‘Aiming For Mechanised Solutions Rather Than Just Selling Tractors'

Nikhil Nanda today heads the engineering company his paternal grandfather Har Prasad Nanda founded in 1948. But Chairman and Managing Director Nanda that his children would have to earn their place in the organisation. He tells BW Businessworlds Avishek Banerjee that Escorts is going through a phase of re-invention, its aim being to provide mechanised solutions for agriculture rather than simply push sales volumes of its tractors. Edited excerpts:

- Avishek Banerjee

How has the tractor industry and Escorts evolved over the years?

Earlier, the entire focus was on bringing in a tractor to a state that relied on bullock carts. Then we went in for ‘tractorisation’. Now you talk of tractors and implements. The future is about precision farming. So, instead of focusing on tractors, the entire focus is on crops. Now it is about what you create and what you give in terms of mechanisation of high-yield tractors and what it is about a tractor that will lead to maximum productivity in the most profitable manner.

The entire objective of what we do is to make the consumer profitable. So, I think the future is going to be about data and all the digitisation support for equipment. Talking of Escorts, the last seven to eight years have been fantastic and I am very proud to be a part of this platform.

Do you see yourself as a market leader in the tractor industry and among the top five players in the world?

I am not much of a number’s person. Sure, we want to be leaders. But I think Escorts needs to be the most intelligent and the most trusted company. We want to be a company that embraces the consumer and the consumer must feel that we can trust the company in terms of the platform and what we derive from that platform. So, I think for us, it is about empowering customers and innovating and empowering them digitally and smartly so that they are able to embrace the technology in a most profitable manner. Numbers will automatically come, but our focus is on trust and productivity.

Was the launch of the NET Series last year considered an inflection point for Escorts?