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    Major Rejig at Royal Enfield post new CEO Dasari’s entry

    Synopsis

    Vinod Dasari aims to reinforce India focus, grow volumes and protect leadership.

    royal-enfield-BCCL

    After the announcement of the new CEO, an annual meeting of the top 200 executives was held in Chennai where the strategic business plans were discussed, and then within a week, large scale transfers and positions were announced.

    MUMBAI: Ending the last fiscal year with its lowest growth rate in almost a decade, Royal Enfield, the premium motorcycle brand owned by Eicher Motors, has revamped the organisation structure post the high-profile appointment of Vinod Dasari as the CEO of the company.

    The aim is to reinforce focus on the domestic market, protect leadership and grow volumes in the face of a slowing market and rising competition, said people in the know.

    After the announcement of the new CEO, an annual meeting of the top 200 executives was held in Chennai where the strategic business plans were discussed, and then within a week, large scale transfers and positions were announced.

    In that meeting, Siddhartha Lal, MD, Eicher Motors acknowledged that the India business is facing challenges and it needs attention. He said while international markets will take time to evolve, the most important resources will be behind India business and there is an urgency to get the India story back on track.

    The company has segregated sales and marketing into two separate functions as against one team led by Shaji Koshy. The company has moved back Pankaj Sharma to domestic operations as national sales head from his position of global customer experience head; Sharma will report into Shaji to manage smooth transition on the completion of his extended term. The company has given the complete marketing responsibility to Shubhranshu Singh who was earlier global head of brands.

    The biggest organisation change in terms of senior managerial concentration is the creation of chief commercial officer position under Lalit Malik, who is also the chief financial officer of Eicher Motors with sales, marketing, service, finance, legal and admin reporting into him.

    Apart from the major changes, the domestic sales and marketing set-up, the other key changes on the international operations include movement of Arun Gopal from Latin America to Europe, replacing Paul Rowney, who has exited the company. Rod Copes, a former Harley executive who manages the US market also gets the additional charge of the Latin American market.

    When contacted, Royal Enfield spokesperson said the changes in structures and teams, and deployment of personnel are in line with the objectives of emerging opportunities and priorities. The spokesperson said that the company’s ambition to grow mid-size motorcycling (250-750 cc) globally from India remains on track.

    On the renewed focus on the domestic market, the spokesperson asserted India is the core market and the company derives scale, competitive cost structures and profitability from this market, but cautioned that Royal Enfield is now on a different part of growth cycle in India and it has synced with the rest of the market, leaving it to the influences of industry ups and downs. “We strongly believe that changes in a business cycle give us the opportunity to introspect, figure out problems and roadblocks in the system. We are certainly not sitting still or taking this lightly. We are rolling up our sleeves and putting our resources and attention behind identifying these challenges and solving them,” assured the spokesperson.


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