Support for sport must be seen as CSR: Pawan Munjal

Of all the sports he is a patron of, golf is his favourite. Not because cricket isn’t exciting but because it’s the one sport he plays and is even good at it. Meet Pawan Munjal, MD and CEO of  Hero MotoCorp.

As a young man entering a new business of mopeds, Munjal arrived in Delhi from Ludhiana, Punjab, where he neither had much industry experience nor knew how to drive a golf club. Two decades down, he is a master at both business and sport. “It just happened that a good friend took me to Sirifort Academy to pick up golf.”

This was in the 1990s. Rest, as they say, is history. In his game and at manufacturing, he has mastered the art of doing new stuff, innovating, supporting the underdogs and building a backbone for a self-sustaining idea.

Munjal got on to the DLF course, and later joined Delhi Golf Club as a member too. He quickly became prolific at the sport and has since driven an extra mile to keep players and their games on the fairways.

Call it his entrepreneurial experience or his foresight for success. From Shiv Kapur, Gaganjeet Bhullar, Daniel Chopra to Sharmila Nicollet and even Anirban Lahiri – all have had Hero’s support in the game and all have done the nation proud. Luckily for him, his cricket stars too have taken it up as a second sport.

 Munjal believes that corporations must encourage sport to bring India further glory and you’ll see this in Hero’s efforts for hockey, cricket, badminton, golf and more. Hero today hosts the Indian Open, the oldest tournaments for men and women in India.

“I feel time has now come for the government to consider support for sport as a corporate social responsibility,” he asserts. And he may not be wrong. Given that the nation’s medal tally across sport is still poor and that Indian sports need more public infrastructure and support of more than a handful of corporations, his suggestion may prove to be game-changing.

Munjal makes his yearly pilgrimage to the Augusta Masters for many reasons. While it’s a great meeting ground for the world’s best golf players, it’s also the place where the industry’s very best come down to discuss the future of the sport.

Munjal effortlessly converses golf with greats like Tiger Woods, Ernie Els (who Munjal also met on the South African’s trip to India a few years ago for a game at the Delhi Golf Club), Mark O Meara and even Paul McGinley. It’s from these experiences Munjal comes back richer with knowledge of the ‘next in sport’ and is aroused to create new experience in growing sport under the Hero banner.

Adam Scott was particularly charmed by Munjal’s effort to encourage golf in India when the two teed off during the Johnnie Walker Classic in 2008, one of the biggest tournaments (in terms of prize money and players) to have been conducted on Indian soil. This tournament left Indian golf in a good place. Since then, Jyoti Randhawa, Jeev Milkha Singh and Arjun Atwal have won many tournaments and done India proud.

On the business front, too, Munjal has shown resilience in building his brand. The split with Honda about two years ago did not dent Hero at all. The Hero brand remained strong and proactive.

Just recently, the company announced a slew of launches where Munjal was pleased to report a “significant upgradation of our existing line-up (of mobikes), incorporating next-generation technology and features. This is also a reiteration of our capability to develop indigenous technologies.”

The world’s largest two-wheeler maker also has plans to continue its overseas expansion, adding North America and Canada to its list of international markets. Another five years and they hope to chase a target of 50 countries.

Just like in his business, Munjal wants India to take pride in its golf by spreading the game and opening up its seemingly ‘elite’ boundaries. Many of India’s top golfers today were caddies who thrived on the small opportunities handed out by patrons. This can be extended to many more.

“We have been supporting an academy in Chandigarh but we clearly need more,” Munjal says. No doubt, that one academy is the nursery of the country’s top golfers and the current need of the hour. Munjal feels the need to make sport a national agenda and work on adding to public opportunities to play golf.