Revolutionary Road

THROUGH SHEER BUSINESS ACUMEN AND AN AVANT-GARDE APPROACH, RAJIV BAJAJ, MD, BAJAJ AUTO, HAS CHARTED HIS OWN COURSE TO CONQUER THE GLOBAL MARKETPLACE.

- Mitalee Kurdekar & Bibhor Srivastava

NUMBERS, THEY SAY, SELDOM LIE. AND IF that saying holds true, Bajaj Auto is on a pretty firm footing. The Pune-headquartered business is the world’s largest maker of three-wheelers and has claim to the third spot when it comes to motorcycles. Industry insiders know this to be no mean feat, given the cut-throat competition that currently marks the automotive space. However, most exemplary is the way is which Bajaj Auto has remodelled itself over the years in order to stay relevant to the customer and, in the process, retain or better its rankings. And a large portion of the credit for that goes to the man many believe – and rightfully so – to be a revolutionist.

Rajiv Bajaj, MD, Bajaj Auto, may have inherited a gem from his father and his grandfather before him, yet what the scion has done with the company is a case study in itself. The starting point – by Bajaj’s own admission – was a conversation between his father – Rahul Bajaj – and him, around 20 years ago.

“A few years after joining the company, I asked him: ‘What is it that you want me to do here?’, and my father narrated what my grandfather had once told him: ‘Do what you do the best and be the best at what you do.’ While that sounded like a reasonable ask, what did it mean to be the best at what you do; what is the measure of that? My father replied: ‘If you are a global company i.e. your product is accepted all over the world and is successful, only then can you be termed worldclass, hence the best or one of the best,” recounts Bajaj as if it were a recent conversation, probably indicating that the words guide him to this day.