Forbes India — November 17, 2017

Richest

10 0 IndIans

The

Audi, Porsche, Toyota and Honda.

For the full year ended March

2017, the group reported revenues of

$9.1 billion and $6.3 billion (`41,985

crore) for MSSL. For FY20, the

group has a revenue target of $26

billion and $18 billion for MSSL.

Listening to their customers,

adopting financial prudence and the

drive to achieve aggressive five-year

targets have all brought the group, and

its promoter, to where they are today.

Vivek Chaand Sehgal, India’s 23rd

richest man according to the 2017

Forbes India Rich List, with a net

worth of $5.85 billion, had formed

the group with his mother (hence

the initial name Motherson) in 1975.

It was then a silver trading firm,

which they shut down. The capital

was used to set up a company that

manufactured wiring for houses

and telephones. The fortunes of the

company changed when Sehgal senior

met Maruti Suzuki officials in 1983

and signed a JV with Japanese firm

Sumitomo Electric in 1986 to make

wiring harnesses for Maruti Suzuki.

Both father and son travel over 250

days a year, meeting officials and staff

at the various factories and companies

they have acquired, as well as their

customers. Laksh, who stepped out of

SMR in 2013, is now more focussed

on building solutions for the future.

He heads Motherson Innovations,

which works on projects involving

surface, lighting, and new interior

lighting technologies, all of which

can be built into the next generation

of cars. He is also working on

a project—with 14 experts in

the group across the US, UK

and Germany, internally called

‘Dashboard X’—which will explore

unique designs and technologies

in building the dashboards of the

future. Some of these products are

likely to be showcased at the CES

(Consumer Electronics Show)

in Las Vegas in January 2018.

Laksh could not be in a better space

today. The innovation space appears

to be getting only more exciting and

with the buzz of

electric vehicles getting louder,

more wiring components would

mean an increase in MSSL’s

“content-per-vehicle”.

Prior to working full-time at

Motherson, Laksh had also worn

an investor’s hat in his personal

capacity (the Sehgal family too

makes investments in companies

through the Sehgal Family Venture

Fund). In 2006, he had helped a

close friend, Paramdeep Singh,

set up music streaming platform

Saavn (in its earliest form) by seed

funding it during his undergrad

years. Laksh is still one of the

largest independent shareholders

outside of the founders of Saavn.

Having been in the family business

for over nine years, Laksh seems

to have internalised the company

philosophy. Though his role now

is to guide the group towards

understanding and integrating

technologies of the future into the

group, he is also clear that the

policies that have worked to make

Motherson Sumi what it is cannot

and will not be compromised on,

as their business practices evolve.

Relationships are important at the

group and even as most promoters

eye both acquisitions and exits,

their mantra on this, as Laksh

points out, is clear: “We are a

family company, we do not sell

companies. We only buy them.”

a

alok Shanghvi, 33, is the

eldest child of Dilip Shanghvi,

managing director and co-

founder of global specialty generic

drug firm Sun Pharmaceuticals, who

is ranked 9th on the 2017 Forbes

India Rich List. The Vadodara-

based company, which has a

portfolio of over 2,000 products,

has 42 manufacturing sites in six

continents and is India’s largest

pharma company with revenues

of $4.51 billion in March 2017.

Aalok joined the company in

2007, and has worked his way up

from being a product manager

to now being a senior general

manager of international business

(covering Southeast Asia and the

Commonwealth of Independent

States) at Sun Pharma. This is

an important assignment for the

junior Shanghvi, considering that

74 percent of Sun Pharma’s sales

come from international markets.

A graduate from the University of

Michigan in molecular biology, Aalok

has also been on the board of Taro

Pharmaceutical Industries, an Israel-

headquartered company that Sun

Pharmaceuticals acquired in 2010.

He also founded PV Power Tech, a

manufacturer and exporter of photo-

voltaic solar panels, with friend Jimmi

Desai in 2008. It has now established

units across Europe, Asia and Africa.

—SP

“We are a family company,

we do not sell companies.

We only buy them.”

aalok shanghvi

a Son Rises

vikas khot

74 | forbes india december 29, 2017