Vijay Mallya’s demeanour could be straight out of American author Robert J Ringer’s classic book about business, Winning Through Intimidation.
Vijay Mallya says F1 is an aspirational sport, while cricket is a passion for Indians
BARCELONA: Vijay Mallya’s demeanour could be straight out of American author Robert J Ringer’s classic book about business, Winning Through Intimidation. “We struck the best deals in the Indian Premier League,” says the flamboyant business tycoon in his sand-papery drawl even as he eyes the test timings of his Force India drivers on the monitor.
“You can play only four overseas players in a match, so what’s the point in buying eight?” he asks without a trace of self-doubt. Other franchisees of the IPL may have a different point of view, but Mallya refuses to budge from his conviction that his Bangalore Royal Challenge side has the best chance in the cricket league which begins next month.
“It’s not about money, but how you spend it. We have a very balanced team, and players who have the experience to win,” he adds.
Winning is clearly the credo to Mallya’s ventures, in sports as in business. His various interests — ranging from liquor to airlines — command a market cap of approximately Rs 50,000 crore, and rising rapidly.
More interestingly, however, he is also in the vanguard of a sports revolution that is sweeping India if his two acquisitions in the past six months are an indication.
Late last year, he has invested about Rs 200 crore in Force India, the country’s first foray in Formula One racing, and approximately Rs 400 crore in the Indian Premier League.
Over the next few years, investment in these two properties could increase substantially — though Mallya hopes that the return on investment would begin soon. He also owns two of the top soccer teams in India — East Bengal and Mohun Bagan — and is not shy of looking for more sports properties. These purchases reflect not just a passion for sport (he can talk with authority on most games) but also an acute understanding of India’s rapidly changing ethos. “If you had asked me 10 years ago whether I wanted to buy an F1 team, I would have said no,” he says. “But the country has changed dramatically, we have become part of the globalised world, and there is a whole new generation of aspiring youngsters who see sports as cool.”
The defining moment for him in understanding the new India, he reveals, came a few years ago when he found out that the highest sales of Mercedes cars was in Ludhiana, Guwahati and Coimbatore. “Not Mumbai, Delhi or Bangalore as you would expect,” he says. “The country was headed in a new direction, and people who were never seriously involved in consumption were now the biggest participants.”
“Aspiration is the key difference,” he explains. “In sport, cricket was always popular, and will be. It’s a mass passion. Formula One is more aspirational. The positioning is vastly different from cricket.” The bundling of marketing jargon with sport is not accidental, but integral to Mallya’s thinking and entrepreneurship. “I don’t do things without purpose,” he says. “Each of these properties will be assigned a brand, for example Kingfisher with Formula One and Royal Challenge with cricket.”
It’s a strategy which has worked so far for him and the brand, and, one dare say, sports in India. Of the future, he remains bullish. “I have paid top money for cricket and Formula One, hired the best people, so why shouldn’t we do well?” he asks testily. What was that about winning through intimidation?
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