Corporate Affairs Landscape in India: Five Key Developments

With a background that spans defence, technology and FMCG over the course of a 24-year career, Garima Singh has more experience than most when it comes to charting the evolution of Corporate Affairs (CA) in India.

Having led CA, communications and sustainability across brands as diverse as Mahindra, PepsiCo, Mondelez and Apple, she is now Chief Corporate Affairs Officer at United Breweries, the Indian subsidiary of The Heineken Company. Her remit includes public policy, advocacy, communications, sustainability and CSR, with a reporting line directly to the Managing Director of UBL.

However, CA in India has not always been as influential or wide-reaching as Garima’s current role exemplifies, and she began by sharing insights into how the function has evolved in recent decades.

1. CA is increasingly seen as a must-have for Indian companies

As recently as 15 years ago, CA in India wasn’t a formal discipline and was often covered by a junior “liaison” role, says Garima, with the role of liaison officer or manager typically reporting to an MD’s office and having a limited scope to reactively deal with issues around tax, supply chain or government relations. Fast forward to today and increased globalisation, foreign investments in India and the influence of a Western approach to CA and lobbying have all rapidly accelerated the evolution of CA into a standalone function.

“Corporate Affairs today is known, respected and seen as a must-have requirement for any company,” says Garima. “It has emerged as a separate function and the leader generally reports to the MD and CEO and has a seat at the leadership table. Most big companies have a vertical of Corporate Affairs, even if it’s an Indian company.”

2. CA leaders own strategy and quantify commercial impact

The liaison-focused work that Garima described is now typically handled by entry-level CA professionals, with function leaders focusing on strategy. Garima estimates her role as 80% strategy and 20% operational but notes that this could vary for other CA leaders in India depending on the nature of the business and the size of their CA function.

And how have successful strategy-focused CA leaders changed the perception of the function internally with CEOs and boards? Garima has focused on presenting CA issues in a commercial context to build both strategic credibility and ownership. “Every time we make an impact on policy or any other issue, we try to quantify it,” she says. “As soon as you say ‘this many million dollars,’ the perception changes from a cost centre to a business partner. If you’re able to deliver results and validate what you say, I think after one or two deliveries they really take you seriously.” The ability to clearly communicate business impact as well as complex and nuanced issues to senior leaders is a vital skill, she adds, as there is often “no black-and-white answer.”

She shares some advice for aspiring CA leaders in India: “Understanding your worth and what you bring to the business is very important. You should not see yourself as a cost centre or as somebody who is running an errand or being told what to do. You should be proactive rather than reactive.”

3. Collaboration and business knowledge are key

Successful CA leaders in India must be excellent collaborators, says Garima, both externally with their stakeholder groups and internally within the business. “Collaboration is the key for the successful corporate affairs leader,” she says. “I think people generally mistake Corporate Affairs as very outward facing, but internally you have to have excellent working relationships with your teammates, management team and across the business.”

These strong connections are important not only when it comes to working collaboratively but are also vital to the other element that Garima identifies as key to success: developing a deep understanding of the business. This is an area she is particularly focused on as someone who has joined her current organisation relatively recently. “A lot of time should be spent by the Corporate Affairs leader to understand the business. I am taking what I’d call tuition classes internally with areas like sales and finance and asking questions to deeply understand areas like pricing, processes and so on.”

Being well-networked and taking a collaborative approach is especially important in the alcoholic beverages industry in India where individual states have the authority to determine policies on alcohol regulation. “For example,” explains Garima, “if there is a challenge in one state and there is a roadblock, then to understand that roadblock you may need to understand five different states to get the bigger picture. That can only be possible if you are collaborating well and have an urge to learn the business.”

4. Prioritising business continuity and CSR

There is some overlap when it comes to the top priorities of CA leaders in India compared to their counterparts across Asia-Pacific. The Andrews Partnership’s 2024 Corporate Affairs Leaders Study found that CA leaders in APAC rated managing reputational risk as their highest priority issue, an area that Garima agrees is also a top priority.

Whereas leaders in APAC rated geopolitical issues and sustainability as their second and third priorities, Garima cites business continuity and policy certainty as being higher up her agenda. These are particularly vital in the context of the operating environment in India, where United Breweries must adhere to alcohol regulations set by each of India’s 28 states. “These policies go for revision every year,” says Garima, “so you can imagine the amount of pressure it has on business continuity and policy certainty and obviously a big part then is the potential reputational risk.” Tracking policies and review processes across states can also be challenging and time-consuming, she adds: “It’s not a streamlined digital process and although digitalisation is underway, it’s not as progressed as some other sectors.”

Since 2014, Indian companies above a certain size must invest 2% of their profits in CSR initiatives, but for Garima prioritising this activity goes beyond a government mandate: “Sustainability is not just a requirement, but it is essential for all of us in our professional lives and in our personal lives. It’s important to our investors, to our community and also to our consumers.

“We try to link our CSR to the areas where we operate,” she adds. “If we have a plant in a particular location, we try to give back to that community. We try to improve the lives of the women and children who are not directly related to our business at all. To me, it’s a passion area and a personal commitment as well.”

5. CA will take an even more strategic leadership role

With many high-profile roles and brands already on her CV, Garima is also confident when it comes to the future direction of CA in India. She sees a range of issues as key to enabling the function to develop: “One is policy certainty from government, the second is improving the ease of doing business in India and then thirdly, sustainability. Sustainability will be integral to every function, but particularly Corporate Affairs because it has a key role to advocate around areas like green energy. Function leaders will play a more active role in the forming of alliances, giving their inputs on joint ventures, the expansion of the business, greenfield investments and so on.”

With its combination of internal and external knowledge, Garima says CA leaders are uniquely placed to take on a more proactive strategic leadership role in future. “They are the ones that have the outside-in perspective. A salesperson or a supply chain person won’t have the perspective of what the policy is likely to be in the next two years or five years, whereas the Corporate Affairs person is the only one sitting at the table who has a perspective that’s both internal and external.”

Garima adds that historically, CA in India has been male-dominated and the profession now needs more women to grow the future talent pipeline and bring diverse skills to the table: “Women can bring a broad spectrum of thought to the field and the ability to view issues through a different lens.”

She summarises the road ahead for CA leaders in India: “Corporate Affairs leaders who have the key attributes of articulation, collaboration and learning will be heard more and more. They are the ones who will contribute more actively to the strategic direction of the business.”