The year was 1989. India hadn't yet opened the doors to globalisation. And his company's worth was about Rs1.5 billion. But he believed in something that others didn't. He envisaged an industrial revolution in India when others couldn't. So he went ahead and invested Rs one billion for technologically upgrading the Bharat Forge plant. It was a gamble; one of the biggest in Indian industries.
His own father Neelkanth - who had turned to manufacturing in the 1960s after being a farmer - almost thought that his son Baba Kalyani was about to destroy a lifetime's achievement. And industry experts too were ruthless in their criticism.
They believed Baba Kalyani had lost his mind with the decision to double the company's capacity in a sluggish domestic market. "He was creating a white elephant," they said. They had a reason to say so. It was a time, when most of his rivals were getting battered by the domestic recession.
But he was actually multiplying his capacities in anticipation of a global surge. And he was right. The decision transformed Bharat Forge Ltd (BFL) into a manufacturing powerhouse. And it is this vision that has made Baba Neelkanth Kalyani, Chairman & Managing Director of Bharat Forge Limited, the ‘Brand Ambassador of Indian Manufacturing'.
"Recessions are always cyclical in nature in the sense that they affect certain sectors and geographies at a time. That's the reason you need to keep your business interests diversified," he once told your editor. It is this wisdom that has helped him tide over several downturns.
"Well, every automotive supplier has to deal with the cyclical downturn. Our strategy is to diversify into the non-automotive business and expand into supplying for large infrastructure projects in the field of railways, shipping and aircraft," he said.
And that's the reason why BFL has always looked at replicating its success in the automotive business in other verticals. "We are exploring further opportunities in high value, high growth sectors, such as Power, Oil & Gas, Rail & Marine, Construction & Mining and Aerospace, among others.
The financial resilience of a company signifies the organisation's ability to take advantage of growth and development opportunities as they appear and also to weather economic turbulence," he says.
Of course, this does not mean taking away focus from the automotive business. In fact, far from it. Today, BFL has a more than 35 percent share of the world market for certain products in the auto components segment. All of its 2,000 products are proudly displayed at the Pune headquarters.
The range of global customers includes the who's who automotive industry with names like DaimlerChrysler, Ford, General Motors, Volkswagen, Toyota, Volvo, Renault, Dana, ArvinMeritor, Caterpillar, Cummins, and Iveco.
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Three-pronged strategy
"Going forward, challenges are expected to surface given the volatility of markets, increasing competition and greater demand for superior products from OEMs. In order to address these challenges, Bharat Forge intends to strengthen its focus on innovation which will enhance value perception of its products on a global scale. Additionally, it will seek newer opportunities in key geographies while continuing to support existing customers through a range of value added, technologically superior product portfolio," says Kalyani. |
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