The most prestigious award in the Indian automotive industry

Every year, Autocar Professional honours a business leader who has made a marked difference to his company and to the industry with one of the most prestigious awards in the Indian automotive industry.

This year, it is Rajesh Jejurikar, Executive Director – Auto & Farm Sectors, Mahindra Group, who drives away with Autocar Professional’s premier end-of-year accolade.

A force to reckon with

In a highly competitive SUV market teeming with rivals, Rajesh Jejurikar has been able to fashion a turnaround for Brand Mahindra and helped make it a force to reckon with by grabbing revenue leadership.

Mahindra & Mahindra (M&M) has significantly outpaced the market on value terms with a bevvy of new-age premium SUVs, which have become the preferred choice in vehicles priced above INR 15 lakh. 

Where it all began

In 2002, M&M was conceptualising, designing and building a new SUV intended not just for the domestic but global market too. Amidst the core team working on this bold new project and also crafting the marketing plan was a young man in his 30s, exuding quiet self-confidence but already distinguishing himself with his perceptiveness and ability to get the job done.

That Mahindra model was the iconic first-generation Scorpio, which went on to establish the company as a serious player in a fledgling Indian car market.

An expert reader of consumers and the market pulse

Jejurikar’s finesse and expertise in brand and product management have seen the Scorpio, Bolero, XUV and Thar become key pillars of M&M’s automotive business, and they are all riding the surging wave of SUV demand. His astuteness is also seen in M&M farming's strong growth in its tractor business, a sector in which it is the market leader.

People who work closely with him say that Jejurikar’s ability to ‘read’ the consumer’s mind as well as the market dynamics has turned out to be a key differentiator. And the proof lies in the company’s fast-rising sales graph in 2022.

An excellent foresight

It was trial by fire for Jejurikar as he took charge as Executive Director at the height of the Covid-19 lockdown, starting his new innings with zero revenues for almost 45 days. “We were at the crossroads again. We had to dial back 20 years to ask the team, ‘What does Mahindra stand for, and what is our right to win?’” he recalls.

Jejurikar was instrumental in the launch of three successful products, establishing a new corporate brand identity and restructuring the organisation to remain nimble and agile to tackle future disruptions in the industry

Where we are now

All these moves have paid off in spades – quarterly volumes and revenues have more than doubled, profitability quadrupled, and the company’s performance cheered by investors too, with M&M’s share price zooming by 350 percent since Jejurikar took charge.

M&M’s market share by revenue has now almost doubled to 20 percent. With structural cost reduction, higher operating leverage and commodity cycles softening, Mahindra’s bottom line is also set to get a boost.

Where we are headed – The road ahead for Jejurikar

A two-year-long effort to bring Mahindra back into the EV race is also paying dividends. M&M has announced a billion-dollar investment into the EV business. It has inked a global sourcing arrangement with the Volkswagen Group, and the company has been able to bring on board an investor who will participate in its future EV vision.

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