Latest / The David Rubenstein Show / Anish Shah

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Anish Shah · The David Rubenstein Show

• 0:02
  Speaker 1: One of the largest and most successful companies in India
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: is the Mahindra Group, a family owned conglomerate. I had
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: a chance racing to sit down with the first person
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: in eighty years to run that company who is not
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: a member of the family, a niche Sha. I sat
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: down with him to talk about how he's taking Mahindra
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: into a different route, not only as an exporter to
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: the United States and other countries, but also enhancing what
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: it's doing in India. So for those people that don't
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: know that much about India, what is the Mahindra Group
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: and what does it actually make today?
• 0:34
  Speaker 2: With the Mahindra Group has been around for eighty years now.
• 0:39
  Speaker 2: We operate in more than twenty industries in seventy percent
• 0:44
  Speaker 2: of India's GDP.
• 0:45
  Speaker 1: We make SUVs.
• 0:46
  Speaker 2: We the largest maker of subs in India, light commercial vehicles,
• 0:50
  Speaker 2: electric three wheelers, with the largest tractor maker in India,
• 0:54
  Speaker 2: farm equipment, and not just in India but globally. We're
• 0:58
  Speaker 2: the largest maker of practice from all volume standpoint. We're
• 1:01
  Speaker 2: in financial services, IT services, were the largest in logistics.
• 1:06
  Speaker 2: We were the largest renewable in India, in hospitality, in
• 1:10
  Speaker 2: real estate and a number of other areas.
• 1:13
  Speaker 1: So when was Mahindra Group started.
• 1:16
  Speaker 2: Nineteen forty five and this came together with the three founders,
• 1:21
  Speaker 2: the Mindra brothers and Gulam Mahmad. When India and Pakistan partitioned,
• 1:27
  Speaker 2: Gulam Mahmad went to be the first Finance Minister of
• 1:29
  Speaker 2: Pakistan and that's when the two Minher brothers took it
• 1:32
  Speaker 2: forward as Mindra and Mindra.
• 1:34
  Speaker 1: And today what percentage of your sales are in India
• 1:36
  Speaker 1: and what percentage are outside India?
• 1:39
  Speaker 2: We have about seventy percent in India and thirty percent outside.
• 1:43
  Speaker 1: As you look at India, is India in reasonably good
• 1:45
  Speaker 1: shape financially and economies doing reasonably well.
• 1:49
  Speaker 2: India is in a very good shape and we strongly
• 1:53
  Speaker 2: feel that India will grow eight to ten percent a
• 1:55
  Speaker 2: year for the next twenty years. There are three key
• 1:58
  Speaker 2: drivers of that. One is the demographics. India's the youngest
• 2:03
  Speaker 2: country by far. The average age or the median age
• 2:05
  Speaker 2: is twenty eight point eight years as compared to the
• 2:09
  Speaker 2: late thirties for China and the US Japan closer to
• 2:12
  Speaker 2: the late forties. And second is the reforms. The government
• 2:17
  Speaker 2: has really put in a number of reforms in place
• 2:20
  Speaker 2: over the past few years. Third is infrastructure, both the
• 2:23
  Speaker 2: physical infrastructure. We're building nearly forty miles of roads per
• 2:28
  Speaker 2: day for the last ten years. We've got one airport
• 2:31
  Speaker 2: coming up per month for the last ten years. We've
• 2:33
  Speaker 2: got a very strong digital infrastructure in place as well,
• 2:37
  Speaker 2: which I would say among the best in the world.
• 2:39
  Speaker 2: So as we look at all of these things, India,
• 2:41
  Speaker 2: which has grown six and a half percent a year
• 2:43
  Speaker 2: for the last thirty years, is going to make that
• 2:46
  Speaker 2: drum to eight to ten percent, become the third largest
• 2:49
  Speaker 2: economy by twenty thirty and by twenty forty seven. The
• 2:54
  Speaker 2: forecast for India, or the goal for India is to
• 2:57
  Speaker 2: be at thirty two trillion. From a GDB standpoint, India.
• 3:01
  Speaker 1: Is the most populous country in the world. It is
• 3:03
  Speaker 1: how many.
• 3:04
  Speaker 2: People one point four to five billion.
• 3:06
  Speaker 1: It is in terms of the economy today in the world,
• 3:09
  Speaker 1: is in the top ten. In terms of GDP today.
• 3:11
  Speaker 2: It's number four and going towards number three.
