April 10, 2025
Anish Shah – CEO – Mahindra Group
How To Reboot Multinational Corporations—One Growth Gem At A Time, Anish Shah – CEO Mahindra Group
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Do you have Growth Gems? Dr. Anish Shah, Group CEO and MD of the Mahindra Group does—a lot of them. Mahindra Group is one of the world’s largest and most admired multinational companies with diverse businesses in 20 industries which employ over 260,000 people in 100 countries.
With over $25B in annual revenue, the organization has a broad federation of companies across industry sectors, from cars, SUVs, trucks, motorcycles, technology, energy, logistics, to hospitality, real estate, financial services, and agriculture—and is also the world’s largest tractor company by volume.
Under his leadership, the group has been rebooting itself into a global growth and innovation machine across the globe, and receiving the Economic Times Company of the Year award. Listen in or watch to learn why Anish believes purpose drives profits, what’s next in his 20 market categories, why you need tech leadership in your businesses, and how to prioritize your most important “growth gems”.
Purpose Over Profits, But Still Plenty Of Profits
When talking with Anish and going over how widespread their market is, the first question that came to mind was how someone manages as diverse a portfolio as Mahindra Group has. With great success to boot. To that, Anish laid three pillars that He and his team focus on: Purpose, People, and Discipline. This even goes back to its founding in 1945 when it made an advertisement with the message “Neither caste nor creed nor color shall come in the way of a meritocracy”.
Although it reads like corporate jargon to hear “Purpose, People, and Discipline”, there must be something to it as Mahindra Group has outpaced India’s premier index, the Nifty 50, as it is one of the best-performing stocks in the country
Balancing Audacity And Realism
The Mahindra Group being as large as it is, requires many of its internal leaders to be able to think big as well. This is where Anish mentions how and when the balance between realism and audacity comes into play. He states, “The tension between these two words is what enables us to try and get to a place where we can think big.” Anish wants his team leaders to aim high, without the fear of failure meaning they lose their job. Mahindra Group compensation plans even have this built-in where they reward 90% of a healthy plan over 110% of an unhealthy one. Basically, to say it is better to fall just short of a big vision than exceed a small one.
Advice For The NextGen
When asked what he looks for in new hires, Anish simply said “We like to see in people that they love what they do.” His goal is to find people with passion and love for a certain industry and get them into a position where they can let both of them show. Plus since we all spend a lot of time working, if you can find something you love you will be much happier for it in the future.
Another piece of advice he gave to us was sometimes it is best to “give up control”. Sound easy, its not. You don’t have to control everything; it is important to build up boundaries and trust with the people you work with. Then maybe one day you can lead a group as big and as profitable as the Mahindra Group.
