Ashok Leyland, the flagship of the Hinduja Group, reported phenomenal revenues of Rs. 6,046.89 crore, against Rs. 4622.41 crore, same period last year, with an increase of 31 percent. The export volumes grew by 39 percent in the quarter. The company achieved 10.1 percent EBITDA margin in Q2 and has registered a double-digit EBITDA margin in 10 out of the past 11 quarters. And the man who has been spearheading Ashok Leyland's remarkable growth is its CEO & MD, Vinod K. Dasari.

Dasari is also the man who is responsible for the fantastic turnaround of Ashok Leyland a few years back. And he has not looked back since then. Commenting on the amazing performance, Dasari acknowledges that ‘it has been a satisfying performance'. "Despite all the challenges, our robust market share growth exemplifies the technological leadership of Ashok Leyland. Our iEGR technology for BS-IV has been well accepted by customers. To support the rapidly growing network of customers, we have invested in the digital market place to enhance our customer's efficiency, performance, and profitability through various means of "anytime, anywhere" support for their vehicles. Winning the Deming Prize second time is a testimony of our quality systems. We are very proud to have achieved this," Dasari says.

One of the highlights of Dasari's leadership is his focus on making the organisation future-ready, while addressing the present challenges. Dasari believes that 2018, being a pre-election year, should see increased public spending as well as incentivizing private consumption. "This coupled hopefully with a good monsoon should see buoyancy in demand. For the auto industry in India, 2018 would be a point of inflection, wherein the activity in Electric Vehicle space and preparation for Euro 6 would markedly increase. This should see increased investments across the value chain along with other investments to meet the new regulations. Overall, an exciting year ahead," he says.

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