Turning old into gold

Venkatachari Jagannathan
22 November 2002

HM managing director A Sankara Narayanan, 59, is a cautious, soft-spoken old hand in the company. Entering the portals of HM as general manager, earthmoving equipment division (this was sold to Caterpillar recently), he was the first executive in the company's history to be co-opted into the board in 1997.

Narayanan shuttles between various plants during weekdays, but makes it a point to be in Chennai, his base, on every Saturday.

On the other hand, HM executive director B K Chaturvedi, 54, is a risk-taker. Instead of leading a comfortable life as the managing director of the profitable Eicher, he decided to join HM as president of the loss-making automotive division two years ago.

In a year's time he was inducted into the board — perhaps as part of the appointment deal, but he doesn't want to talk about it. Chaturvedi operates from New Delhi, where the company's marketing operations are centralised.

Now, both the veterans' common goal is to drive HM towards the profitability path. “The immediate plan is to turn around the company in a sustainable manner,“ says Chaturvedi, a mechanical engineer with a management degree from Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad.

As part of this plan, two India-based multinational car companies, Ford India and General Motors, will source the engine and gear box — the heart and brain of any vehicle — from HM.