Brijmohan Munjal
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1923-2015
Brijmohan Lall Munjal, (1923-2015) founded Hero Honda and Hero MotoCorp, the world's largest motorcycle maker. In June 2014, Munjal gave up the post of executive chairman and took over as Hero MotoCorp's chairman emeritus and non-executive direc tor after being at the helm since the early 1980s.
Manufacturing motorcycles had not seemed to be a great idea three decades ago when the government reopened the foreign collaboration window. After all, scooters were still ruling the streets. But with Honda signing up with the Firodias to manufacture scooters, Munjal settled for motorcycles on ly to change the rules of the game. The partnership endured for 27 years and Hero Honda emerged as the world's largest bike maker.
Not only did Hero Honda overtake Bajaj Auto as India's top two-wheeler firm, but Munjal successfully built a loyal base of vendors and a robust dealer network that his rivals still envy.
Hero has sold over 60 mil lion two-wheelers. MotoCorp has grown into a Rs 28,000 crore company , the flagship of the Hero Group. It still accounts for nearly half the motorcycles sold in India and has a growing global footprint.
Before venturing into bikes, the Munjal family built two other successful businesses bicycles and mopeds. Brijmohan Lall was born in 1923 in Kamalia (now in Pakistan). The family moved to Amritsar in 1943.Around the time of partition they shifted base to Ludhiana, where they built upon the bicycle component business that they had created in Amritsar.Subsequently , they entered the bicycle manufacturing arena to leave behind Atlas and become the world's largest cycle maker in 1975. Then, the group made a success of the mopeds business with Hero Majestic.
When the Hero Honda joint venture was ready to kick off terrorism hit Punjab, but Munjal was reluctant to move out of the state. The company did set up a plant in Dharuhera in Haryana, which rolled out the first 100 cc bike in April 1985. It was also the first time the Hero Group moved out of Ludhiana.
Along with Hero Honda, the group had another tie-up with a Japanese firm and set up Munjal Showa to make shock absorbers. Subsequently other ventures too came up including Hero Honda Finlease for finance and Hero Exports to deal with the two-wheeler's overseas shipments.Munjal is survived by his wife, Santosh, sons -Pawan, Suman and Sunil -and daughter, Geeta.
