Mahindra & Mahindra: Carving A New Path
Group Mahindra is rising from a product seller to a provider of experience. Agile to the changing business landscape, the $19-billion business conglomerate is shifting to the new business philosophy in all the areas that it is present. Whether it is mobility, realty or hospitality, it wants to walk an extra mile to win the market place. Experimenting with new ranges and designs in the automobile, offering sustainable models in infrastructure and providing unique experiences to holidayers — all are part of this changing strategy.
Anand Mahindra-led agrotech-to-aerospace Mahindra & Mahindra, amidst a number of market disruptions, recorded around 23.5 per cent growth in net profit at Rs 3,956 crore in 2016-17. Its revenue rose about 8 per cent to Rs 47,096 crore and operational profit posted 12 per cent increase at Rs 6,112 crore last year.
The company, which is in the top 20 of BW Real 500 list, with a total revenue of Rs 84,503.15 crore and total assets valued Rs 1,13,918.94 crore as on March, remain committed to investing in technology, growing its global presence and maintaining the leadership position. But, its new approach will be more customer centric now with the new business philosophy of Rise.
“At M&M, we aim to provide accessible technology to our customers whether it is through providing safety features even for an entry level variant, or the fuel smart technology in Blazo. Our recently launched DiGiSENSE platform, creates a connected platform across our wide range of vehicles and tractors,” says Mahindra & Mahindra’s MD Pawan Goenka.
In the tractor business, most of its new launches were supported by the best global technologies. For instance, the recently launched Yuvo and Arjun Novo has strongly established the technology leadership and continuously maintain the same.
The company has incubated two digital startups — Trringo and SmartShift. “With Trringo, we provide accessible mechanisation for our small and marginal farmers. With SmartShift, we provide a convenient platform for cargo mobility to small business owners and logistics providers,” adds Goenka.
Fiscal 2016-17 was tough for many Indian corporates, especially for the ones which focusses on consumer facing areas. “The period was marked by significant developments on both the global as well as domestic fronts. On the international front, Brexit and the US elections heralded a sea change, forebodingly laden with darker possibilities for the global and even the Indian economy. The political outlook for globalisation too changed in the wake of the above developments. On the domestic side, a constitutional amendment paved the way for the long-awaited and transformational GST while demonetisation... signalled a regime shift to punitively raise the costs of unaccounted transactions,” Mahindra wrote in its first integrated report released this year.
However, the company’s winning formula was rested on a rigorous cost restructuring and efficiency improvement efforts. The company continued with the cost restructuring exercises and efficiency improvements, which resulted in significant savings. This has also helped the company maintain profitable growth in the slowly deteriorating global economic scenario.
