Padma Bhushan Anand Mahindra, the man of many dreams and one of India’s best brand ambassador

Anand Mahindra, Chairman of the billion-dollar conglomerate Mahindra Group was presented with the Padma Bhushan – the third-highest civilian honour in the country by President Ram Nath Kovind. Machine Maker takes a look at the 66-year old inspitational industrialist-philanthropist's journey thus far

The architect-turned-businessman, born on May 1, 1955, completed his primary education at Lawrence School in Lovedale. He did his graduate studies at Harvard College in film making and architecture in 1971, following it up with an MBA from Harvard Business School in 1981. 

Anand had an interesting classmate at Harvard, who is ruling the world – Bill Gates. And often, Anand's daughters compared him with his classmate's success and taunted him. Thus Anand had something to fulfill and he was a fighter for sure. During his days at Harvard, the company was being run by his uncle Keshub Mahindra.

Born to businessman Harish Mahindra and Indira Mahindra, Anand Mahindra is married to Anuradha Mahindra, the famous editor of the magazines 'Verve' and 'Man's World' and is the Editor-in-Chief of Rolling Stone India. The couple has two daughters Aalika and Divya. 

Anand has two siblings Radhika Nath and Anuja Sharma. Anand's grandfather Jagdish Chandra is the co-founder of Mahindra & Mahindra. But the story is more interesting. Initially, the company was known as Muhammad and Mahindra (M&M) with its primary business being steel trading in the mid 1940s.

After India's independence, M G Muhammad decided he will follow Muhammad Ali Jinnah to Pakistan. Muhammad become Pakistan's first Finance Minister. Brothers Harikrishan and Jayakrishan Mahindra who then took over rechristened the company as Mahindra and Mahindra. They established the M&M Jeep. The Jeep produced in partnership with Willys Overland was popular for being used in World War-II.

The company faced several challenges. Then came Anand Mahindra, who began his career in Mahindra Ugine Steel Company (MUSCO) as an Executive Assistant nd learning the robes. Thus he gained experience to guide the company  through the storm in the early eighties by negotiating with labour unions in the steel business, a period which he calls a “trial by fire”. In 1989, he became President of MUSCO, and then expanded the company into sectors such as real estate development and hospitality.

Anand was made deputy managing director of Mahindra & Mahindra, the country's largest automobile company in 1991 and in 2003, he became Vice Chairman of Mahindra Group, taking the group a few notches higher.

The Mahindra Group has in its vest the automotive, aerospace, finance, insurance, agribusiness, components, defence, energy, construction equipment, farm equipment, leisure, hospitality, industrial equipment, information technology, logistics, real estate and retail among sectors.

The company has joined the bandwagon of developing the Electric Vehicle segment and is gracing to produce change-making cars – eight SUVs and eight LMVs, which they have programmed to launch by 2027.

The Mahindra Group acquired Hyderabad-based Sathyam Computers from Ramalinga Raju in June 2009 when the global consulting and IT services company landed in trouble following a Rs 7,000 crore scam, which Raju admitted to doing. The company which had 52,000 employees was renamed Mahindra Satyam. In June 2013, the company was merged into Tech Mahindra.

In May 2010, the Mahindra Group also took over Bangalore-based Reva Electric from Maini & Maini which was founded by Chetan Maini in 1994 and renamed it Mahindra Electric Mobility Limited.

M&Ms first acquisition was a 100 percent stake in Gujarat Tractors Ltd, a fully-owned subsidiary of the Government of Gujarat, with formalities completed in 1999. M&M then acquired Punjab Tractor Ltd in 2007, thus making the group the world's largest tractor manufacturer.

The group also acquired Ssang Yong Motor Company in 2011, a one-third stake in Mitsubishi Agricultural Machinery in 2015, Swaraj Tractors, Peugeot Motorcycles, Pininfarina S.P.A. and now the company has become more aggressive to have a worldwide footprint. Currently M&M operates in 72 countries including Germany, Korea and China with business presence in over 100 countries.

Anand proved his critics wrong by establishing himself in a field where his family was not present rather than taking the easier path of joining and running an inherited family business. He was named among the 'World's 50 Greatest Leaders' by Fortune Magazine while Forbes India selected him as the 'Entrepreneur of the Year' for 2013.

His strong sense of pride in the work he does and a belief that with the right education, Indians are second to none in the world, propelled him to become one of the best entrepreneurs globally.

But the many challenges he faced and how he overcame are worthy to write books about. In 1991, when the workers union of the Kandivali factory of M&M went on a strike, Anand took them head on and told them if they did not return to work they would not get Diwali bonus. The striking workers joined back work immediately and in the months to come productivity increased to 150 percent from 50 percent. A remarkable turn around.

Another challenge was when the Mahindra group wanted to build a car from scrath but did not have the technology. Anand thus forged a joint venture with Ford ro produce Escort Ford cars, but it failed after launch. But Anand did not give up. Anand launched the Scorpio SUV. It hit the road to success. 