• 3:14
  Speaker 1: Would you say that India has some challenges with the
• 3:16
  Speaker 1: United States, because as we talk, the United States seems
• 3:19
  Speaker 1: to have imposed or at least says it's going to
• 3:21
  Speaker 1: impose tariff of fifty percent on Indian products. I assume
• 3:25
  Speaker 1: that's not going to be helpful to you.
• 3:27
  Speaker 2: That will not be helpful, but from an economy standpoint,
• 3:30
  Speaker 2: it won't have as much of an impact because India
• 3:33
  Speaker 2: is largely a consumption led economy. However, this is one
• 3:36
  Speaker 2: that is concerning because India and the US have had
• 3:40
  Speaker 2: a very strong relationship and has been getting even stronger
• 3:43
  Speaker 2: over the last few years. And therefore we are puzzled,
• 3:48
  Speaker 2: to say the least, at this point in time, and
• 3:49
  Speaker 2: we hope that things will get much better as we
• 3:51
  Speaker 2: go forward.
• 3:52
  Speaker 1: How much of your time you have to spend outside
• 3:54
  Speaker 1: of India.
• 3:55
  Speaker 2: I'd say about thirty to forty percent, because for us,
• 3:58
  Speaker 2: we're looking at the world as market as well as
• 4:03
  Speaker 2: potential for partnerships that can help us grow our India business.
• 4:07
  Speaker 1: Now, if the United States imposes a fifty percent tariff
• 4:10
  Speaker 1: on things coming in from India, that can't be helpful.
• 4:14
  Speaker 1: So how do you deal with that?
• 4:15
  Speaker 2: That clearly will not be helpful, But we see a
• 4:17
  Speaker 2: huge opportunity.
• 4:18
  Speaker 1: David.
• 4:19
  Speaker 2: It's not just about goods and services. So India and
• 4:23
  Speaker 2: the US are roughly equal from services imported and exported
• 4:26
  Speaker 2: on goods. There is a deficit from a US perspective,
• 4:29
  Speaker 2: but the real opportunity is for US companies to bring
• 4:32
  Speaker 2: that technology to India to be able to do a
• 4:34
  Speaker 2: lot more, for Indian companies to invest in the US
• 4:37
  Speaker 2: and be able to bring its products here, which is
• 4:39
  Speaker 2: what we are planning to do and that we feel
• 4:42
  Speaker 2: will come out as time goes on and we'll get
• 4:46
  Speaker 2: to a much stronger place for both countries.
• 4:48
  Speaker 1: So it's the case that as we talk over the weekend,
• 4:52
  Speaker 1: we saw a picture of mister Moody and President She
• 4:57
  Speaker 1: and President Putin kind of acting like they're soul brothers.
• 5:02
  Speaker 1: Is that a surprise that India and China would be
• 5:05
  Speaker 1: so close after the Border of Spirits and other problems
• 5:08
  Speaker 1: they've had, or you think this is a natural evolution.
• 5:10
  Speaker 2: I feel that India is very close to the US
• 5:14
  Speaker 2: and has been for many years. India also has always
• 5:18
  Speaker 2: been non aligned and has believed that the world is
• 5:22
  Speaker 2: one family. Was Sudavi could become is a phrase that's
• 5:25
  Speaker 2: used in India. So while I can't comment on the
• 5:28
  Speaker 2: politics as much, what I can say is that from
• 5:32
  Speaker 2: everything that I've seen growing up from living in the
• 5:34
  Speaker 2: US for fourteen years, as well that the India US
• 5:37
  Speaker 2: relationship has been really very strong, and we've gone through
• 5:41
  Speaker 2: hiccups in the past. We've had that at the time
• 5:44
  Speaker 2: of the nuclear tests that India did in nineteen ninety
• 5:47
  Speaker 2: eight and became out stronger after that, and we hope
• 5:50
  Speaker 2: that this again is a hiccup that will get past
• 5:52
  Speaker 2: and really establish a very strong relationship between the two countries,
• 5:56
  Speaker 2: which who are natural allies now.
• 5:58
  Speaker 1: Recently, President Trump said he helped arbitrate a dispute between
• 6:02
  Speaker 1: India and Pakistan, for which he has said maybe he
• 6:04
  Speaker 1: should get the Nobel Peace Prize. Mister Modi has said, well,
• 6:08
  Speaker 1: it really wasn't quite that way. Do you know enough
• 6:11
  Speaker 1: about that to say what actually happened? Is India and
• 6:14
  Speaker 1: Pakistan or they in dispute right now.
