By: Bajaj Auto’s Human Resources Head
This is about an industry where China has been beaten by India.
In year 1983, I passed out of the Engineering college in Mumbai, which is considered to be one of the best such colleges. Irrespective of the branch that you have studied—Mechanical, Electrical, Civil, Production, Textile – 80% become coders for the software industry. It is a reality.
In the year 2000, I am at Bajaj Auto as its HR head (which was after working for 15 years as a technical person). I am off to conduct campus interviews: aim is to hire 100 Engineers who will build the 100-cc engine of a motorcycle.
I am day 5 in VJTI and all other RECs. I end up hiring 10 people from 15 colleges. In every college I am told by the Training and Placement officer (TPO) that technology companies get preference. I say I don’t understand; is building an Engine not technology? No, that’s manufacturing, I am told. Writing Cobal code for a bank in New York by a TCS employee is technology for them.
Next year I write to all colleges. I want to be day 0 in your campus. I will give three times salary of the best “so called technology companies”, but only if I am day 0. Hiring 100 Engineers at three times salary was no problem for me as compared to TCS, which had to hire 2000 “Bodies”. They could never match that salary.
And that’s how Bajaj Auto built its R&D. Batch by Batch. Designing, making and manufacturing of motorcycles is appealing and I am ready to pay for it.
The selection ratio was 1:15. Most of the IITS, RECS, and VJTIS had toppers who were absolutely useless. They could not draw a Carnot cycle, could not tell the difference between a diesel and petrol engine. You give them an elevation and plan and they could not draw the side view. Most of them were focusing on writing code.
But we found gems; we found guys who were passionate and knowledgeable but who could not express in English. I started conducting interviews in Hindi, Marathi, Telugu, Tamil and so on.
There was another company doing the same – TVS. South based, they also built a great R&D resource.
In year 2005, Chinese motorcycles attacked India with products which were 30% cheaper. Many dealers started selling them. Press predicted demise of Indian manufacturers. Within 6 months they went broke. Their quality was no match to Indian motorcycles. They never came back again to India.
Bajaj then stared attacking the Chinese in Africa. Africans had two choices: either buy expensive Japanese motorcycles or cheap Chinese. Chinese motorcycles used to come in a box. You buy the box and take it to a mechanic and he will assemble it.
In Nigeria motorcycles are used as taxis. So no one is going to pay you a dime more. In such a market Bajaj launched it’s fully assembled motorcycle. Priced more than the Chinese one but less than the Japanese one. And we worked hard. Today Bajaj is a market leader. TVS is number two.
Chinese have been driven out of the market. You can see videos of the love that the Okada (taxi drivers) have for Bajaj Bikes. Country by Country in Africa, in South America Indians captured the market driving out the Chinese from there.
In 2018 India became the largest manufacturer of two wheelers in the world (that is twice the size of China). Indian companies have started buying out European Brands. The market leader of motorcycles in Europe is not BMW, it is KTM owned by Bajaj. China is slipping fast not only in the manufacturing of Bikes also in the manufacturing of components. Indian suppliers are beating the Chinese hands down.
Between three Indian Companies Hero, Bajaj and TVS India today dominates the world market. Honda a Japanese company has shifted most of it’s R&D to India.
The question posed to Indian industries is: Why was this not done in TVs, in Computers, in Robots, in Mobile phones, in Artificial Intelligence, in defence weapons, in space exploration, in Pharmaceuticals and other industries? The same country is there, the same labor laws are there, the same infrastructure is there but we did it and you – Indian industries – could not do. Why? Why? We all Indians are crying. Please quickly change yourself.
Indian businessmen are characterized by a myopic vison—it’s both short term as well as geographically limited. Of course, the government also does not help. So, who is responsible for the Chinese dominance in Indian market and elsewhere — the government, the people or the Corporates?
I think it is all the three. When even ITI trained turners and fitters refuse to work in a shop floor, when a Stock Broker is paid more than an Engineer, when typing code is mistaken for technology, when governments refuse to amend antique labor and land laws, when corporates think local and not global and finally when you – yes you – will not send your son to work on the shop floor, each one of this factor is as responsible for the Chinese dominance as much as their “Ethical Corruption.”
We have been looted because we have left our doors and windows open to allow Chinese to come in and not for our own going out through them to conquer the outside world and its market.