Indian manufacturing costs are among the lowest: Hero MotoCorp’s Masson

“India is an evolving economy and the contribution of the automotive industry to the country’s economy is immense,” Malo Le Masson, Head – Global Product and Planning, Hero MotoCorp, said.

Delivering the keynote address at IIM Bangalore’s annual business conclave — Sammantran 2017— here on Monday, Le Masson said: “India is now the world’s largest two-wheeler market and world’s fifth largest automotive market.”

He said the Make in India initiative is a huge one for the automotive and auto components sector. Sometimes, in India, we do not immediately see the changes that are happening like policies, tax reforms, etc. But, India is making an impact on the world map. We are good at manufacturing at competitive costs – in fact, Indian manufacturing costs are among the lowest.”

“India is among the largest auto markets worldwide. With BSLV, India’s technology will be at par with the world. India has the potential to emerge as a manufacturing hub,” he added.

Pointing out that India had to now ‘shift gears’, Le Masson recommended a few measures which could be adopted for further growth of the sector. “The Government’s vision should be to try to change the curve of supply and demand. To make the vision a reality, we need to look into elements like incentives, slow charges, fast charges, etc. Another area of focus should be to make vehicles cleaner and bring in greener forms of energy. India is in a transitional phase. But it is all about setting in place clear boundaries where all can operate. Performance/competition should be focused on so that investors, consumers and all other stakeholders can benefit,” he said.

Earlier, IIM Bangalore Director Prof. G Raghuram inaugurated the event. Addressing the event, he said: “There is a growing tendency of different domains in business, like operations, supply chain, etc. to merge. The perspectives of all stakeholders are being focused on. Supply chain is moving into the ‘here and now’ mode — it is all about how to take it to next level. One of the greatest takeaways from the supply chain concept is that general continuous systems are better than discrete systems, at any domain. Moreover, technology has to complement this with better IT support. Sometimes, we may look at single point measures. But, with more technology and better skills, we should focus on distribution of life of inventory.”

Kamal Bali, Managing Director and President, Volvo India, describedIndia as “a land of severe contrasts”. He said one had to combat several legacy challenges like poverty, infrastructure, inequity, inefficient and high logistics cost, inadequate educational and vocational skills, need for new jobs, maternal and child mortality.”

Listing measures to be adopted to steer new India to higher growth, he said: “Financial and social inclusion is a key factor. There should be balance between responsibility to create jobs and new technology, more focus on creating pool of skills and development of new jobs as well as vocational skills, greater sustainability focus, bringing in culture and mind-set of innovation and experimentation, attracting right talent, need for new competencies, data privacy, collaboration between all stakeholders, new mind-set to deal with disruption, focus on public policy and legislation, marriage between future culture and strategy.” India Inc. should shift from creating products to creating brands, he said.

“Mega trends that will reshape the future are digitalisation, rapid urbanisation, growing sustainability needs and geopolitical challenges. India must push manufacturing and thus create more jobs. Make in India has the potential to ignite a virtuous cycle of demand growth. Economic fundamentals are improving. Now is the time to be in India. You are the ones to take India to the next level. Strive to continue to create customer value,” he told the young managers.

Describing GST as “a game changer”, he said it was about making India a unified market.