• 6:15
  Speaker 2: So I don't know about what happened there, so can't
• 6:17
  Speaker 2: quite comment on that part. But India is really focused
• 6:21
  Speaker 2: on driving economic growth. That's the agenda. The President has
• 6:25
  Speaker 2: laid out an ambitioned the Prime Minister has laid out
• 6:27
  Speaker 2: a very ambitious plan around the wised VODAT or develop India,
• 6:31
  Speaker 2: and that is a plan for nineteen forty for getting
• 6:34
  Speaker 2: to twenty forty seven with a thirty two trillion dollar economy.
• 6:38
  Speaker 1: Now'll talk about agricultural product you make? What kind of
• 6:42
  Speaker 1: agricultural equipment?
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  Speaker 2: We make tractors and other farm equipment as well. Tractors.
• 6:49
  Speaker 2: We are the largest in India with the forty five
• 6:51
  Speaker 2: percent market share and the largest tractor make up by
• 6:54
  Speaker 2: volume globally.
• 6:55
  Speaker 1: Is that for use in India or outside?
• 6:58
  Speaker 2: In India and outside, we've got to business in the US,
• 7:01
  Speaker 2: which is the third largest tractor maker in the US.
• 7:05
  Speaker 2: For smaller tractors, which is the one hundred one.
• 7:07
  Speaker 1: You manufacture them in India or the United States.
• 7:09
  Speaker 2: We get gets to the US and assemble them here.
• 7:12
  Speaker 2: So we have an assembly factory in Texas and that's
• 7:15
  Speaker 2: where we put them to.
• 7:16
  Speaker 1: What other businesses we win? You have automobiles, You've got
• 7:21
  Speaker 1: say farm equipment. What else are you in?
• 7:24
  Speaker 2: IT services? It's a large business for US and IT
• 7:28
  Speaker 2: services makes up the majority of our employees in the US.
• 7:32
  Speaker 2: Along with attractive business. Then we have financial services. Were
• 7:36
  Speaker 2: the largest financial services provided for rural India. We've got hospitality,
• 7:42
  Speaker 2: We've got one hundred resorts in India. Real estate logistics.
• 7:47
  Speaker 2: We are the largest logistics company in India as well.
• 7:49
  Speaker 1: It takes a lot of expertise to do automobiles, farm equipment, hotels,
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  Speaker 1: And isn't that a lot of different skill sets you
• 7:57
  Speaker 1: need to have.
• 7:58
  Speaker 2: You need to have the skill set of getting good
• 7:59
  Speaker 2: people and making sure that there's a right process in
• 8:04
  Speaker 2: place for capital allocation, there's a right process for strategic
• 8:07
  Speaker 2: thought and growth, and making sure that there's empowerment for
• 8:12
  Speaker 2: all of leaders, because that's the only way this business works.
• 8:15
  Speaker 1: And do you see a lot of Americans now coming
• 8:17
  Speaker 1: to invest in India? I know my own company Now
• 8:20
  Speaker 1: Investors invests a lot in India, but are a lot
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  Speaker 1: of other people doing that as well?
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  Speaker 2: We see tremendous interest in India, and that's the reason
• 8:29
  Speaker 2: I spend a lot of time in various geographies meeting
• 8:32
  Speaker 2: with various companies who want to come to India and
• 8:35
  Speaker 2: looking for partnerships with them and looking for that technology
• 8:39
  Speaker 2: to be adopted in the Indian market.
• 8:41
  Speaker 1: If I wanted to invest in India, would you say
• 8:43
  Speaker 1: it's a good place in which to invest as a
• 8:45
  Speaker 1: financial investor.
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  Speaker 2: A country that's growing eight to ten percent a year
• 8:48
  Speaker 2: for the next twenty years would be a fantastic place.
• 8:51
  Speaker 2: That's a choice that we're making as well, but we're
• 8:53
  Speaker 2: investing not only in India but also in a few
• 8:56
  Speaker 2: other parts in the world, the US being a specific area.
• 8:58
  Speaker 1: If I'm an American company, I mean I want to
• 9:00
  Speaker 1: invest in Asia. Why would I want to invest in
• 9:04
  Speaker 1: India over China without getting you banned from going back
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  Speaker 1: to China? Why would somebody want to invest in India
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  Speaker 1: over China.
