Scrapping policy and production linked incentive will bring long-term benefits

VIKRAM KIRLOSKAR, a fourth-generation entrepreneur from the business group that bears his family name, seldom holds back when he speaks about the problems of the auto industry.

- ABHINAV SINGH

In an exclusive interview, he talks about the overall demand, the challenges before the sector, the four-month strike at the Toyota Kirloskar Motor plant at Bidadi near Bengaluru, and the road ahead for the company.

Q/How did you deal with the labour strike?

A/A month into the strike, in December 2020, we resumed production involving supervisory staff and other workmen to meet the pentup market demand. Soon after, many employees gradually and voluntarily started returning to work, thereby ensuring minimum impact that the strike had on production or our customers and other stakeholders. In the first place, the pandemic has enabled us to further strengthen our processes and has helped us become more flexible along with business continuity plans. Our processes at the production end were agile to the extent where we were able to get past the challenges and meet customer demands. Our sales upswing over the last three months stands as a testimony to our strong fundamental practice of skilling our workforce across levels and our robust processes in preparing for all kinds of uncertainties.

Q/How has been the sales in the last two quarters?