Francis Kanoi has been an observer and an insider during the most defining period for business in India.

Francis Kanoi was set up around the time when India was taking its first tentative steps towards liberalization, in the early eighties.

The twenty five years, since then, have been the most defining period for business in India as the country moved, in fits and starts, towards globalisation.

During this period, Francis Kanoi saw, at close quarters, the complex interplay of rapid changes in environment, the ups and downs in the state of the economy and the radical changes in the market conditions.

It has seen Indian majors in confrontation with global majors. It has seen fields, cruising comfortably with three or four majors, turning into bloody battle fields in just a couple of years, as a dozen or more of the best in the world came charging into the fray.

It has watched companies, towering in their fields, capitulating meekly at the first onslaught of competition, as they stood chained to the legacy of the protected environment in which they had thrived.

Francis Kanoi had a ring-side view of many of these battles and has documented the before, the during and whatever of the after that has been there, so far.

It witnessed global companies plunging in rashly, enticed by the sheer size of India's population and some dubious data on its purchasing power. They misread the market, the local partners, the dealer community and the customers and paid a heavy price for it.

It has seen company-dealer relationships turning upside down, with the dealers, dictated to and squeezed for so long, turning assertive with the proliferation of options, and starting, in turn, to dictate and squeeze the companies.

Most of all, it has seen the Indian consumers evolve through this period, meek and diffident at first, confident and demanding subsequently, picking and choosing from the fruits of competition and globalization, throwing out old loyalties and being guided only by their self-interest.

During this period, Francis Kanoi was monitoring the economy, analysing the markets, forecasting the demand, tracking companies, brands, dealers and the consumer behaviour, compiling databases and advising companies on strategic marketing.

It has had its ears to the ground and has constantly been in interaction with professionals in the fields, learning from their experiences as well as influencing their thinking.

It is this frame of reference that Francis Kanoi brings to the understanding of marketing problems and predicting behaviour.