss and MD, Steve, was quite happy with him and was even considering promoting him. Married to a north Indian lady for the past six years, Abhijay has a three-year-old daughter. He was often spoken about as a happily married man with a high-paying job. His work provided him with the freedom to concentrate on research and the centre’s infrastructure was comparable to the best, and he didn’t have to deal with administrative matters. His company’s high-performance culture laid emphasis on high-integrity business practices, along with work–life balance. The ‘yes boss’ culture was almost non-existent. Everything seemed just fine for Abhijay but often he would look sadly out of the window and reminisce/wonder about his home country. Going back to India and settling down there was always on his agenda. The option was always there, but would he get the same kind of work environment that he had at his R&D centre in New York? Would he get a high-paying job there and an understanding boss like Steve? These were some of the questions that were going through his mind. He asked some of his IIT classmates to search for a research centre in India that would give him the kind of job satisfaction that he was getting in the US. One day he received a phone call from his scientist friend, Anshuman, in Bangalore (India), who informed him about GE’s John F. Welch Technology Centre (JFWTC) in the city.