‘In Every Segment Of Mobility’

Mahindra Group’s executive chairman Anand Mahindra in conversation with C.H. Unnikrishnan.

Excerpts:

What was the vision behind Mahindra’s move to become India’s first fully-integrated aerospace player?
Mahindra views the aerospace sector as an exciting opportunity for growth over the coming years and decades. Being a player in aerospace demands an intense focus on technology and innovation, with a steep learning curve and little room for error. Aerospace is also a great example of how the private sector can ‘Make in India’ to very exacting engineering standards for the world. Global demand for aerospace products and components, particularly in the developing world, is projected to continue rising over the coming decades as increasingly affluent citizens take to the skies.

Your perspective on synergies the group can derive from each of its widely diversified business segments for its consolidated growth.

The Mahindra Group is structured as a federation of businesses; each functioning as a separate, empowered entity. This allows each business leader to fulfil his or her fiduciary duty and maximise profitability in their business, but at the same time gives them access to a wide range of capabilities, expertise and experiences across sectors within the group. It also helps us remain lean, agile and responsive to any changes in the environment. My role is to create a culture of meaningful conversations between the group companies, to help make these conversations more effective and to ensure that the synergies across the group are being leveraged to their potential. An example of collaboration across the group is DiGiSense, our connected car platform was co-developed by Tech Mahindra and M&M. Going forward, it would be interesting to see Pininfarina, M&M, Mahindra Electric and Tech Mahindra co-create a state-of-the-art electric car.

Is there any unique strategy behind spreading out the mobility solutions business in all three segments — land, water and air?
We are the only group globally to be present in every segment of mobility from tractors and trucks to cars (conventional and electric) to aircraft to boats (land, air, water). More importantly, we have a global footprint with manufacturing facilities across Korea, Australia, USA and Europe. This gives us immense scale and leads to synergies in procurement, technological know-how, R&D and manufacturing excellence, among others.

From a customer perspective, it is convenient and seamless to get plugged into the Mahindra ecosystem from technology to financing to insurance broking to servicing to used car sales. In fact, our One Mahindra alliance with Ola was just this. The drivers additionally get the benefits of our CSR activities such as the Nanhi Kali programme for the education of their daughters.