More importantly, the cost of production was Rs 550 crore, a tenth of the cost of other car manufacturers. And the SUV flew into international markets, particularly in European and African countries. In India, the Scorpio had a market share of 36 percent, compared to Tata Motors share of just five percnt. Mahindra & Mahindra thus drew the road map for XUVs and KUVs and the like in the utility segment.

The launch of Mahindra Scorpio was the highlight of Anand’s career. In his words, “The scale of risk we took is our biggest achievement”. The whole concept behind Scorpio was originally an idea from a 26-year-old engineer who was part of a team-building 13-seater Utility Vehicle.

The big stumbling block was the six billion-odd rupees required for developing the Scorpio. Anand decided to bite the bullet and convinced the Board on his own that Scorpio was the future of the group. The rest, as they say, is history.

A friend of Anand once told him that life is like a bunch of rubber and glass balls that you have to juggle all the time. You have to keep the glass balls from breaking while the rubber balls can fall but they keep bouncing and can be picked up along the way.

An avid reader, Anand prefers to read business magazines such as Harvard Business Review, BusinessWeek and Fortune. Anand is also a big fan of the Booker Prize-winning author, Ian McEwan.

Anand had the unique ability to drive innovation across the entire Mahindra Group and under his leadership, the Group grew leaps and bounds and expanded into sectors that were earlier thought to be impossible. His idea of setting up unique world-class complexes that holistically integrate the needs of work and family is a case in point. 

Overcoming the initial resistance to his ideas, Anand held his belief that “We’re going to change the way people live in these townships.” Once again, his plans proved to be on point and the company behind the project, Mahindra Gesco already has orders worth Rs 15 billion and companies like Infosys are vying for their Mahindra World City, Chennai project.

The legend that Anand Mahindra is gave up his position of Executive Chairman of M&M and became non-executive Chairman of the company in April 2020, by which time, he has left a legacy which will be remembered for centuries.

Anand chooses to focus on leadership, innovation, a global presence and delivering on financials. He believes everything else will follow by itself. Anand is also a family man and tries to spend as much time as he can with his family and those near and dear.

After receiving the Padma Bhushan, Anand's most interesting tweet was about the days when he used to hitchhike on top of a truck between Bombay (Mumbai) and  Poona (Pune) as a 17-year old, on weekends. He posted a picture of one of his travels atop a truck. He said he used to love the open roads and travel with a friend and the movie ‘Parichay’ had come out & we would sing “Musafir hoon Yaaron’. So much similar to experiences of India's youth, who love travelling down the road.

Anand Mahindra engages with youth on microblogging site twitter and comments on various social issues. With over 8.5 million users following him, he  takes personal interest in people development and is always on the look out to find unique stories about people on the streets who have made a difference. He directly connects with such achievers and those who have done phenomenally well despite their struggles and finds ways to help them.

When he finds genuine people who have excelled in their respective fields, he donates vehicles or things they may need to upgrade themselves.

Apart from gifting Mahindra Thar and other Mahidra products to sports persons who have excelled internationally, like ace shuttler P V Sindhu and other Olympic medalists, Anand has also helped an old woman, 80-year old Kamalathal, who sells idlis for Rs one.

Kamalathl used firewood to steam hot idlis and sell so the poor could afford. Moved by the story, Anand tweeted a video of her making those 1,000 idlis a day and said he wants to invest  in the octogenarians' business and support her with an LPG stove and help in buying gas. The nation was moved by his tweet and next day BPCL donated her an LPG stove and other things she needed in the kitchen.

Many such tweets by the business tycoon has caught the attention of people who love his posts and they directly post funny messages, which Anand himself apparently enjoys. Many a times, he reacts instantly. One such tweet was when one of Anand Mahindra's fan asked him for a Mahindra Thar as a present for his birthday and Anand replied with a smiling emoji “Word lesson for the day: chutzpah. Noun extreme self-confidence or audacity (usuallyused approvingly) Love him or hate him, you have to admire Vipul's chutzpah. Full marks for chutzpah, Vipul, but unfortunately I can't say yes. Mera dhandha bund ho jayega!”.

People also post messages on social causes and challenge him to deliver. And he readily obliges, or at times pokes fun with cheeky retorts to add to the entertainment. 

Several years ago, he had founded the Nanhi Kali project to provide rimary education to underprivileged girls and is also part of the Naandi Foundation. Since 2009, the Nanhi Kali project has helped 3.30 lakh underprivileged girls.

Anand Mahindra encourages artistes, sports persons, small individuals who have made a difference to society and a large number of people follow him on social media. Such is his impact. A man of many promises, aspirtions and dreams that every Indian lives for. From a Rs 1,520 crore company in 1991, anand has turned it into a Rs 96,241 crore company when he tepped down as its Executive Chairman in April 2020. Truely inspirtional.