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  Speaker 2: India has a lot of similarities to the US. It's
• 9:15
  Speaker 2: a democracy, it has rule of law, it's a capitalist society,
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  Speaker 2: and that's what a number of companies are seeing now.
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  Speaker 2: Many companies will look at a backup option for China
• 9:26
  Speaker 2: as well, and some companies I know, I'm looking at
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  Speaker 2: India as a primary option going forward.
• 9:30
  Speaker 1: Also, the biggest country in the world population wise with
• 9:33
  Speaker 1: China and now it's India. And China also has a
• 9:36
  Speaker 1: very elderly population relatively speaking, compared to India. Why are
• 9:40
  Speaker 1: they so different?
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  Speaker 2: India has evolved over time, and India has realized that
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  Speaker 2: it has to drive capitalism because that is one way
• 9:50
  Speaker 2: where everyone will get wealthier, and that's been a big
• 9:53
  Speaker 2: benefit for India. It also never had birth control in
• 9:57
  Speaker 2: any form or rather in the fun that China did,
• 10:01
  Speaker 2: which was one child policy, and that I think is
• 10:05
  Speaker 2: impacting China to an extent right now. But India, not
• 10:08
  Speaker 2: having had that, has a natural population growth that we
• 10:12
  Speaker 2: see today.
• 10:13
  Speaker 1: Now. There are many companies in Silicon Valley that are
• 10:16
  Speaker 1: run by people of Indian background. I think something like
• 10:20
  Speaker 1: a third of the companies in Silicon Valley are run
• 10:22
  Speaker 1: by people who came from India, either this generation or
• 10:25
  Speaker 1: previous generation. So why is that? Why are so many
• 10:28
  Speaker 1: talented people from India leaving India and going to Silicon Valley.
• 10:33
  Speaker 2: We have a lot of talented people in India as well,
• 10:35
  Speaker 2: so it is just a function of the opportunities that
• 10:38
  Speaker 2: folks get. It's also a great learning around in the US.
• 10:41
  Speaker 2: I learned a tremendous amount in the US and that's
• 10:44
  Speaker 2: something that benefits me as we are building a company
• 10:47
  Speaker 2: that really is a global company at this point.
• 10:50
  Speaker 1: Historically, India wasn't as I would say, hospitable to capitalism
• 10:55
  Speaker 1: as maybe people with the United States would have liked.
• 10:58
  Speaker 1: I think Indira Gandhi when she was the head of
• 11:01
  Speaker 1: India probably was leaning more towards things that were not
• 11:04
  Speaker 1: pro capitalism. How has that changed in recent years under
• 11:08
  Speaker 1: mister Modi.
• 11:09
  Speaker 2: That has changed dramatically and that is evident in the
• 11:12
  Speaker 2: reforms that have been done. In the mindset, the government
• 11:15
  Speaker 2: is very focused on ease of doing business. It is
• 11:20
  Speaker 2: pushing companies to get larger. For us, we have grown
• 11:24
  Speaker 2: our market cap twelve times in the last five years
• 11:28
  Speaker 2: and that really is a function of the opportunities that
• 11:31
  Speaker 2: we see in India today.
• 11:32
  Speaker 1: Let's talk about your own background for a moment. So
• 11:35
  Speaker 1: where were you born in Mumbai? Mumbai and were you
• 11:39
  Speaker 1: educated there as a young boy? I was.
• 11:41
  Speaker 2: I did my early schooling in Mumbai, went to one
• 11:45
  Speaker 2: of the top institutes in India for an MBA IM
• 11:48
  Speaker 2: and the bud then worked with Citybank in Mumbai for
• 11:52
  Speaker 2: a couple of years and came to the US for
• 11:55
  Speaker 2: a PhD at Carnegie Mellen and continued to stay in
• 11:58
  Speaker 2: the US for fourteen years before back to India.
• 12:00
  Speaker 1: What did your parents do?
• 12:02
  Speaker 2: My father and mother were both graduates from i'man the Bird.
• 12:06
  Speaker 2: My father spent most of his life with Pfizer in
• 12:10
  Speaker 2: India and then founded the Indian Pharmaceutical Association and really
• 12:15
  Speaker 2: helped Indian pharmaceutical companies come up to the level where
• 12:17
  Speaker 2: they are today. And my mother was an entrepreneur in
• 12:20
  Speaker 2: the late sixties and early seventies. Do you have siblings
• 12:24
  Speaker 2: a younger sister who also was in the US for
• 12:26
  Speaker 2: twenty years and is back in Indiana.
