Companies such as China's Mindray and India's TRS serve home markets that include vast Numbers of people for whom every yuan or rupee counts. So these companies focus relentlessly on reducing costs.

Today Mr Godrej supervises the firm peacefully along with his brother and cousin, while employing a cadre of professional managers.

Then, the company's management outlined exactly how to tell if people had those traits, and it now will only hire the ones that do.