Lords of the Game

Ta pa n M i t r a ,
C h i e f - h r , a p o l l o t y r e s lt d .
PHOTO: sujan singh

F
A p o l l o T y r e s Lt d . rom being the first and largest Indian multina-
tional tyre corporation, Apollo Tyres has traversed

Passion
a long journey since its inception 34 years ago.
The seeds of growth germinated with the open-
ing of its first plant at Perambra, Kerala. In 1991, it set up
another Greenfield plant in Gujarat, today the biggest plant
in southeast Asia. Thereafter in 1995, it acquired another

in
plant in Kerala, called Premier Tyres. Mr. Onkar S Kan-
war (presently the CMD) took lead of Apollo in between
1979-80, a time when a major turnaround was required. In
1995, he was joined by his talented younger son, Mr. Neeraj

Motion
Kanwar, who is sharing the responsibility of carrying the
family legacy forward as Vice Chairman & MD.
Though the company had been on a growth path, it
was not until 2005 that the need to focus on HR systems
was realised. Mr. Tapan Mitra (Chief – Human Resources)
recalls, “HR mostly comprised home-grown people from
other disciplines. So, there was a dire need for profes-
sionalism.” This was when Mr. Mitra joined the company.
With a huge challenge to build HR from scratch, he says

30 The Human factor January 2011

 Jewels in the King’s Crown
• First Indian company to reach the revenue of USD 1 billion.
• First Indian multinational within the tyre industry.
• First in the world among tyre companies to achieve BS7799 certification.
• Largest suppliers to OEMs in India.
• Apollo’s Greenfield plant in Gujarat is the biggest plant in southeast Asia.

that they roped in Mercer as their HR

consulting agency and worked towards
professionalising the function.
At this time, Mr. Arun Maira (the
then Chairman of the Boston Consult-
ing Group) was also rolled in as con-
sultant for leadership intervention to
chart the company’s future. Adds Mr.
Mitra, “He took our top team of about
15 to 16 people to Shimla where for
three days, we deliberated on our next
big step. We planned the mechanisms
to achieve our goal to become a USD
two billion company in five years’
time.” This intervention set a start to
the company’s people journey which
led to establishing world-class HR sys-
tems and processes.
While detailing out the HR systems
further, Mr. Mitra soon realised the
need for the Performance Manage-
ment System ( PMS) to be very robust.
Therefore, they designed it with Mer-
cer but took it a step further by tak-
ing it online. The system was named
‘PACE’, standing for, Performance And
Career Enhancement. Their compen-
sation system has a unique concept
of variable pay, that is, performance
bonus, ranging from 10 to 30 per cent
across all levels. The performance pa-
rameters for all are broken into the
two components of individual perfor-
mance and company performance.
They also have a quarterly evaluation
along with which performance bonus
is paid out. Moreover, in their annual
performance appraisals, they ensure
that increment letters were handed
out to the employees on the first of
April every year. “In our company, the
philosophy is that we work hard, but
play harder! We have a lot of engage-
ment activities involving employees
and their families. Salary alone cannot
bind people to a company, and they
should get encouragement from time
to time to feel as a part of the team,”
says Mr. Mitra. Also, as an offshoot of
PACE, it undertakes numerous man-
agement development programmes.
The focus is on two things, that is, skill
development (for the junior level) and
leadership building (for the senior and
middle levels). The top management
is also sent to IMD and INSEAD for
advanced management training. Most
importantly, Apollo believes in impart-
ing training to those who perform or
have the potential for growth.
Apollo Tyres has grown through
some major acquisitions; one in 2006
when it acquired Dunlop South Africa
and the other in 2009, the acquisition
of Vredestein of Netherlands, which
made Apollo an international company,
with 15,000 people on board: 10,000
in India and the rest internationally.
Adds, Mr. Mitra, “One of our major
challenges in HR has been to integrate
these new geographies. We have had
some cultural exchanges, where 50 key
managers from both these countries
came to India for a week and experi-
enced a taste of Indian culture, since
we invited all of them to our houses.”
Moreover, ‘Family Days’ are celebrat-
ed across all manufacturing facilities
across Apollo geographies. This is when
employees’ families are invited to visit
the plants and understand the nature
of work better. Another unique concept
is the ‘Apollo One Family’. Explaining it
further, Mr. Mitra says, “The ‘One Fam-
ily’ activities include get-togethers on
festivals, cricket tournaments (called
Apollo Unstoppable Cup) in India, soc-
cer matches in South Africa, painting
competitions and summer camps for
children, and numerous other activi-
ties. For instance, we recently took our
senior management, along with their
family, on a three-day trip to Paris and
Amsterdam with all expenses paid by
the company. This helps to bind people

January 2011 The Human factor 31

 Lords of the Game
Exclusive Q&A with Satish Sharma, Chief
– India Operations, Apollo Tyres Ltd.

Q. Share with us the Apollo story in India.

A. Apollo in India is in-step with the economy or even
outstripping the economy by some margin. At present,
Indian operations comprise 60 per cent of our revenue
and we are looking at India alone becoming a USD 2
billion operation in the next three years. We are look-
ing at very steep growth in all three customer chan-
nels, that is, replacement after-market, OE segment,
and exports. We also hope to double our exports (from
9 per cent of our revenue to about 20 per cent).

Q. What are your growth plans from the sales

point of view?
A. We have been the market leader in the commer-
cial vehicle space for the last three decades and all
market leaders should be volume leaders, as well as
price leaders. Our mantra is profitable growth, and
we look at the bottom-line as well as the top-line. We
are also looking at the hinterlands. It is about great
product technology, even better after-sales service,
and a gameplan for your retailers where they see a
profit. These are the three pillars of growth and we
are innovating around them. In short, market leader-
ship around the product, customer engagement, and
operational excellence. As the only Indian company
exporting to Europe, we are able to compress the
life cycle of a mature market and bring those fruits
to India. While we have had volume growth, we are
still not the perceptual leaders in the market. But, together and gives a lot of mileage in terms of retention.”
we do like to believe that we are the Asian Paints of Even birthdays are celebrated with great enthusiasm,
the tyre industry! which the Vice Chairman makes it a point to attend,
and this feeling of togetherness is what Apollo always
Q. What is the perception of Apollo in the strives for.
global market? In 2010, its Greenfield plant commenced production
A. We are the most-talked-about emerging player (set up in a record time of 14 months). Apollo’s Chennai
within industry circles. Our big task is to disassociate plant is a state-of-the-art radial tyre plant with bench-
ourselves from the Chinese because their perception mark practices in line with the best in the world. With an
is very poor. But given the kind of acquisitions we objective of creating Chennai as an iconic plant, lots of
have made, our global workforce, and the way we new concepts have been brought in. The plant has a lean
are approaching our every step, I think, within the organisational structure paving way for faster decision
industry, they are looking at us very seriously. making and empowered teams (Self Managed Teams).
HR’s role is to ensure implementation of new concepts
Q. Is there a perception that Indian products and work practices, and develop an iconic culture.
are not truly high quality? Going forward, the company believes that integrating
A. Perception-wise, we are considered better than the different cultures would be a major challenge, along with
Chinese, but the Chinese gravitational pull does exist. the usual challenges of controlling attrition, motivating
But, if you have a manufacturing facility in Europe people, leadership development, and succession plan-
(the way that we have), then you can disassociate ning. Mr. Mitra hopes it will be an interesting journey
yourself very easily. which will see Apollo reach new heights in terms of
human resources and business processes. t hf

32 The Human factor January 2011