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Siddhartha Lal, Managing Director of the Eicher group which owns Royal Enfield, has every reason to be pleased. Lal spoke to Business Line about the changes happening with fresh recruits and the diversity of employees..
Could you throw some light on the dramatic transformation of Royal Enfield as a brand?
A lot of hard work went into this, right from sorting out production, quality and suppliers to getting the right dealers, attitude, service, showrooms and products. The Classic was an important trigger.
The reasons why someone did not buy an Enfield bike earlier have vanished with the Classic. Till then, people had all kinds of reservations about Enfield.
Would that be the Enfield motto from now on?
Every bike of ours should be roadworthy and fun to ride. If you go on a regular commuter bike to work and back, you will have had a regular day. On an Enfield, you can actually ride to work elated.
You have the bubbly feeling of a wonderful ride and you cannot put a value to that. There is this element of daily biking in an Enfield. Our entire demographics have shifted to a younger, urban audience which has contributed to this growth.
Do you see a similar change happening with fresh recruits?
On the white collar side, people would earlier think twice about working here but this is no longer true. We are now realising that we are in the preferred employer space. The perception of the brand has changed dramatically where passionate riders on the white collar side are now keen to work for us. It also allows us to be more selective.
On the blue collar side, we are going through a dramatic transformation in-house and the levels of training are more intense.
Are women also part of this new workforce considering a fair number now ride your bikes?
We are increasing the diversity of employees in Enfield enormously.
We are planning to get more women into critical roles, for sure. We have a lot more of them working in general functions because it is no longer considered a hardcore engineering company. We are perceived as a leisure motorcycling brand which makes it easier for us to attract women.
We believe increase in diversity is brilliant for any company.
Source: The Hindu
Could you throw some light on the dramatic transformation of Royal Enfield as a brand?
A lot of hard work went into this, right from sorting out production, quality and suppliers to getting the right dealers, attitude, service, showrooms and products. The Classic was an important trigger.
The reasons why someone did not buy an Enfield bike earlier have vanished with the Classic. Till then, people had all kinds of reservations about Enfield.
Would that be the Enfield motto from now on?
Every bike of ours should be roadworthy and fun to ride. If you go on a regular commuter bike to work and back, you will have had a regular day. On an Enfield, you can actually ride to work elated.
You have the bubbly feeling of a wonderful ride and you cannot put a value to that. There is this element of daily biking in an Enfield. Our entire demographics have shifted to a younger, urban audience which has contributed to this growth.
Do you see a similar change happening with fresh recruits?
On the white collar side, people would earlier think twice about working here but this is no longer true. We are now realising that we are in the preferred employer space. The perception of the brand has changed dramatically where passionate riders on the white collar side are now keen to work for us. It also allows us to be more selective.
On the blue collar side, we are going through a dramatic transformation in-house and the levels of training are more intense.
Are women also part of this new workforce considering a fair number now ride your bikes?
We are increasing the diversity of employees in Enfield enormously.
We are planning to get more women into critical roles, for sure. We have a lot more of them working in general functions because it is no longer considered a hardcore engineering company. We are perceived as a leisure motorcycling brand which makes it easier for us to attract women.
We believe increase in diversity is brilliant for any company.
Source: The Hindu
Published date : 29 Oct 2014 12:59PM
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