IMA Insights

Valuations are shaped by perception as much as performance. Rather than a scorecard of historical performance, they a referendum on the future. For CFOs, this demands mastery of strategy as much as numbers, storytelling as much as stewardship, and judgement as much as analysis. At a recent India CFO Forum session in Pune, Amit Agarwal, Group CFO of DCM Shriram, offered a candid view of what truly moves the valuation needle: from strategic clarity and capital discipline to investor confidence and credible storytelling. The discussion explored how CFOs can shape market belief, balance prudence with ambition and translate business direction into building long-term value.

The attached podcast summarises these discussions, but in brief: 

• Valuation is no longer a financial metric; it reflects future potential, strategic clarity and the credibility of delivery.
• Intangibles account for as much as 70-80% of market value, shifting the focus to innovation, narrative and capability-building.
• Strategic direction must align with long-term trends, supported by a disciplined capital allocation philosophy and transparent communication.
• Investor perception is shaped less by numbers and more by the coherence of the story, quality of investors, and consistency of delivery.
• CFOs must architect strategic narratives, build investor confidence, manage risk pragmatically and enable value-accretive acquisitions.
• Resilience, prudence and agility underpin long-term valuation in volatile markets.

A detailed conclusion paper from the recent IMA session with Rashmi Pradeep will follow in a couple of days, but in the meantime your columnist offers this brief assessment of the four new labour codes and what they mean for business.  

The podcast explains the core changes, the shift towards simpler wage definitions, greater flexibility in hiring, wider social security and a more streamlined compliance regime. It also notes the practical challenges that firms will face as they adjust policies, systems and processes. While the reform is a bold step by the Modi administration, its real test lies in execution and the ability of companies and states to adapt. This short note sets the stage for the deeper analysis to come.

With technology, geopolitics and supply-chain fragility converging to redefine national competitiveness, semiconductors have moved from a behind-the-scenes enabler to a strategic priority for governments and enterprises alike. This ~$600 bn industry is poised to breach the trillion-dollar mark by 2030, driven by an explosion of data, compute intensity and AI-led workloads.

At a recent India CEO Forum session in Bangalore, Anand Ramamoorthy, Managing Director of Micron Technology Operations India LLP, explored the forces reshaping the industry and India’s ambitions of building domestic capability. The discussion examined structural headwinds, the role of AI and architectural innovation in shaping its future, and the opportunity for India to position itself as a trusted, scalable partner in the world’s most complex value chain.

The attached podcast summarises these discussions, but in brief: 

• Semiconductors are today a strategic lever of national power.

• India’s stability, scale and design depth give it a credible starting point in the global semiconductor reset.

• AI is transforming both, chip demand and development, creating new adjacencies.

• Environmental concerns are turning sustainability into a competitive edge.

• The imperatives for India Inc to move from intent to capability including owning IP, deepening talent and building a resilient startup ecosystem.

As a younger man, your columnist once wandered through the vast courtyards of the Meenakshi Temple in Madurai, awed by its towering gopurams and the hum of quiet devotion. What struck him most, though, was how seamlessly faith and enterprise coexisted. The temple was as much a monument to piety as it was to accounting.   

This week’s podcast episode revisits that dual legacy through the story of the Pandya dynasty, whose ports thrummed with trade from Rome to Southeast Asia. Their pearl fisheries, merchant guilds and maritime laws made them masters of the southern seas. Centuries before banks and stock exchanges, the Pandyas’ proved that prosperity could be built on trust, ledgers and a goddess’s blessing.

In a fast-changing business environment, leaders are expected to deliver growth, innovation and impact all at once. A recent session of the IMA India CEO Forum featured B Santhanam, Former CEO of Saint-Gobain Asia Pacific and India Region, who reflected on his 25-year journey of building a purpose-led enterprise. His narrative offered a rare inside view of how organisations evolve across decades, how leaders navigate contradictions and how purpose often emerges not through design but accumulated choices. What followed was a candid account of strategy, culture, innovation and stakeholder engagement, one that resonates with the leadership challenges CEOs face today.

