Quotes from Baba Kalyani

In business, you try to minimise risk.

We are a heterogeneous society. We have to accept that. Growth has to be such that the most backward sections also benefit from it. Otherwise, it will be a very imbalanced growth.

When I returned from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1972, my father was running a forging business with a turnover of Rs 3.5 crore. But I had no patience and wanted to grow the business via exports.

Politicians said that with our cheap labour, we could be competitive in the world. Nothing could be further from the truth. We were the most uncompetitive country with that cheap labour.

India is the most competitive manufacturing destination on this planet. If we are able to take advantage of that competitiveness for our domestic markets, this country would be humming with activity; industrial production will grow at 10-11% per year.

One of the criteria for a global company is that it should have a manufacturing presence in multiple countries and should not only be an exporter.

Prior to 2001, hardly any company in North America or Europe would buy from India.

Indians have very good engineering capabilities, and that is why, if an industry focuses on innovation, you will have a far greater chance of success, rather than the model which is based on just being a production machine.

Import and substituting imports with domestic production are a big opportunity. With a devaluation of the rupee, imports get expensive, and for Indian manufacturers, this creates a huge opportunity.

The emphasis on innovation and technology in our companies has resulted in a few of them establishing global benchmarks in product design and development, manufacturing practices and human resource capabilities. However, there is no room for complacency.

I am able to compete not because my labour is cheap, but because I can use technology better than others.

We passionately set up a programme that we call the Indian gun programme. I challenged Colonel Bhatia, who heads our defence business, that let's build an Indian gun. There's a belief that Indian companies aren't capable of this, and we want to prove them wrong, as we did in components.

Our company is very diversified, both in terms of geography and in terms of products.

India has the capability to create a fairly extensive defence manufacturing capability in many areas, and as a country and as an industry, we have matured in terms of technology and capability to make this happen.

I give strong advice, but I don't expect it to be followed.

You cannot make an aircraft without forged components.

I am a self-taught water skier and wind surfer.

Fundamentally, we have broken our aerospace business into three parts - large parts which go into the wings and fuselage, components for jet engines, and specialised structural components for landing gear.

In 2014, we have some new activities and new order wins in the non-automotive space.

The most important part of any acquisition is your ability to culturally integrate the people in the companies you acquire and your company.

If my strength is technology, financial structuring is my son's skill.

I am an analog, slide-rule kind of guy.

If somebody told me you'd be a one and a half billion dollar company and be the largest in the world, I wouldn't have believed it myself.

We have done a lot of work on cost reduction, getting ourselves lean, reducing our breakeven, reducing our fixed cost and increasing exports. All of these factors help because our export basket is not just automotive but also includes industrial products, railways and others.