Hero Minus Honda starts poaching to ramp up R&D department!

2011 Hero Honda Karizma ZMR Motorcycle

Hero Honda and R&D are two terms that most motorcycle enthusiasts will laugh at if used together in any context. For long a Honda joint venture partner with Honda doing most of the research and product development while Indian partner Hero being content at handling the vendor management, supply chain management, the distribution and finally the after sales service network. Now that Hero and Honda are no more together with both the manufacturers preferring to strike out on their own in India, Hero finds itself in the difficult position of jumpstarting an almost non-existent Research and Development department of it’s own.

Hero has hit the job market with a vengeance and has managed to poach many senior Research and Development veterans from competitors Bajaj Auto and TVS Motors, both of whom have well oiled R&D departments of their own. For instance, Hero has managed to entice Bajaj veteran T M Balaraman to jump ship to the Hero fold. Likewise, Hero is planning a rapid ramp up of it’s R&D department, which quite frankly has been a joke thus far with it reduced to being a paint and sticker operation for most of Hero Honda’s never ending range of product refreshes.

All said, Hero seems to be very serious to remain at the top even after Honda’s exit out of the 26 year long Joint Venture and only the future can tell how successful Hero can be as a solo force.

Va HindustanTimes