HINTERLAND HERO

Hero MotoCorp has seen a sharp rebound on the back of strong rural sales. Can it sustain?

- RAJIV SINGH

FEBRUARY, 2020, JAIPUR

Thick fog, and an air of anticipation, gripped the Pink City. Hero MotoCorp, the world’s No 1 two-wheeler maker, was about to unveil its ‘rejuvenated vision’, and mission to ‘be the future of mobility’. Global distributors, investors and stakeholders, who had swarmed into Hero MotoCorp’s research and development centre in Jaipur on February 18, expected something spectacular. And it turned out to be true: Pawan Munjal, chairman & managing director and CEO of Hero MotoCorp, announced an investment of ₹10,000 crore into research & development (R&D) for alternative mobility, new product development, facility expansion and brand building across the globe. The message was clear: The maker of Splendor and HF Deluxe bikes and Activa scooters, which was grappling with a slowdown and muted consumer sentiment over the last two years, was shifting gears.

The sense of anticipation didn’t end there—at least not for the 64-year-old Munjal. But he didn’t foresee good tidings. Covid-19 was rapidly beginning to spread out of China, reaching the US, Western Europe, Australia, Canada and closer home, Singapore, Thailand and South Korea. India had reported its first case on January 30, but few saw the pandemic that was coming.

Munjal began preparing for the worst. For starters, he shunned the handshake, preferring to greet guests with the traditional namaskar. By the end of February—almost a month before India went into a nationwide lockdown—he set up a Business Continuity Taskforce with his leadership team. A sense of urgency gripped the top brass at the corporate headquarters in Delhi.