Convocation Address of Shri Brijmohan Lall Munjal

Last year, a young innovator was chosen as the world entrepreneur of the year Ernst and Young. And that 34-year old gentlemen had starte developing a very special software graphics at age of 19, which was applicable for advanced medical treatments (Cancer).

Thus there is no exclusive qualification that makes you a successful entrepreneur. There are all kinds of possibilities.

Coming back to the experience of Hero Group, as we grew and expanded our business, we brought into the folds many friends and associates as our dealers, ancillaries, vendors and suppliers. We provided them technology, and in some cases finance as well. For the last 45 years they are with us and in many cases new generations have taken up the business of those ancillaries and still continue to supply us components.

Sometime people ask me - How is that you practiced JIT and best productivity in 50s, even before the concept got evolved ?

Actually we had to respond to the economic and market conditions that prevailed in those days. (Dr. Alagh can bear me out on this) Money and credit was quite scarce then, not like today. So we wanted to use all scarce resource in the best manner to improve our efficiency. We could not afford inventory. At the same time we were not in a position to price the bicycles higher as it was a mass transport product. In addition there was good bit of competition.

There is a cultural angle to what we practiced. As a tradition people in our area seldom resort to credit. They always start small, with their own funds and try to come up. The innovative efforts of Ramgharia's needs to be emphasized here. They fabricated lots of machines and saved foreign exchange for the country. That is why Ludhiana industry is relatively efficient and low cost.

Using this strength of Ludhiana, we created a hub of ancillaries around our facilities, so that we got the components in time and at regular intervals. Certain raw materials like steel sheets and tyres used to come from far off places and sometimes created mismatch with our prduction planning. So we persuaded them to open depots in Punjab for timely and regular supplies.

High Productivity and low inventory in our operation was one of the criteria why Honda joined hands with us. There is a big lesson here: wherever there is sense of mentoring and sharing, business not only grows but sustains.

Relationship management is one of the strengths with Hero Group. The relationship and bondage of our companies gets extended to the dealers, customers and employees. All across the Group there is just one philosophy - that is, all stakeholders are part our large extended family.

Now-a-days there is a general impression that choosing this career is a route to overnight rags to riches story. Barring few exceptional digital ventures, normally it is a long-=term proposition. One must have patience; application and ethical dealing as we progress to build our organisations and this is the recipe I prescribe to the people who would like to build great organisations.

One of the important things that we at, Hero Group, practiced and promoted was running the business on ethical values and in a transparent manner. It is only now that we have "corporate governace" and other appropriate regulations in place but from the very ebginning our company had some of these principles clearly spelt out. In building cultural values in our companies we had a great bit of influence from our elders on issues like respect for individuals, sense of sharing the benefits, caring the employees and customers and spreading the spirit of teamwork.

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