Indian Utility Vehicle major Mahindra & Mahindra has been around since the pre-independence year of 1945. It has delved in almost every major industry from automobiles to farm equipment, IT, financial services and aviation. With such diverse industries, a need was witnessed to understand the true stature of this company by delving into culture and thus was born the Mahindra Rise campaign. 18 months were spent in talking to employees, 31 key stakeholders, customers and communities. Some traits were observed to be constant, while others were either waxing or waning.
After understanding the internal culture, focus groups and interviews were conducted in Brazil, India, China, Malaysia, South Africa and US to understand customer values and expectations from the business. With the refinement of these insights, the philosophy of 'Rise' was born. It is about a call to action that talks about hard work, ambition and creativity. The company wants to show that it is formed by communities which are on the rise forever.
Rise is not a program which helps to lift the underprivileged. Neither is it a CSR program, but just a brand initiative. Mahindra wants to keep things real and possibly disappoint cynics through this process. The company makes sure that brand promises, once given, would be fulfilled by various products and services. It was an experience that Mahindra wanted to deliver through the online platform during January 2013, as it felt newspapers and magazines would not be enough. This was the birth of the 'Spark the Rise' platform.
It is expected that within the coming few months, Rise would be guiding the company through various internal transformations that include recruitment evaluation and other techniques of employee empowerment. Business decisions can be taken on the basis of community visions. As per the words of Ruzbeh Irani, Executive Vice President for Corporate Strategy, Chief Brand Officer for Mahindra Group and Member of the Group Executive Board, “In the coming months and years, Rise will guide us through internal transformations, from recruitment evaluations that reflect Rise values to new mechanisms for employee empowerment. It will shape our communications and form the basis for our business decisions. We are ready to push ahead with integrating the vision of our businesses and take on long-term challenges in new arenas – and Rise itself may be the best proof. For each of our 119,900 employees working across 100 countries, Rise defines what it means to be Mahindra and what we strive for together.”
Through the means of Internet, Mahindra is getting many unique individual to visit its website. With the insight of these unique persons, it tries to understand the sustainability of a project. Mahindra is also partnering with service providers in different areas. One of these is organisations that help in the development of technology for mentoring entrepreneurs. By bringing two partners together, where one could be good in technology and other in the commercial aspect, Mahindra hopes to promote a culture of volunteering.