• 12:27
  Speaker 1: So you grew up in India get your education there.
• 12:30
  Speaker 1: Why did you decide to come to the United States
• 12:32
  Speaker 1: to get a PhD from Carnegie Mellen?
• 12:34
  Speaker 2: One of my aspirations was to be the CEO of
• 12:36
  Speaker 2: a US company in India, and to do that I
• 12:40
  Speaker 2: felt I needed to understand the US better get a
• 12:42
  Speaker 2: US degree, and that was the reason to come to
• 12:45
  Speaker 2: the US.
• 12:46
  Speaker 1: And what was your PhD?
• 12:47
  Speaker 2: In corporate governance? It was within the accounting department, but
• 12:52
  Speaker 2: my advisor was very keen on corporate governance and that
• 12:55
  Speaker 2: is a focus on my PhD.
• 12:56
  Speaker 1: So if you got your PhDd, you say I'm rushing
• 12:58
  Speaker 1: back to India or did you in the United States
• 13:00
  Speaker 1: for a while?
• 13:01
  Speaker 2: Stayed in the US, got a job with Bain in Boston,
• 13:05
  Speaker 2: was there for three years, and then with G Capital
• 13:08
  Speaker 2: for a long time in the US, and then went
• 13:11
  Speaker 2: back to India with G Capital as a CEO in India.
• 13:14
  Speaker 1: So you're working for G Capital at that time, I
• 13:16
  Speaker 1: assumed Jack Welsh or somebody like that was running.
• 13:18
  Speaker 2: Ge Jeffy Belt had just taken over from Jack and
• 13:23
  Speaker 2: G Capitol was at that point doing very well.
• 13:26
  Speaker 1: So somebody poach you, somebody call you up and say,
• 13:28
  Speaker 1: forget G Capital, you should work for an Indian company.
• 13:31
  Speaker 2: So a mentor of mine from Bain in fact reached
• 13:34
  Speaker 2: out and introduced me to Anand Maindra and I had
• 13:37
  Speaker 2: a great meeting with him, and in fact continued meeting
• 13:41
  Speaker 2: him for a couple of years. Almost every month we
• 13:44
  Speaker 2: would meet, and Anand wanted me to come and join
• 13:47
  Speaker 2: the Maindra group. And I'm very glad I did that.
• 13:50
  Speaker 1: What year was that that you joined the group?
• 13:52
  Speaker 2: Twenty fourteen?
• 13:53
  Speaker 1: Joined in twenty fourteen. More was your initial job there.
• 13:56
  Speaker 2: Was head of group Strategy and it was a job
• 13:59
  Speaker 2: and that I health for five years before being appointed
• 14:02
  Speaker 2: in this role.
• 14:03
  Speaker 1: So you became the CEO in twenty twenty one. That's great,
• 14:07
  Speaker 1: And this was the first time that the Mahindra Group
• 14:09
  Speaker 1: had ever had a non Mahindra family member run in
• 14:12
  Speaker 1: the company. That's right. So when you join the company,
• 14:15
  Speaker 1: do you ever think that would ever happen?
• 14:17
  Speaker 2: When I joined with the objective of making a significant
• 14:22
  Speaker 2: difference and in the group was the most respected group
• 14:25
  Speaker 2: in India and one where there was a level of
• 14:28
  Speaker 2: empowerment for all its leaders. That is what Ann and
• 14:30
  Speaker 2: Mandra had set up at that point. And while there
• 14:35
  Speaker 2: was a view that looked that is a possibility of
• 14:38
  Speaker 2: a group CEO, really it wasn't known at that point
• 14:40
  Speaker 2: in time, and that evolved as I went on there.
• 14:43
  Speaker 1: So there's a story that I read about which said
• 14:45
  Speaker 1: that when you were working your way up to become
• 14:48
  Speaker 1: the CEO but no guarantees you were going to be
• 14:50
  Speaker 1: the CEO, you disagreed with mister Mahindra on a matter
• 14:54
  Speaker 1: and you took it to the board and you explained
• 14:57
  Speaker 1: to the board while he was wrong and you were right,
• 14:59
  Speaker 1: and the board with you. Then you think that was
• 15:01
  Speaker 1: going to be the end of your career when you
• 15:03
  Speaker 1: did that.
