SUVival Mode

Discernment And Farsightedness Is What Dr Pawan Goenka, Md, Mahindra & Mahindra, Carries With Him In Rewriting The Rules For The Auto Industry.

- Jayashree Kini Mendes

MORE THAN TWO DECADES AGO, WHEN Clayton Christensen introduced his theory of disruptive innovation, little did he know that one 75-year-old Indian multi-national has long been working quietly to achieve this goal without giving it a name. One of India’s oldest and most respected firms, Mahindra & Mahindra, has been at the forefront of introducing novelty in the constantly changing dynamics of the automotive industry.

The man at the helm leading the change is Dr Pawan Goenka, MD, Mahindra & Mahindra (M&M), and one of India’s most followed leaders in the automotive industry. He is aware that two factors drive the automotive market: Technology and innovation. You cannot offer one without the other. The home-grown auto maker proved this with its most recent launch, Marazzo. The company left no stone unturned to launch a globally-engineered vehicle — a collaboration between Mahindra Automotive North America (MANA) and Mahindra Research Valley (MRV). The much-talked about shark-inspired design of the vehicle came from Mahindra-owned Pininfarina and its own design house. With a one-of-its-kind ladder-on frame chassis and a front wheel drive configuration along with a transversely-mounted engine, the patented architecture offers ruggedness, which is what the company wanted to achieve.

Besides technology and innovation, Dr Goenka says the automotive business has three parts to it: manufacturing, the product itself, and distribution. “The product is out there for everyone to see. But if you look at how we have evolved in manufacturing, it is something that few people would like to know and understand. But before this comes the product planning and design. It’s here where we have progressed rapidly taking each aspect at a time and thoroughly too,” he adds.

DESIGN IN THE DNA