It'll take more than bravado to survive Coronavirus scare: Anand Mahindra

We will need to 'ensure that we all follow practices which limit the import and spread of the virus', he Anand Mahindra in a Twitter post.

Mahindra Group Chairman Anand Mahindra on Tuesday expressed confidence that the world will survive the raging Coronavirus epidemic scare, but cautioned that this would not be done through “bravado”; we would need to “ensure that we all follow practices which limit the import and spread of the virus”, he said in a twitter post.

A partly humourous image that he attached to the tweet showed the various epidemics and threats of the past that we had been able to overcome, such as SARS, H5N1 bird flu and “Doomsday prediction of Nostradamus for 1999”, among others.

ALSO READ: Coronavirus LIVE updates: Death toll hits 3,056; nearly 90,000 infected

“An interesting & brave reaction to Covid-19 that is making the WhatsApp rounds. True, we will survive this. But it will require more than bravado. We need to ensure that we all follow practices which limit the import & spread of the virus,” he noted in his post.

To survive Coronavirus, he said, all the practices that limit the import and spread of virus must be followed. To overcome… “it requires more than bravado,” he said.

Coronavirus is spreading at a rapid speed. According to the World Health Organization, there are 89,527 confirmed COVID-19 cases and 3,056 deaths reported globally across 67 countries so far. Coronavirus death toll in China climbed to 2,943 on Monday.

India on Monday reported three new Coronavirus cases — one each in Delhi, Telangana and Jaipur — prompting the government to issue a travel advisory to affected countries and widening screening at airports and sea ports.

Entering commuter two-wheeler segment was a mistake, admits Anand Mahindra

Mahindra said they entered the two-wheeler market with the confidence to "win".

Anand Mahindra, the chairman of the homegrown auto group Mahindra & Mahindra, on Wednesday admitted that entering the commuter bike segment more than a decade ago was a failure on the part of the group.

The group entered two-wheelers after buying out Kinetic Motors in July 2008 and relaunched the ‘Freedom’ bikes under the label of ‘Mojo’ but has not been able to make a mark in the vastly entry-model driven two-wheeler space in the country even after a decade. The market is dominated by Hero Motorcorp and Japanese major Honda which together control close to two-thirds of the over 21-million units per annum market.

Of this, Mahindra sold a paltry 4,004 units in FY19, down 73 per cent from FY18. The only player in an over a dozen OEM market behind Mahindra is Kawasaki Motor which sold 3,115 units in the year, according to Siam data.

In the year to March 2019, according to the Saim data, the domestic two-wheeler domestic market stood at 21.2 million units, up 4.86 per cent from FY18.

Terming failure as “capital”, just like financial and human capital, Mahindra said the learning from the commuter bike episode, which was a “product failure” led to the learning and entry into the premium two-wheeler segment where he claimed the group has been successful.

Mahindra said they entered the two-wheeler market with the confidence to “win”, on the back of having a strong understanding of the ecosystem, distribution, R&D and also brand positioning.

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“We knew our dream well and we had the right things, but how to win is where we went wrong. We should have never gone to the commuter bike side,” Mahindra said, speaking at an event organised by British carrier Virgin Atlantic on looking at ‘business as an adventure’.

Sharing the stage with the Virgin group founder Richard Brandson, Mahindra said they brought the premium Java brand to the country a year-ago and seemed to suggest that it has been a success, stating that there continues to be a five-month wait for the cult bikes.

He also said they will soon be launching the BSA bikes, which was acquired earlier.

Meanwhile, amid widespread slowdown in the auto sector, Mahindra claimed that “the most optimistic” people in his group today are those in the auto and farm equipment segments, as they expect sunny days to come back from April.