How Hero plans to regain its mojo
NEW DELHI : On 1 June, at Himgiri Automobiles, a Hero MotoCorp Ltd dealership in Delhi’s Shahdara neighbourhood, a 35-year-old man walked in to take home the Xoom, a 110cc scooter. He simply liked the scooter’s styling and picked it over a bigger scooter, the NTorq, manufactured by TVS Motor Company. Nudging him to disclose more about this choice was an unusual visitor at the dealership—Niranjan Gupta.
A month ago, Gupta was appointed the chief executive officer (CEO) of Hero MotoCorp. Previously, he was the company’s chief financial officer for seven years. Xoom was conceived with the profile of a young executive or a college going youngster in mind.
But the 35-year-old had a family. “It was an eye-opener and shows how customers think. Besides functionality, even a utilitarian customer looks for good styling, which can sway his decision," Gupta said.
The CEO now wants each of his 11-member senior leadership team to sense the consumer’s pulse better. Also, that of the competitive market where it is locked in a battle for supremacy with Japanese two-wheeler maker Honda, its former ally. Once every quarter, the leadership team has been mandated to fan out across a new region and visit dealerships.
“The ethos I want to drive is that the leadership should be where the action is—on the ground and in the dealerships," Gupta told Mint. The new CEO wants to quickly research why people are buying what they are buying. “Typically, it takes three months to do that.
I want to bring it down to three days because the data is digital now. The decision making has to be faster." Without saying it, Gupta underlined why Hero is in the middle of a bumpy ride. The company, perhaps, didn’t sense the consumer’s pulse fast enough.
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