The top companies to work for in India are mostly non-Indian

The top companies to work for in India are mostly non-Indian

Why Indians choose / chose to work for MNC-s over Indian corporations

Many people in my generation stay in India but work for multinational corporations / MNC-s (myself presently included). I believe that the economic benefits of such choices accrue more to the foreign companies than to India. This is the fourth part of a multi-part series exploring the economic and emotional factors behind such decisions in present times and in the past. The previous parts are here — 1, 2, 3.

For the last three posts, I have been talking about a preference among people of my generation to join MNC-s over Indian corporations. I thought it was high time now to get my ducks in order with some proof that this preference does really exist.

“Show me the data”

I took two online reports that listed top companies to work for in India, and tried to gather some statistics. The two reports are the following:

• “Top Companies in India”, ranking by Glassdoor. https://www.glassoor.co.in/Explore/top-companies-india_IL.14,19_IN115.htm; accessed Jan 2021.
• “Top Companies 2019: Where India wants to work now”, compiled by LinkedIn. https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/top-companies-2019-where-india-wants-work-now-editors-india-/

My findings from the Glassdoor report

• Of the top 10 companies to work for India, 7 are headquartered in India.
• Every company on this list is a software services company. By that reason, the 3 Indian companies to make it to this list automatically have a very high component of interaction with MNC-s outside India (e.g. sending engineers abroad for work, serving international customers). Thus international work culture must have a high rub-off effect on these Indian corporations.

My findings from the LinkedIn report

• According to this list, of the top 25 companies to work for in India, 15 are headquartered / owned outside India. I add the extra phrase “owned” when characterizing this list because Flipkart has majority ownership by Walmart, USA
• Thankfully, this list is much more diverse. Apart from the only Indian company to make both lists (TCS, another software services company), there are Indian startups like One97/Paytm, Oyo, Swiggy, Zomato, Ola. Also it is also good to see traditional companies like Reliance Industries and Larsen and Toubro and two banks make the cut.

The current verdict

Of a total of around 30 unique companies across both the lists,

• 17 are headquartered / owned outside India. So there really is a preference to join MNC-s over Indian corporations.
• 13 are headquartered / owned in India.
• Among these, 3 are software services companies that have high levels of interaction and hence rub-off effects from work with MNC-s.
• That leaves 10 non-software-services companies out of a total of 30 in the “best companies to work for” list.
• 5 of these are new-age Indian startups (Oyo, One97/Paytm, Swiggy, Zomato, Freshworks, Ola). I think this is the class of Indian companies that represent the best rays of hope for the future. I am sure many more will make the list in coming years.
• Almost no old Indian corporations made the list. Why was that so? Was it again, a case of organizations in a state of decay (much like the crumbling empires of India when the East India Company started making its stronghold in India)?
• Flipping the observation around to the positive side, I am curious what did Reliance Industries and Larsen and Toubro did right that so many other old Indian corporations failed to do?

So what am I missing?

All in all, the representation of multinationals (direct or indirect) in the above lists is disproportionately high. I am curious to know your thoughts. And more importantly, am I missing something?

• There must be amazing-to-work-for Indian companies out there that I am completely missing.
• Also are there some organizations (hospitals, government agencies, research organizations) in India that are amazing to work for but just would not make such a corporate-centric list?

If you worked / work at a great Indian organization, and you want to do a shout-out for your company, here’s your chance by leaving a comment below.

If you worked / work at an Indian organization that is a great place to work at, here’s your chance, I would love to hear from you.

Also, if you liked reading so far, stay tuned for my next post in this series.

Reposted from Linkedin: The top companies to work for in India are mostly non-Indian | LinkedIn