Vikram Kirloskar | How Toyota’s legacy of manufacturing excellence inspired this Renaissance Man

Vikram Kirloskar

Through the 1990s, Toyota Motor Corporation had emerged as the global pacesetter in terms of manufacturing practices. The Toyota Production System, based on the philosophy of elimination of all waste in the pursuit of efficiency, was increasingly becoming the model for companies. Given different names, including lean manufacturing and Just-in-Time (JIT), it helped them organise their manufacturing and logistics operations in the most efficient and productive manner.

But the apparent simplicity was deceptive since it required companies to overhaul their entire supply chains and manufacturing processes.

One man who recognised the transformative possibilities of such a system for his company was Vikram Kirloskar, whose untimely death has shocked India's business community. A fourth-generation scion of the group, whose roots go back to the 1880s, the passionate Massachusetts Institute of Technology-trained mechanical engineer intuitively understood the value of an association with the Japanese giant, and pursued a partnership that would allow him to tap into the full range of the Japanese conglomerate’s various competencies.

Beginning with a components joint venture for the textile manufacturing business, Kirloskar went on to set up the hugely successful automobile JV, Toyota Kirloskar Motors, as well as a series of other businesses ranging from manufacturing axles, drive-shafts, transmissions and engines, to heat exchangers and air conditioners. Toyota’s reputation for quality and excellence sat well with Vikram Kirloskar’s pursuit of the same values.

Also Read | Who was Vikram Kirloskar, the man who brought Toyota to India?

At a time when Indian companies, fresh from the licence to explore that the liberalisation of 1991 had given them, were jumping into JVs without much sense of where they would eventually end up, Kirloskar showed maturity and wisdom in his choice of a partner. The partnership stood the test of time even as many others in the automobile space, including Hero-Honda, Kawasaki-Bajaj, LML-Vespa and Mahindra-Renault fell apart. It also yielded rich dividends, and over the next 20 years, starting 1999, the auto company built a base of loyal customers with products like the Qualis, Innova, Fortuner and Corolla.

With something of the renaissance spirit in him, Kirloskar’s interests went beyond his immediate business, which is why he took on responsibilities elsewhere as well. He served as the President of The Central Manufacturing Institute in Bangalore and played a major role in CII affairs, having been its past president. He also served on the Government’s Development Council for Automobiles and the National Council for Electric Mobility.

In between he also found time for a round of golf, and cooking, which he described as his favourite hobby. A techie at heart, he loved collecting model planes and trains besides signature wines from around the world.

Vikram Kirloskar's death comes at a moment of great unrest within the Kirloskar group. Along with brothers Atul and Rahul, he had been fighting a bitter arbitral battle against another sibling, Sanjay Kirloskar, for control over Kirloskar Brothers. Simultaneously, Vijay Ravindra Kirloskar, Chairman of Kirloskar Electric Company, had sued Vikram, Atul and Rahul, his nephews, alleging unauthorised use of the Kirloskar brand name.

A similar tragedy in the 1980s, occasioned by the deaths in rapid succession of S.L. Kirloskar's two sons and his youngest brother had brought the family together. That’s when the younger Kirloskars –- Vijay, Atul, Sanjay, and the youngest of them, Vikram, rallied behind their grandfather, and in a rare display of unity for an Indian business family, worked together to pull the group out of rare losses and the unexpected leadership vacuum at the top. Over the next three decades, they grew the group exponentially, despite a family split in 2000.

Hopefully, the demise of Vikram Kirloskar will serve to bring the warring members of one of India's most progressive and storied groups back to the negotiating table, and once again spur them to sort out their differences amicably.