• 15:03
  Speaker 2: So what happened actually was I was sitting with mister
• 15:06
  Speaker 2: Mindra and one of my colleagues came in to show
• 15:10
  Speaker 2: what was being presented to the board the next day
• 15:13
  Speaker 2: and mister Mindra, in his usual manner, said, Unish, what
• 15:16
  Speaker 2: do you think? So I looked at that and said,
• 15:18
  Speaker 2: I wouldn't do this for these reasons and That is
• 15:21
  Speaker 2: the level of empowerment and openness that mister Mindra had
• 15:25
  Speaker 2: fostered in the group where he said that I'm going
• 15:28
  Speaker 2: to call you to the board meeting tomorrow and I'm
• 15:30
  Speaker 2: going to ask you the same question as I asked
• 15:31
  Speaker 2: you today, and please give them the same answer that
• 15:34
  Speaker 2: you gave me today, And that then transpired into the
• 15:39
  Speaker 2: response you don't.
• 15:40
  Speaker 1: Think he was setting you up for a failure or
• 15:41
  Speaker 1: something by having the board vote you down or something
• 15:44
  Speaker 1: or not.
• 15:44
  Speaker 2: No, I knew him very well by then because I
• 15:47
  Speaker 2: had met him, as I said, every month for a
• 15:49
  Speaker 2: couple of years before I came to the group, and
• 15:51
  Speaker 2: to me, that was one of the biggest attractors for
• 15:54
  Speaker 2: me because it was a group where it was truly
• 15:57
  Speaker 2: very open. It was say what you want to say
• 15:59
  Speaker 2: as long is it good for the company, and that
• 16:02
  Speaker 2: company first aspect was very much a factor there.
• 16:07
  Speaker 1: So you overcame that, or maybe that wasn't a problem
• 16:09
  Speaker 1: to overcome, and in twenty twenty one you became the
• 16:13
  Speaker 1: head of the company. The group CEO. Smister Mahindra still around.
• 16:17
  Speaker 2: He is and I reach out to him on a
• 16:20
  Speaker 2: very regular business for guidance.
• 16:21
  Speaker 1: To tell you you're not doing this right, or you're
• 16:23
  Speaker 1: not doing that right, or we have.
• 16:24
  Speaker 2: A great relationship where he empowers as much as he
• 16:28
  Speaker 2: can and I pull on his guidance as much as
• 16:30
  Speaker 2: I can. So that is the.
• 16:31
  Speaker 1: Mahindra family still own a large part of the company.
• 16:34
  Speaker 2: Yes, they still own what they have over time, which
• 16:37
  Speaker 2: is close to about twenty percent.
• 16:39
  Speaker 1: How many total employees do you have in the entire Mahindra.
• 16:42
  Speaker 2: Group three hundred and twenty thousand.
• 16:43
  Speaker 1: It's a lot of people to be taken care of.
• 16:45
  Speaker 2: That is a lot of people.
• 16:46
  Speaker 1: And how many in the.
• 16:48
  Speaker 2: United States close to ten thousand.
• 16:51
  Speaker 1: Other than India, where do you have your most employees
• 16:53
  Speaker 1: after outside of India? Is it the United States or
• 16:55
  Speaker 1: some of that?
• 16:55
  Speaker 2: It is the United States.
• 16:56
  Speaker 1: What's the biggest problem you have now as the CEO
• 16:59
  Speaker 1: of the company?
• 17:00
  Speaker 2: Navigating all the challenges that the world is throwing up
• 17:02
  Speaker 2: because that keeps happening on a regular basis in.
• 17:04
  Speaker 1: Your own case, what do you do on the outside
• 17:06
  Speaker 1: when you're not running Mahindra. Do you have any time
• 17:08
  Speaker 1: for hobbies, philanthropies? Sports? What do you do? Are you
• 17:12
  Speaker 1: a big cricket player or cricket watcher?
