SVKM’s Narsee Monjee Institute of Management Studies (NMIMS) Hyderabad organised a virtual book talk where Mr. Sunil Kant Munjal, Chairman, Hero Enterprise spoke about his bestselling book ‘The Making of Hero’. Anchored by Dr. Tapan K. Panda, Director of NMIMS Hyderabad, the virtual event was attended by Dr. Ramesh Bhat, VC, Dr. Sharad Mhaiskar, Pro Vice Chancellor, NMIMS and Dr. Bala Krishnamoorthy, I/C/ Dean of the School of Business Management (SBM) along with other faculty members.
Highlighting the different aspects of the book, Mr. Munjal shared the journey and hardships of the Munjal brothers towards building a successful enterprise without any formal education or resources and how the legacy is now taken forward by the second and third generations. The family’s journey started when the family escaped from the bylanes of Kamalia to various cities in India during the partition in 1940s. To survive and provide for their families, the brothers began with trading in bicycle parts and went on to become the largest bicycle manufacturer in the late 1980s. Within 30 years after its inception, in 1986, Hero Cycles became the largest bicycle maker in the world.
“The book could have just been about my father Dr Brijmohan Lall Munjal, but I chose to write about the journey of the Munjal brothers because my father believed that the credit for the success of the company belonged to the whole Hero Parivaar- all of Munjal family, as well as the employees, dealers and other stakeholders. All four of them were different in their thoughts and styles of functioning, but always stood unanimous in taking progressive and challenging decisions for the company. Even now while the second and the third generations of the family have made some organisational changes, the overall values and cultural practices of the company remain intact,” said Sunil Kant Munjal, Chairman, Hero Enterprise during the conversation.
Elaborating on how the pandemic has changed the world, Mr. Munjal added that, “the private sector will keep supporting both- Centre and the States in creating awareness and helping people during these unprecedentedly tough times. Technology will keep on creating newer avenues in the post pandemic world with enterprises adopting hybrid methods to survive. Companies will also have to become thoughtful and may want to consider having policies and procedures in place to tackle similar situations in the future.”
The book talk was attended by SVKM’s NMIMS students from all its campuses. This highly interactive session witnessed a spate of very pertinent questions asked by curious young minds, for example- bringing new technology vs boosting blue collared jobs and finding the right balance, etc. The conversation enabled students to see beyond what meets the eye and encouraged them to understand a unique perspective about the importance of education and gave them a vision on how to build a robust career.