India, Feb. 27 -- Successful corporate histories can be unmade as easily as they are made. In some cases, the undoing is permanent. In others, it is temporary, but nerve-wracking, and leaves dark scars. Two Indian transnationals (TNCs), and one that was a TNC more than 15 years ago, find themselves in corporate swamps. One of them is sinking deeper into a quicksand, inch by inch, every day. The other two are in a mess, but their chances of pulling through are high. In any case, the trio will dent not just their business empires, but the economy. In some ways, the former hints at the pulls and pressures on the latter.

For the one, who is virtually neck-deep in the marsh-with-little-escape, may need to blame himself. His unbridled ambition...