Turnaround strategy for Royal Enfield
Divesting the non-performing businesses
Siddhartha Lal was all of 26 when he took over as CEO of Royal Enfield in 2000. If you had spent Rs 55,000 to buy a Royal Enfield motorcycle in 2001, you would now have an old, rugged bike. But if you had invested the same Rs 55,000 in shares (at Rs 17.50 per share) of Eicher Motors, the company that makes Enfield bikes, your investment will be worth Rs 4.75 crore now.
The twin credit for building a rugged bike as well as enormous value for shareholders goes to Siddhartha Lal, MD and CEO, Eicher Motors. In some ways, it all came to one big decision Lal took based on his love for Enfield. It was 2004. Lal was 30 and had just taken over as COO of Eicher group. The group …show more content…
This proved a hit too.
Improving the Sales Experience
According to Siddhartha Lal, this change took place honestly when Ravichandran came in in 2005; and his understanding of the product market was stupendous; the previous marketing-department executives were all novices in the business, but he brought in a level of expertise and insights. He was not a sales guy, he was a thought leader.
Then, they had Sachin (Chawan, a former automotive journalist and the brain behind Royal Enfield’s ride-related events), who was just passionate about motorcycles. As a consequence, Royal Enfield started the Himalayan Odyssey in 2003. They also started Ridermania to build the idea of leisure motorcycle through actual motorcycling and not through advertisements, etc.
The marketing department at Royal Enfield was somewhat unconventional; they generally hated the ad agencies. Ten of them used to come and the first thing that they used to do was to show ads that they wanted to do for Royal Enfield. Lal used to say: “That looks terrible.” And then they would come up with another set of …show more content…
According to Lal, Royal Enfield was their first account. The agency’s first observation was that the stores that were used for showcasing and selling the bikes to the consumers, were not up to the mark and they needed an immediate overhaul.
So, they said, “Let us make sure that at least the store experience is nice.” It was much more about strategy of differentiation and making the brand cool once again. Even in those days, it was seen as one’s chacha’s (uncle’s) bike. So, the idea was to make it relevant to the youth of the
Divesting the non-performing businesses
Siddhartha Lal was all of 26 when he took over as CEO of Royal Enfield in 2000. If you had spent Rs 55,000 to buy a Royal Enfield motorcycle in 2001, you would now have an old, rugged bike. But if you had invested the same Rs 55,000 in shares (at Rs 17.50 per share) of Eicher Motors, the company that makes Enfield bikes, your investment will be worth Rs 4.75 crore now.
The twin credit for building a rugged bike as well as enormous value for shareholders goes to Siddhartha Lal, MD and CEO, Eicher Motors. In some ways, it all came to one big decision Lal took based on his love for Enfield. It was 2004. Lal was 30 and had just taken over as COO of Eicher group. The group …show more content…
This proved a hit too.
Improving the Sales Experience
According to Siddhartha Lal, this change took place honestly when Ravichandran came in in 2005; and his understanding of the product market was stupendous; the previous marketing-department executives were all novices in the business, but he brought in a level of expertise and insights. He was not a sales guy, he was a thought leader.
Then, they had Sachin (Chawan, a former automotive journalist and the brain behind Royal Enfield’s ride-related events), who was just passionate about motorcycles. As a consequence, Royal Enfield started the Himalayan Odyssey in 2003. They also started Ridermania to build the idea of leisure motorcycle through actual motorcycling and not through advertisements, etc.
The marketing department at Royal Enfield was somewhat unconventional; they generally hated the ad agencies. Ten of them used to come and the first thing that they used to do was to show ads that they wanted to do for Royal Enfield. Lal used to say: “That looks terrible.” And then they would come up with another set of …show more content…
According to Lal, Royal Enfield was their first account. The agency’s first observation was that the stores that were used for showcasing and selling the bikes to the consumers, were not up to the mark and they needed an immediate overhaul.
So, they said, “Let us make sure that at least the store experience is nice.” It was much more about strategy of differentiation and making the brand cool once again. Even in those days, it was seen as one’s chacha’s (uncle’s) bike. So, the idea was to make it relevant to the youth of the