A Force to Reckon With

PRASAN FIRODIA IS REINVENTING FORCE MOTORS AND LEADING ITS GLOBAL BOUT.

- BY NEVIN JOHN

PRASAN FIRODIA, MD, Force Motors, is constantly on the move. On an average, he spends at least a week abroad every month, meeting partners such as BMW, Mercedes-Benz, and Rolls-Royce. But his recent travels go beyond partnerships as Force Motors deepens its international play—they are part of a larger mission to find distributors, who have business legacy. The company has expanded to 22 countries so far, and Firodia plans to increase the footprint by four to five countries every year, in a cautious and calibrated manner.

The reason behind the new plan is clear. For Force Motors, the flagship of the Abhay Firodia Group, not everything has aligned with the company's larger growth plans. It recently restructured its strategy, narrowing focus to a few chosen product segments to achieve scale and expand globally. Instead of SUVs, tractors or trucks, its core business will revolve around three product platforms—the Traveller, its premium variant Urbania in the light commercial vehicle platform, the Trax and Gurkha in the modular utility vehicle platform, and the Monobus in the monocoque bus platform.

To sharpen focus, Force has exited the tractor and auto-rickshaw businesses. Interestingly, it was Prasan's grandfather N.K. Firodia, an entrepreneur in post-independent India, who coined the term auto-rickshaw.

“We are clear that we want to grow in the shared passenger mobility business. We know the van business. Our customers believe in Force's capabilities in this segment. There's no point in deviating from core strengths when there are abundant unexplored opportunities,” says the third-generation Firodia, his tone firm and assured.