INTRODUCTION The Bajaj Group is one of the leading business houses of India. Its business interests span host of industries such as automobiles (two-wheelers and three-wheelers), home appliances, lighting, iron and steel, insurance, travel and finance. The Bajaj brand is well-known in over a dozen countries in Europe, South America, the US and Asia. The Bajaj Group comprises 27 companies and its flagship company Bajaj Auto is ranked as the world's fourth largest two- and three- wheeler manufacturer. Bajaj Group was founded in 1926, at the height of India's movement for independence from the British. Jamnalal Bajaj, founder of the group, was a close associate of Mahatma Gandhi. Jamnalal Bajaj's close involvement in the freedom movement did not leave him with much time for his business. In 1942, his son Kamalnayan Bajaj took charge of the business. He consolidated the group and diversified into various manufacturing activities. Rahul Bajaj, the present Chairman and Managing Director of the group took reins of the business in 1965. Under his leadership the group has achieved new heights and ranks among the top 10 business houses in India. Bajaj Group Companies and their business interests: y Bajaj Auto Ltd: Manufacturers of Scooters, Motorcycles and Three- wheeler vehicles and spare parts thereof. y Bajaj Electricals Ltd.: Manufacturers of electric fans, highmasts, lattice closed towers and poles, etc. and marketing of electrical goods such as general lighting service lamps, special lamps, compact fluorescent lamps, fluorescent tubes, luminaries, fans and electrical & non-electrical appliances. y Bajaj Hindustan Ltd.: Manufacturers of white crystal sugar and industrial alcohol. y Bajaj Auto Finance Ltd.: Deals in financial services including hire purchase financing & leasing. y Bajaj Sevashram Pvt Ltd.: Involved in investment activities. y Bajaj Ventures Ltd.: Involved in manufacturing and trading of power tools and manufacturing of houseware and parts thereof. 1 COMPANY HISTORY: Bajaj Auto Limited is India's largest manufacturer of scooters and motorcycles. The company generally has lagged behind its Japanese rivals in technology, but has invested heavily to catch up. Its strong suit is high- volume production; it is the lowest-cost scooter maker in the world. Although publicly owned, the company has been controlled by the Bajaj family since its founding. Origins The Bajaj Group was formed in the first days of India's independence from Britain. Its founder, Jamnalal Bajaj, had been a follower of Mahatma Gandhi, who reportedly referred to him as a fifth son. 'Whenever I spoke of wealthy men becoming the trustees of their wealth for the common good I always had this merchant prince principally in mind,' said the Mahatma after Jamnalal's death. The precursor to Bajaj Auto had been formed on November 29, 1945 as M/s Bachraj Trading Ltd. It began selling imported two- and three-wheeled vehicles in 1948 and obtained a manufacturing license from the government 11 years later. The next year, 1960, Bajaj Auto became a public limited company. Rahul Bajaj reportedly adored the famous Vespa scooters made by Piaggio of Italy. In 1960, at the age of 22, he became the Indian licensee for the make; Bajaj Auto began producing its first two-wheelers the next year. Rahul Bajaj became the group's chief executive officer in 1968 after first picking up an MBA at Harvard. He lived next to the factory in Pune, an industrial city three hours' drive from Bombay. The company had an annual turnover of Rs 72 million at the time. By 1970, the company had produced 100,000 vehicles. The oil crisis soon drove cars off the roads in favor of two- wheelers, much cheaper to buy and many times more fuel-efficient. 2 RAHUL BAJAJ PROFILE Rahul Bajaj is the Chairman of the Bajaj Group, which ranks among the top 10 business houses in India. The Bajaj Group has diversified interests ranging from automobiles, home appliances, lighting, iron and steel, insurance, travel and finance. Rahul Bajaj is one of India's most distinguished business leaders and internationally respected for his business acumen and entrepreneurial spirit. Rahul Bajaj is an alumnus of Harvard, St. Stephen's and Cathedral. He took over the reins of Bajaj Group in 1965. Under his stewardship, the turnover of the Bajaj Auto the flagship company has risen from Rs.72 million to Rs.46.16 billion. Rahul Bajaj created one of India's best companies in the difficult days of the licence-permit raj. He established factories at Akurdi and Waluj. In 1980s Bajaj Auto was top scooter producer in India and its Chetak brand had a 10-year waiting period. The initiation of liberalization in India posed great challenges for Bajaj Auto. Liberalization brought the threat of cheap imports and FDI from top companies like Honda. Rahul Bajaj became famous as the head of the Bombay Club, which opposed liberalization. The scooter sales plummeted as people were more interested in motorcycles and the rival Hero Honda was a pioneer in it. The recession and stock market collapse of 2001 hit the company hard and it was predicted that the days of Bajaj Auto were numbered. However, Bajaj Auto re-invented itself, established a world-class factory in Chakan, invested in R&D and came up with Bajaj Pulsar Motorcycle. Bajaj Pulsar is currently a leader in its segment. Recently, Rahul Bajaj was elected to Rajya Sabha from Maharashtra. 