“It is imperative to think out of the box to meet the challenges posed by the Corona pandemic,” Rajesh Jejurikar, Executive Director, Automotive and Farm Equipment (AFS), said while elaborating on his vision for the sector. The best ideas come from connecting two worlds that had never been connected before, he added.

Mr Jejurikar shared his vision after taking over as the head of AFS on April 2. Earlier he, along with Dr Pawan Goenka, Managing Director & CEO, conducted a unique virtual townhall on April 1 for AFS employees. The session, moderated by Mr Rajeshwar Tripathi, CHRO, AFS, had over 7,500 employees participating in two batches.

Commenting on the challenges posed by the Coronavirus pandemic, Mr Jejurikar said, “The Group has leadership position in many segments. We have a very strong resource pool of talent, money, people, products, and platforms and we will leverage those to come back stronger.

Opportunities will definitely come our way.” Resilience is embedded in Mahindra’s DNA and I’m sure we will overcome the challenges posed by the Corona pandemic, he added.

It was necessary to add more muscle to increase the inherent resilience of the Mahindra Group, he said. Exhorting employees and their families to share their learning journey on social media using the hashtag- #LearnGrowRise, he underscored the need for diversity in learning which will prepare us for the future.

Mr Jejurikar also posed a 30-day ‘Create the Future’ challenge to all employees. Exhorting them to pick a theme which had the potential to make a difference to the future of their business, he said it could be towards helping to grow existing brands, saving costs, simplifying processes or creating a ‘wow’ customer / partner engagement. The top 10 winning teams will get to make a presentation to the Leadership Team of their business. He reminded employees that the lockdown was a golden opportunity to help create the future together.