Royal Enfield, which is changing its appearance from a typical rural bike concept to a youth icon brand, has decided to adopt the concept of ‘Catch Them Young’ when it comes to recruitment.
In an interview to Business Line, Dr Venki Padmanabhan, Chief Executive Officer told, “We want to attract youngsters who are passionate about biking and understand what it is all about.”
The company is in need of more employees for its newly opened plant in Orragadam along the outskirts of Chennai city. “People are coming from all over the country to work in this part of Chennai. The challenge is to get this talent pool to think beyond the big fish and come to us,” he said.
Business Line had reported in its article, ‘For decades, Royal Enfield has operated out of the northern part of Chennai which is not exactly the most attractive location for an auto company. In comparison, the new site has the likes of Renault-Nissan and Daimler Commercial Vehicles as neighbours.’
“If we are small fish in a big pond, we have to position ourselves accurately in the job market because that is the only way we will get what we need,” Dr Padmanabhan said.
Royal Enfield firmly believes in the fact that there are many advantages attached in being small, particularly when it comes to career planning and growth progress.
Regarding this, Mr Siddhartha Lal, Managing Director & CEO of Eicher Motors (which presently owns Royal Enfield) added to the above point, “When a youngster comes into our organisation, he discovers that it is flat and gets areas of responsibilities assigned to him soon. We are not as straitjacketed as other multinationals where the road is narrow.”
The prime objective of opening a new plant is to reduce the long waiting period of RE products in the market. With a few best-in-class products like the Classic range which includes Classic 350 and Classic 500 rocking the market about hardcore bike enthusiasts, the waiting period increased drastically in the recent past.
“We want to be a paranoid company, at least internally, even though it is a cool image to the outside world. As much as it is great to have more customers today, we cannot take this for granted as nobody can wait forever,” Dr Padmanabhan said.
The highlight about the new plant which is being opened by Royal Enfield is this new plant will house a state-of-the-art paint shop to enhance the quality of all Royal Enfield products. The company “is barely holding together” as it is obsolete technology with capacity issues. There will also be a lot of focus on the engine, frame, tank and other sheet metal parts.
Royal Enfield is all set for a second innings in which it’ll make a great business in the Indian market.
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