‘Strange and sinister’ 2020 be transformed into a year of reinvention: Anand Mahindra

The “strange and sinister year” of 2020 will give way to one focussed on reinvention and regeneration in 2021, said Anand Mahindra, Chairman of the Mahindra Group, in his New Year address to employees.

“We in the Mahindra Group are familiar with the concept of rebooting. It’s become part of our internal vocabulary ever since the 2008 Blue-Chip conference where, when faced with a global recession, we decided we had to focus on the 3 Rs – Reboot, Reinvent and Reignite. We did it then, and we have done it now. At the end of nine months of the pandemic, we are stronger as a business than we were before the crisis,” said Mahindra in a video clip shared with his employees. He also drew parallels to how three vaccines were developed in a short span of time.

“This strange and sinister year will be transformed into a year of reinvention and regeneration as we embark upon the third decade of the 21st century and confidently set our course for our centenary,” said Mahindra.

Vaccine parallel

Akin to the way three effective vaccines were developed within 10 months, Mahindra claimed, the group rebooted by re-evaluating its approach, using technology and reinventing processes, cutting out the unnecessary and the irrelevant, using its capital more efficiently and moving with speed and agility.

He proceeded to give examples for the “remarkable results” the company garnered. “We achieved our highest ever PBIT in the farm business in Q2 this fiscal. In the same period, the operating margins of both our farm and auto businesses were the best in their respective industries. The huge demand and excitement for Thar has reinforced our SUV positioning.

“At Tech Mahindra, the pipeline is the highest-ever over the last two quarters. At MMFSL, consolidated AUM grew by 12 pe cent year-on-year in September along with a 111 per cent increase in PAT. At Club Mahindra, occupancies have been moving up steadily from 30 per cent in Q2 to 74 per cent in November,” he said.

“And all of this is in the background of the actions being taken on capital allocation that have established a clear path to 18 per cent RoE as I mentioned at the M&M AGM a few months ago,” added Mahindra.