All that debate over a 70- hour work week seems like much ado about nothing when you look at the findings of global leadership and executive search firm Amrop’s latest ‘Meaning of work’ survey. Comparing work attitudes across the Global South (India, China, and Brazil) and Western nations (USA, UK, Germany, France, and Poland), it found that 92 per cent of Indians enjoy working — the highest share among the surveyed countries — and 73 per cent see work as a reflection of who they are, far more than in Western nations (for example, 41 per cent in Germany). Interestingly, 73 per cent claimed a good work-life balance, and 42 per cent are willing to work more than 40 hours a week — significantly higher than in the West (16 per cent in France). While Indians prioritise career success (84 per cent link it to a ‘good life’), it’s family/ wellness in Western nations (62 per cent in the US). The survey polled 8,000 professionals (aged 20–60) with a bachelor’s or higher degree.

The frontier firm

The fifth annual Work Trend index from Microsoft is out and it says there is a rise of a new type of organisation, which it labels as ‘frontier firm’. Based on insights from a survey of 31,000 people across 31 countries, labour and hiring trends in the LinkedIn Economic Graph, and trillions of anonymous and aggregated signals from emails, meetings, and chats within Microsoft 365, it says organisations now have access to intelligence on demand. Frontier firms are made up of hybrid human-agent teams. The key findings are that intelligence is becoming abundant, affordable, and on demand. With AI agents that can reason, plan, and act as digital labour, companies can scale capacity as needed. With expertise on demand, the traditional org chart may be replaced by a work chart. Every employee becomes an agent boss — someone who builds, delegates to, and manages agents to amplify their impact.

India delivering superior returns for consumer product firms

India is quickly shedding its reputation as a daunting emerging market and is delivering superior returns to winning global consumer product companies, says Bain & Company. In a new report, ‘LEAP to win: A playbook for consumer products multinational corporations in India’, Bain profiled 30 top consumer product MNCs with Indian operations and found that two-third (19) experienced higher-than-industry (India FMCG) growth between 2018 and 2023. For some leading MNCs, Indian affiliates deliver a total shareholder return 2-6 times that of their global parents. When looking at those with an Indian revenue contribution of at least $100 million, the report found that 60 per cent of the Indian affiliates’ revenues are registering at minimum double their parent companies’ growth rate.

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Published on April 27, 2025