Tribute: Rahul Bajaj was a titan whose success transcended business

Rahul Bajaj died in Pune at the age of 83. (Photo via Wikimedia Commons)

It is difficult to slot Rahul Bajaj who passed away in Pune at the age of 83. He was a straight-talker who minced no words and rarely held back his views, no matter how unpalatable or politically incorrect. He was also a larger-than-life figure whose persona illuminated Indian business for over five decades.

Above all Rahul Bajaj was a builder who inherited a tiny business dealing in scooters, cement and electrical appliances from his father Kamalnayan Bajaj in 1968. As the grandson of a well-known freedom fighter Jamnalal Bajaj who had founded the group in 1926, his inheritance was patriotism more than wealth. But that was all he needed, as he went on to build an industrial powerhouse, in the process turning Bajaj into one of the most recognized brand names in the country.

Hamara Bajaj was more than a vehicle and more than a two-wheeler. It was the pride of a nation that had little to be proud of in those pseudo-socialist decades of the 1970s and '80s. Parents proudly presented a Chetak or a Super scooter to their daughters at their weddings while families celebrated their arrival in the household as one would a newborn child.

Rahul Bajaj’s role in creating that image was immense. His was that rare instance of an Indian businessman who stuck to his core competencies in an era when others picked up any licence that was available and pursued any opportunity that was presented regardless of the strengths needed to succeed.

By 1991, Bajaj Auto sold one out of every two-wheelers bought in the country. It was the world’s second-largest scooter maker and the country’s fourth-largest private sector company. Yet these strengths seemed to be ineffectual when the challenge of liberalization presented itself. Bajaj, ever the feisty leader, was outspoken in his criticism of the abrupt way in which Indian companies were suddenly being exposed to multinationals with advanced technologies and abundant capital. Having grown up in a capital-scarce environment with severe curbs on imports of technology, the man had a point, though critics would call it a cop-out by traditional Indian businesses fattened by the licen\ce-permit raj.

But the man who wore embroidered kurtas with elan and pride would make his critics eat their words. Over the next few years as the world’s top two-wheeler companies including Honda, Yamaha, and Suzuki rushed to the emerging new market, Bajaj Auto’s sales went into decline. With the younger Indian customer opting for motorcycles, the market dynamics changed, leaving Bajaj Auto out in the cold. But soon enough, Rahul Bajaj, engineered a famous turnaround as the company reinvented itself as a motorcycle maker and recovered much of the lost ground.

By the early 2000s, his two sons Rajiv and Sanjiv had been well-groomed and were ready to play their roles in taking the legacy forward. While Rajiv took charge of Bajaj Auto, Sanjiv built Bajaj Finserv virtually from scratch. Today, both businesses are flourishing, long after Rahul Bajaj stopped playing an active role in either. It is a testimony to how well he understood the importance of succession planning in a business family that under his sons, the fourth generation of the Bajaj family, the group has grown the most and also created maximum wealth for its shareholders. In that, it defies the norm for Indian business families which normally split by the third generation, often squandering almost everything by the fourth.

It wasn’t the only time Rahul Bajaj played the wise patriarch. Three years ago he had brought the larger family together to sign a family settlement with his cousins Shekhar, Madhur and Niraj, that put in place a mechanism for joint ownership of the group as well as a process to settle any future disputes.

Also read: Rahul Bajaj: "To provide continuity, that is what an owner does"

Clearly, behind the impetuosity that often led him to rail against powerful politicians, there was the wisdom of years and the magnanimity of a man who had built it all from scratch but who put family values above the billions he had created.

It is India's tragedy that such a man, though nominated to the Rajya Sabha in 2006, was not allowed to play a bigger role in the economic development of the country. Unlike many other contemporaries, he didn’t wear his patriotism on his sleeve and was not averse to giving the establishment a piece of his mind. But in all he did, Rahul Bajaj enriched the idea of India as an industrial powerhouse that could match the best in the world.

Also read: PM Narendra Modi expresses his condolence on demise of Rahul Bajaj