Next Many Decades Belong to India: Maruti Suzuki India MD

Every few decades, a new country or region emerges as an economic powerhouse in the global landscape. After the USA, Europe, Japan, the “Asian tigers” of Hong Kong, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan, and most recently China, it may now be the turn of India, according to Hisashi Takeuchi, MD & CEO, Maruti Suzuki India.

“And now, the next many decades belong to India,” says Takeuchi during his Address at the 65th ACMA annual convention. Takeuchi says, while adding that for India to be that major economic powerhouse, “it will be important to continue demonstrating policy stability and predictability”.

Lessons from Japan

Takeuchi shared four key observations from his home country in what would also qualify as lessons for industry players and policymakers. Among the other examples of major economic powerhouses, Japan stands out as it has rebuilt itself to be a leader in technology and quality from a stage of “almost no resources” due to the destruction caused by World War II.

Four key approaches that worked for Japan, and which may be adopted by others too, as shared by Takeuchi are,

– Japanese companies channelised human emotions towards progress. Employees were treated as partners. On the shop floor, no work was considered small or big. Respect was earned by doing one’s job with passion. Instead of celebrating individual heroism, Japan created harmony by celebrating collective effort. 

– Continuous investment in R&D: More importantly, Japan invested time in deeply understanding customer needs before developing products, to naturally attract strong customer demand. This will help avoid spending heavily on marketing to push a product. 

– A strong belief in and practice of continuous improvement, or Kaizen in Japanese. Every day, every process, every product was made slightly better. This enabled organisations to refresh themselves constantly and never fall behind. 

– Japan built highly efficient business practices with deep respect for resources. From product design to manufacturing, and from usage to end-of-life, the principle was to minimise resource use and environmental impact. 

Takeuchi also highlighted that Japanese organisations embraced efficiency not only as an economic choice but as a responsibility towards society and Mother Earth. “In Japan’s own experience, the government played an important role in creating an enabling ecosystem for manufacturing,” he says. 

Stable and Predictable Policies Key for Sustained Growth

Stable and predictable policies, close working between Government institutions and industry, strong support for exports, R&D, and skills, also helped Japan to emerge from the war, causing it to become a global industrial major. “This gave companies the confidence to invest for the long term and to build competitiveness step-by-step,” says Takeuchi.

Takeuchi and many of his industry peers would expect Indian lawmakers to take similar approaches. The Japanese industry leader also appreciated the Indian Government's initiatives of corporate tax reduction, PLI and programmes like Make in India. He also noted that the recent reduction in taxes, and interest rate cuts to stimulate domestic demand will boost the manufacturing sector.     

Maruti Suzuki India’s parent company, Suzuki Motor Corporation, has chosen India as the sole manufacturing and export hub for its debut Battery Electric Vehicle (BEV), the e-Vitara. Along with dispatching the first batch of the BEV for export markets, the Japanese major also inaugurated its battery electrode production facility in Gujarat on 26 August. 

“Except for the raw material, which is not available in India, everything else is local,” says Takeuchi. Addressing automotive industry professionals, he also says, “This is our chance, to make the country (India) not just a participant, but a leader in the global automobile supply chain”.