Hero MotoCorp patriarch and doyen of Indian two-wheeler industry, Brijmohan Lall Munjal, passed away in New Delhi’s Max hospital on Sunday. He was 92
Munjal had retired from active role and become Chairman Emeritus of the over $4-billion group earlier this year and remained on the board of the company as non-executive member.
Facts about Brijmohan Lall Munjal :-
- Born in 1923 in un-partitioned Punjab, BM Munjal along with his three brothers — OP Munjal, Dayanand Munjal and Satyanand Munjal — started a bicycle spare parts business in Amritsar in 1944.
- Munjal eventually went on to establish the world’s single largest motorcycle manufacturing firm Hero MotoCorp. Munjal led the Hero Group to a number of firsts.
- Hero MotoCorp is the world’s largest two-wheeler company now for the 14th year in a row. Another group firm, Hero Cycles, has been the largest manufacturer of bicycles since 1986.
- Hero now has grown into 28,000 crore group and has sold over 60 million two-wheeler. It still accounts for nearly half the motorcycles sold in India. Munjal led the Hero group to form a joint venture – Hero Honda — with Japan’s Honda in 1984. The partnership ended in 2011.
- Munjal was among the earliest Indian industrialists to effectively implement the Just-in-Time (JIT) initiative in the automobile industry here. He focussed on current asset management, which helped evolve vendor efficiency and zero-inventory management practices at Hero.
- Beside Hero Group, Munjal held leadership positions in many national associations such as CII, SIAM, AICMA and PHD and had served as a member of the Regional Board of Reserve Bank of India.
- Since early days Munjal ran the organisation with a sharp focus on current asset management, which helped evolve vendor efficiency and zero-inventory management practices at Hero.
- Munjal helped establish numerous medical, educational and infrastructure facilities. Amongst his notable contributions to Ludhiana are the Ludhiana Stock Exchange, the Ludhiana Aviation Club, Ludhiana Management.
Awardes and honours :-
Brijmohan Lall Munjal was honoured with several awards from India and across the world as
- Awarded Businessman of the Year in 1994 by business magazine “Business India”
- Received the National Award for outstanding contribution to the Development of Indian Small Scale Industry in 1995.
- Featured as Ernst and Young Entrepreneur of the year in 2001.
- Awarded “Padma Bhushan”in March 2005 for his contribution to Trade and Industry in 2005
- Doctor of Science (Honoris Causa) by IIT, Kharagpur in 2011
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