AGENTS OF CHANGE: Brijmohan Lal Munjal, Chairman Hero Group

It’s a story of 60 years of entrepreneurship, which began from a small-time business of supplying bicycle components which expanded and diversified to become the largest motorcycle manufacturer of the world currently.

When Brijmohan Lal Munjal moved to Amritsar, a city in north Indian state of Punjab, from his birthplace Kamalia (now in Pakistan) in 1944 at the age of just 20 along with his three brothers, he started supplying components to local bicycle businessmen. Soon the Munjal brothers moved to another city of Punjab called Ludhiana, which was a prominent hub of the bicycle business. He sensed the need of a structured distribution network for this industry, which largely was unorganized till that time. By spreading the distribution network in the other parts of the country, his company became one of the largest suppliers of bicycle parts in India.

He took upon the bigger challenge in 1952, when he ventured in to manufacturing of parts such as handlebars, front forks and chains. Four years later, he succeeded in obtaining the license to make bicycles. Hero Cycles Ltd. started with an annual production of just 7,500 units. It was a very small company, competing with the established companies, such as Hind Cycles – a part of the leading diversified conglomerate, Birla Group.

Although he was educated in a Gurukul (Indian heritage school), he was always ahead of competition in grabbing the opportunities offered by the new technologies. He demonstrated this skill first in the bicycles business, and later in the two-wheeler business. B.L. Munjal himself traveled across the globe to find world-class modern machinery. He made his way to the top slot globally in bicycle manufacturing by acquiring new technologies and offering better products at cheaper prices.

When the Indian government started giving licenses for mopeds in the late 1970s, Munjal saw it as an opportunity to move up to the next level and started Majestic Auto in 1978. When he failed to attract a foreign partner for this venture, he went ahead with indigenous design. Soon his new venture acquired a third of the moped market in India.

The big change, however, was yet to come. In 1984, Hero group collaborated with Japan’s largest automobile manufacturer Honda Motor Company Limited, defeating a number of stronger suitors for the alliance. Hero Honda Motors, the joint venture of the two groups, changed the entire two-wheeler market of India, which was pre-dominantly a scooter market that time under the near-monopoly of Bajaj Auto.

By the 1990s, Hero Honda became the largest Indian manufacturer of two-wheelers. The Hero Group diversified in to many other businesses, such as finance, Information Technology and IT-enabled Services, etc. But the two businesses that have his direct imprint are Hero Cycles and Hero Honda Motors. Today, Hero Cycles and Hero Honda Motors hold the top slot in their respective business areas. The active management of all the businesses of the Hero Group has now been transferred to the next generations of the Munjal family, but B.L. Munjal’s vision continues to guide the group.