At our recent Q3FY26 CHRO Forum Dialogue in Bangalore, we hosted former Nestlé CMD Suresh Narayanan, who, drawing on decades of experience stewarding culture and capability and managing crises, reflected on the principles that anchor leadership through change. Our second session of the day, run as an open-house, focused on the imperative of building a future-ready workforce.

The attached podcast summarises these discussions.

In an era where marketing is expected to prove its value with precision, AI is reshaping creativity and accountability. At a recent India CMO Forum Coffee Chat in New Delhi, senior marketing leaders examined how AI is being deployed across the marketing value chain, from content and automation to analytics and attribution, and what this means for creativity, measurement and evolving C-Suite dynamic. The discussion explored where AI genuinely adds value, where its limits lie and how it is redefining the very idea of what creative excellence means.

 The conversation yielded valuable insights on the future of AI in marketing. The attached podcast summarises the discussions, but in brief:

• AI has made marketing more measurable, but not always more meaningful.
• Efficiency has improved but creative conviction and long-term investment remain harder to defend.
• The future CMO must blend proof with perspective: filtering signal from noise and defining what matters, not just what can be measured.
• Integration – getting various parts to work together – will be marketing’s biggest AI -related challenge.
• AI will not replace creativity but raise the standard for what counts as creative.
• The defining edge for marketers will be judgement, together with the ability to translate intelligence into imagination and data into distinctiveness.

For years, business growth in India followed a simple script: acquire more customers, spend heavily on visibility and let scale deliver results. That model is faltering. Rising acquisition costs, proliferating consumer choice and the erosion of switching friction have upended the rules, making retention the true engine of sustainable growth. India’s shifting economics is forcing leaders to rethink the balance between acquisition and loyalty; the organisational and sectoral challenges arising from embedding retention; and the emerging models that could define the next decade of customer strategy.

The attached podcast examines the new economics of customer retention in greater detail

In an era where technology promises exponential gains but often delivers only incremental results, the CFO’s role has expanded from that of financial custodian to one of transformation catalyst. At a recent India CFO Forum session in Delhi, run in association with Celonis, a high-powered panel of business leaders explored how Process Intelligence (PI) can create real business impact. They discussed how finance can lead this next wave of transformation, using PI to uncover execution gaps, improve cashflow, expand margins and make AI truly work for the enterprise.

The attached podcast summarises these discussions, but in brief:

• AI cannot deliver value if the underlying processes are fragmented. PI can link data, people and systems, transforming automation into measurable ROI.
• PI can reveal hidden inefficiencies across order-to-cash, procure-to-pay and service cycles, providing a factual base for better decisions on cost, cash and control.
• A process view of the firm can help link every deviation, delay and decision to its financial impact. 
• Embedding PI requires top-down sponsorship, cross-functional ‘fusion’ teams and governance structures that align IT, operations and finance. 
• Across sectors, PI can accelerate cashflow, expand margins and strengthen controls, turning AI into a deterministic business engine.

As protectionism rises and trade corridors fragment, the next frontier of corporate leadership lies in mastering resilience: sustaining growth, managing costs and leading with purpose in a world of perpetual disruption. At a recent India CEO Forum session in Mumbai, John Pearson, CEO of DHL Express and a Member of the Board of Management of Deutsche Post AG, outlined how global businesses can thrive amid volatility. Drawing on DHL’s presence across 219 countries, he reflected on the principles that have enabled DHL to stay resilient in a fractured economy.

The attached podcast summarises these discussions, but in brief:

• Global trade remains deeply resilient amidst rising tariffs and geopolitical shocks as supply chains re-route rather than retreat.

• Resilience depends on combining strong leadership with empowered teams and a cost mindset built on agility rather than austerity.

• Digitalisation and AI are amplifying efficiency across logistics and commerce with e-Commerce growth sustaining its post-pandemic acceleration.

• India has emerged as a central node in reconfigured trade networks, climbing 14 places on the Logistics Performance Index and attracting strong FDI momentum.

• Sustainability is fast becoming a license to operate, with firms embedding green logistics and sustainable fuels redefining cost leadership for the decade ahead.