3 RAHUL BAJAJ·S PROFILE Rahul Bajaj is the man who can be given credit for building Bajaj auto are the 4th largest two-wheeler manufacturer in the world. He has achieved an incredible growth rate of 1852% in the last decade. Following are some of the points that explain the reason of his success. y Education: Bajaj is a highly educated person. He has done his BA (Hons) and is a management graduate from Harward. y Concentration of Core Competency: Rahul Bajaj collaborated with Kawasaki for production of motorcycle but for scooter he did not go for any collaboration. Manufacturing scooters is his core competency and he does not want to experiment with that. y Customer is King: Bajaj has often been accused of exploiting the customers with delivery period of 10 years, black marketing, etc. but this is not true at the face value. A deeper insight brings to picture that there were other elements who are responsible for these accuses. Bajaj, in spite of a heavy demand, did not raise the price of his scooters and avoided exploitation of customers. y Staunch believer in himself: Bajaj listens to each and everyone, but takes decision on his own. His organisation is a little centralized. In spite of strong oppositions, he sticks to his decisions. y Never give up attitude: ͚Licence Raj͛ was a nightmare for Bajaj. He does not believe in bringing Government officials and getting his license cleared. This is a major reason why Bajaj Auto came under MRTP and was allowed to expand its production capacity. But he did not give up to the Government conditions and after some years, done lobbying through business housed and putting tremendous pressure on Government learn his license. y Jach Welch͛s theory: Rahul Bajaj holds same views of Mr. Jack Welch, the former CEO of GE. He believes that if one is no No 1 or No 2, he should get out from that business. This principle kept him away from the four-wheeler market. 4 y Attitude towards workers: Bajaj has less kind of words for workers. Still, there has been only one strike in the history of 35 years of the company. He takes care of the needs of the workers and at the same time, he views workers as a tool for production. In his word͛ ͞Why do they strike and lose wages? They should work more, earn more͟ y BBC: Rahul Bajaj is well known for his unflinching frankness and varied opinion on every topic under the sun. His office is therefore popularly known as BBC (Bajaj Broadcasting Corporation) y Straightforwardness: His quotes about the Governnment have found place in the headlines of many leading newspapers and magazines in India and have also raised controversies. But this does not stop him from doing what he considers correct. All the above features are the hallmark of Bajaj. They have earned him a rare reputation as one of India͛s most successful industrialists. Squeaky clean, he has never been involved in shady takeovers. He does not engage in street fights, nor has he ever hijacked someone else͛s project. He hasn͛t burnt tyres during hard drive for meteoric growth. On the contrary, he is something of a plodder, routinely burning the midnight oil, and devoted to the virtues of hard work. He͛s India͛s most admired industrialist along with Dhirubhai Ambani and the late Adity Birla. ENTREPRENEURS THAT CHANGED THE FACE OF INDIA Rahul Bajaj is the Chairman of the Bajaj Group, which ranks among the top 10 business houses in India. The Bajaj Group has diversified interests ranging from automobiles, home appliances, lighting, iron and steel, insurance, travel and finance. Rahul Bajaj is one of India's most distinguished business leaders and internationally respected for his business acumen and entrepreneurial spirit. 5 TROUBLING LIFE OF RAHUL BAJAJ Police asked to file report on complaint against Rahul Bajaj over portraying J&K, Arunachal as Pak & China parts on Allianz website A city court on Thursday asked Delhi police to file a report on a complaint against industrialist and Rajya Sabha MP Rahul Bajaj over his group's partner company Allianz portraying Jammu and Kashmir and Arunachal Pradesh as part of Pakistan and China respectively on its website. "Status report be filed in court on October 14," metropolitan magistrate Geetanjali Goel said in a direction to the station house officer of the Parliament Street police station.