• 17:15
  Speaker 2: Sports? Spending time with family, reading and doing a lot
• 17:19
  Speaker 2: on the purpose front. And I'll start with that because
• 17:23
  Speaker 2: Mindra is really a purpose led company. So we have
• 17:26
  Speaker 2: purpose led and performance driven as we call it, but
• 17:29
  Speaker 2: we start with purpose. We have focused on education for
• 17:33
  Speaker 2: young girls in India and we've educated close to a
• 17:37
  Speaker 2: million girls in India so far. We've set a target
• 17:40
  Speaker 2: to do a millionaire year. We are at this point
• 17:43
  Speaker 2: about one forth of target, but in the next two
• 17:45
  Speaker 2: or three years we should be able to get to
• 17:46
  Speaker 2: a target. You're also focusing on empowering women to find
• 17:50
  Speaker 2: jobs and making them financially independent, and there again our
• 17:54
  Speaker 2: target is a millionaireear The Gates Foundation is partnering with
• 17:57
  Speaker 2: us on this and at this point about one for
• 18:00
  Speaker 2: the target, but we'll get there soon. And these are
• 18:03
  Speaker 2: some of the activities that really make a difference to
• 18:06
  Speaker 2: India overall.
• 18:07
  Speaker 1: What is the biggest selling automobile in India today?
• 18:10
  Speaker 2: We've got a number of smaller vehicles that are selling more,
• 18:13
  Speaker 2: but we are now the second largest automaker in India
• 18:16
  Speaker 2: despite the fact that we make only SUVs.
• 18:19
  Speaker 1: We SUVs because.
• 18:21
  Speaker 2: That has been our strength and the philosophy we have
• 18:25
  Speaker 2: is do less but do it really well?
• 18:28
  Speaker 1: Right? So what's the best selling car? The biggest selling
• 18:30
  Speaker 1: car now in India?
• 18:31
  Speaker 2: They're the smaller cars. For us, we have the Scorpio,
• 18:35
  Speaker 2: which is the largest selling vehicle. It's been around for
• 18:39
  Speaker 2: twenty five years, almost twenty five years now.
• 18:41
  Speaker 1: How much does it cost to buy your best selling car?
• 18:43
  Speaker 2: The Scorpio, which is our best selling car. We'll retail
• 18:47
  Speaker 2: at about fifteen to twenty thousand.
• 18:49
  Speaker 1: Dollars and you sell a year.
• 18:51
  Speaker 2: We sell close to about seventeen or eighteen thousand every month,
• 18:56
  Speaker 2: so that it translates to about two hundred thousand every year.
• 19:00
  Speaker 1: About electric vehicles, these electrical ones you're talking about or
• 19:03
  Speaker 1: these are non electric?
• 19:04
  Speaker 2: These are non electrical. We've got some very good evs
• 19:08
  Speaker 2: which would just launched last year. Today they account for
• 19:11
  Speaker 2: about eight percent of our total sales, but they should
• 19:14
  Speaker 2: be about thirty percent in the next two to three years.
• 19:16
  Speaker 1: And what's the biggest electric vehicle.
• 19:18
  Speaker 2: The biggest EV today is the Tata Nexson. We have
• 19:21
  Speaker 2: roughly a thirty percent share of all EV's in India
• 19:24
  Speaker 2: today and we should be the number one player with
• 19:28
  Speaker 2: forty to fifty percent share there.
• 19:30
  Speaker 1: So if somebody is watching and you wanted to say
• 19:33
  Speaker 1: to them, Here's what you need to know in one
• 19:36
  Speaker 1: paragraph about Mahindra and one paragraph what you need to
• 19:39
  Speaker 1: know about India.
• 19:39
  Speaker 2: Mindra is a purpose led, performance driven company. Our purpose
• 19:45
  Speaker 2: is a Rice philosophy, which is to drive positive change
• 19:48
  Speaker 2: and lives of our communities to enable them to rise.
• 19:52
  Speaker 2: From a performance standpoint, we are the best performing stock
• 19:55
  Speaker 2: in the Nifty to fifty since two thousand and two.
• 19:58
  Speaker 2: So even though a market cap has grown twelve x
• 20:00
  Speaker 2: in the last five years, it's been a long journey
• 20:03
  Speaker 2: where we've been at the top of performance in India.
• 20:06
  Speaker 2: We operate in twenty industries across seventy percent of India's
• 20:11
  Speaker 2: GDP and we're building a global company and hopefully one
• 20:15
  Speaker 2: that will be a very large company in the US
• 20:17
  Speaker 2: as well. India is poised to be at a very
• 20:22
  Speaker 2: rapid growth over the next twenty years. We expect that
• 20:25
  Speaker 2: growth to be eight to ten percent. The foundation for
• 20:28
  Speaker 2: that growth has been built. It's a consumption driven economy
• 20:31
  Speaker 2: and therefore, despite some of the challenges in the world,
• 20:34
  Speaker 2: we feel that India will grow at that base. India
• 20:37
  Speaker 2: will be the third largest economy by twenty thirty. It's
• 20:41
  Speaker 2: a capitalist economy driven by rule of law, with a
• 20:45
  Speaker 2: government today that is very focused on ease of business,
• 20:49
  Speaker 2: on ensuring that companies can succeed in India, and therefore
• 20:53
  Speaker 2: is a very good destination for companies.
