Master of the Rough Road

Known for speaking his mind, India’s top industrialist championed domestic competitiveness while also changing swiftly with the times

- M.G. Arun

You just can’t beat a Bajaj.’ So went the tagline for one of Bajaj Auto’s popular advertisements. When it came to candour, few could beat Rahul Bajaj, chairman emeritus of the Bajaj Group, who passed away in Pune on February 12 at the age of 83. Here’s an instance. The year 2000-’01 was one of the toughest for his business. After several years of high growth, sales had fallen over three per cent, to Rs 3,588 crore. Operating profits and margins had almost halved as competition, both domestic and foreign, snapped at the company’s heels. Bajaj knew it was time for a shake-up of the company culture, which by then had come to take success for granted. “It has been an article of faith for us at Bajaj Auto to say things as they are—be they good or bad, without exaggeration or sugarcoating. As your chief fiduciary, I have no intention of departing from this practice,” he said at the company’s annual general meeting that year. “The hard fact is that 2000-’01 has been a bad year for your company—financially the worst year in its recent history.” He went on to announce a big shift in the company’s focus, increasing the volumes and market share of motorcycles, growing the market for geared scooters as well as introducing four-stroke versions, a big push toward ungeared scooters and a thrust on higher productivity and cost reduction.