Brijmohan Lall Munjal, 92, the third of the four Munjal brothers – who was instrumental in getting Japan’s Honda to invest in Ludhiana-based Hero Cycles – has died. Brijmohan Lall Munjal passed away at a private hospital in South Delhi, according to family sources. He is survived by three sons and one daughter. But his legacy lives on. Here are top 10 key takeaways from the life of Hero MotoCorp patriarch:
1. Getting Japanese bikemaker Honda to invest in India at a time when there was no sign of liberalisation — and soon after the assassination of then prime minister Indira Gandhi — was a huge achievement for Brijmohan Lall Munjal.
2. “Fill it. Shut it. Forget it.” That tag line defined the Hero Honda CD 100 motorcycle in the mid-1980s, and that bike changed the concept of motorcycling in India.
3. The entry of Hero Honda raised the bar for competition in the two-wheeler industry and in a way put the brakes on Bajaj Auto that had till that year, long wait lists for its Chetak scooter.
4. The bonhomie with Honda was such that the the JV with lasted for as long as 26 years and even after it ended, it was among the most amicable separations in Indian corporate history.
5. With annual revenues of Rs 28,000 crore (FY15), Hero MotoCorp has made 60 million two-wheelers in 31 years. It is to Brijmohan Lall Munjal’s credit that Hero MotoCorp still remains India’s largest motorcycle manufacturer.
6. Brijmohan Lall Munjal lost his son Raman Kant (in 1991) who was driving the Hero Honda business. This August, younger brother OP Munjal, too, died.
7. Till quite recently, Brihmohan Lall Munjal, who shifted to Amritsar, and then Ludhiana, from Kamalia village in Pakistan’s Punjab province. Munjal was born in 1923 in Kamalia of district Toba Tek Singh in undivided Punjab state, but at age 20 moved with his family to Amritsar. In 1940s, he and his three brothers started making bicycle components before securing a licence to make bicycles. n 1975, they had earned the distinction of largest bicycle manufactures in India. By 1986 Hero Cycles Limited entered the Guinness Book of Records as the largest manufacturers of bicycles in the world.
8. Brijmohan Lall Munjal has been known to attend all Hero MotoCross board meetings and addressed most dealers by their first name. It is a personal touch that businessmen of his generation offered. Munjal had retired from active role and become Chairman Emeritus of the group earlier in 2015.
9. In the latest Forbes listing of India’s richest, Brijmohan Lal Munjal is the oldest and comes in at rank 27, with a family fortune of $3 billion, based on his 35% stake in Hero.
10. That title will go, but the institution that Brijmohan Lall Munjal built with Hero MotoCorp will continue as he has infused deeply, even embedded, in it the culture that he represented – of putting service before self. “His contribution in building institutions and guiding principle immensely benefitted the industry as a whole,” said Assocham.