• 20:54
  Speaker 1: Why should somebody as a tourist want to go to India.
• 20:57
  Speaker 1: What's the best thing to see in India? Why should
• 20:58
  Speaker 1: somebody go for a week to India as a tourist.
• 21:01
  Speaker 2: India has some amazing destinations and India is now opening
• 21:05
  Speaker 2: up tourism in various forms. There are multiple things to
• 21:08
  Speaker 2: see in different parts of the country, from the taj
• 21:11
  Speaker 2: Mahal in Agara to the deserts of Rajasthan to the
• 21:15
  Speaker 2: greenery in Kerala. You've got a large number of things
• 21:18
  Speaker 2: in India that are worth looking at now.
• 21:20
  Speaker 1: Amazingly, when you go back in history, it appears that
• 21:23
  Speaker 1: Britain ruled India with only twenty thousand soldiers in the
• 21:27
  Speaker 1: entire country Indiana population and maybe then of a billion people.
• 21:30
  Speaker 1: How did India allow Britain, this small country way in
• 21:33
  Speaker 1: the North Sea, to control India for so long? How
• 21:36
  Speaker 1: did that happen?
• 21:37
  Speaker 2: India has always been a country that has stood for
• 21:40
  Speaker 2: peace and therefore even the resistance to the British was
• 21:46
  Speaker 2: with non violence, and that is what Martma Gandhi led.
• 21:50
  Speaker 2: So that has been one of the hardmarks of India
• 21:54
  Speaker 2: over centuries.
• 21:55
  Speaker 1: And so how old are you now? Five fifty five
• 22:00
  Speaker 1: a retirement age that people have normally an India, or
• 22:02
  Speaker 1: you can go for as long as you want to go.
• 22:04
  Speaker 2: We have a sixty five retirement date, So you're.
• 22:07
  Speaker 1: Going to do this, presumably for another ten years.
• 22:09
  Speaker 2: At this point, I love it and hopefully I will
• 22:11
  Speaker 2: continue loving it for the next ten years.
• 22:13
  Speaker 1: And you have the responsibility of grooming your successor as
• 22:16
  Speaker 1: well or sort a Mahindra that might come back.
• 22:18
  Speaker 2: That isknown Most likely it will be someone from the
• 22:24
  Speaker 2: team of professional successor and there will be various folks
• 22:28
  Speaker 2: that I will groom over the next ten years and
• 22:30
  Speaker 2: present options to the boat for the borad to decide
• 22:32
  Speaker 2: at that point.
• 22:33
  Speaker 1: Many companies that succeed have a founder who might have
• 22:37
  Speaker 1: a certain philosophy, a certain set of principles. Did the
• 22:41
  Speaker 1: Mahindra family when it started have a certain principles that
• 22:45
  Speaker 1: they imbued in Mahindra and you still live with those principles.
• 22:48
  Speaker 1: If it was the case that they have those principles.
• 22:51
  Speaker 2: So when we say purpose Led, a DNA actually comes
• 22:55
  Speaker 2: from a founder's When they founded the company in nineteen
• 22:59
  Speaker 2: forty five, they placed an advertisement in the Times of
• 23:02
  Speaker 2: India that talked about the principles under which the company
• 23:06
  Speaker 2: was born. They talked about dignity of labor, about neither cost,
• 23:11
  Speaker 2: nor creed nor color shall come in the way of
• 23:13
  Speaker 2: a meritocracy, about opposing antisocial trends. Today it would read
• 23:18
  Speaker 2: like an ESG manifesto, but that was what they truly believed.
• 23:22
  Speaker 2: That the company has to do well for society, for communities,
• 23:26
  Speaker 2: and therefore we save your purpose Led because that is
• 23:29
  Speaker 2: our DNA.
• 23:32
  Speaker 1: Thanks for listening to hear more of my interviews. You
• 23:34
  Speaker 1: can subscribe and download my podcast on Spotify, Apple, or
• 23:39
  Speaker 1: wherever you listen.