NEW DELHI: Maruti Suzuki is developing a plan to hold onto first place for the ensuing 25 years. R.C. Bhargava, a former civil servant and the founding chairman of Maruti, reflects on Maruti’s 40-year partnership with Suzuki and recalls the company’s journey from being a government-sponsored side project in socialist India to becoming the unchallenged market leader in passenger cars. The company, famed for its thrifty management approach, provided India with its first locally produced mass-market vehicle. Edited passages:
You introduced the Maruti 800 in 1983, the legendary little car that transformed the Indian auto industry during the period of Premier Padminis and Ambassadors. What do you think about the company’s successful journey over the past 40 years?
It’s so unbelievable almost. People predicted that we would not live very long when we first began. When Osamu Suzuki signed the joint venture with the government, his detractors in Japan shared this opinion and predicted Suzuki’s demise. People questioned us. When we first started, that was the mood, and we were all quite hesitant. My co-workers thought I was crazy when I left (IAS) to work for Maruti. But we, altered the manufacturing landscape, which subsequently altered the automotive sector and, in the end, altered public perceptions of India as a manufacturing nation.
Has your working philosophy changed as a result of the Japanese? In the 1980s, auto manufacturing in India lacked sophistication. What lessons did you learn?
We (V. Krishnamurthy and I) recognized that our chances of success were extremely slim if we adhered to the traditional working practices of a public sector organization. A new window was opened by the conversations with the Japanese, particularly with Mr. Suzuki. And learned from the Japanese. Hence, to make it work in India, we needed to figure out what methods worked in Japan and how we might adapt them.
Two important lessons from the Japanese were trust and teamwork. Suzuki continued by discussing additional topics including timeliness and productivity. Today, Maruti has a 96–97% attendance rate. We were extremely economical from the start, which allowed us to increase the internal resources’ capacity from our initial 100,000 yearly capacity to more than 1.5 million. Now, we are intending to build a manufacturing facility in Kharkhoda to produce up to a million units.
Do you think Maruti will have difficulties when new competitors ratchet up the competition?
In India and the rest of the world, Maruti does not appear to be lagging in terms of technology, output, or quality. Small vehicles continue to be a key product in India and are now led by Suzuki Japan. In addition, Suzuki and Toyota have a partnership.
Does the Toyota partnership present fresh export prospects?
In two years, we increased exports by half. The volume of exports will increase once our Kharkhoda plant starts operating in 2025 along with the FTAs.
Follow and connect with us on Facebook, LinkedIn & Twitter
