Past Tense, Present Perfect, Future Ready

Over the last five years, Hero MotoCorp and its chief Pawan Munjal have put the Honda split behind them and built R&D capabilities to consolidate the company’s position as a two-wheeler behemoth.

- N Madhavan

On September 7 this year, 29 Hero MotoCorp executives—all members of the top management team, including a few handpicked future leaders—were at Harvard University on a five-day immersion programme. The course focussed on two areas: How the mobility space will shape up in the future and, in that context, how they should revisit their present business. The team also met a variety of stakeholders deeply involved in new tech—the Internet of Things, self-driving cars, for instance—and visited world-class laboratories and incubators in and around Boston.

Though the company has previously undertaken scenario planning—that is, infusing flexibility in long-term plans—this was the first time that such an elaborate exercise was attempted. The reason, Pawan Munjal, chairman, managing director (MD) and CEO of Hero MotoCorp, tells Forbes India, is quite simply to not be taken by surprise in the future.

“Hero MotoCorp is a mobility company and it [mobility] is one of the top three disrupted sectors in the world today,” he says during a two-hour-long interview in early September. “We need to be very mindful and aware of what is going on in that space—which way the world is moving and the kind of things that are happening—to stay ahead of the curve.” We met the industrialist at his South Delhi Panchsheel residence, heavily populated with paintings, sculptures and figurines that cut across multiple cultures.

During the course of the conversation, it became clear that the 61-year-old Munjal’s focus is the road ahead. And it is also evident that he is able to look forward because Hero MotoCorp’s present is secure and under control.