You Cannot Avoid Risk: Shrikant Badve

For Shrikant Badve, risk is simply part and parcel of running a business, and indeed, of life in general. Rather than running from it, he believes you have to embrace it in order to reap the benefits and see success.

"When you’re at home, you’re at risk. When you’re just travelling from your house to the factory, you’re at risk. When you’re in the office, you’re at some risk. So there’s always a risk, it’s part of life," the Managing Director of automotive component manufacturer Badve Engineering tells The CEO Magazine. "You cannot avoid risk. And as you take more risk, the reward is there, and I’m sure that through your sincere and dedicated efforts, you will definitely get rewarded today or tomorrow."

It is this sense of fearlessness that has seen him grow Badve Engineering from a "one-man show" in 1988 into the thriving business it is today, with around 3,500 employees and 12,000 associates across more than 30 manufacturing facilities across India.

We’d like to be known as a strong B2C player.

"As a first-generation entrepreneur, I have seen our business transition from a single shed into a multimillion-dollar entity in a very short time frame. I am privileged to have worked with some incredible colleagues, top original equipment manufacturers and supplier channel partners," Shrikant says. "I am also blessed to have my family’s support and involvement in the business and to be recognised today as a manufacturing entity which fully embodies the spirit of the ‘Make in India’ initiative."

The company’s strong fundamentals have enabled growth potential at 16.4 per cent compound annual growth, beating the Automotive Component Manufacturers Association of India Index of 12 per cent over the course of four financial years. Badve Group arises as a conglomerate due to its year over year growth, which is strongly associated with its manufacturing expertise, long term customer relationships and established global and domestic supply chains.

Shrikant’s long term vision is to expand Badve Engineering’s portfolio towards technology products and services, which will cater to key market players and public bodies supporting the Digital India initiative. "We’d like to be known as a strong business to consumer player," he says. "All while further consolidating our brand image and positioning ourselves in the business to business space as a preferred Tier 1 supplier."

Delivering top-notch customer satisfaction is also a key aspect of his future plans, he adds. In order to do this, he plans to strengthen the company’s human resources department, improve training modules and enhance its culture, values and principles. "I have to create more clones of Shrikant Badve," he laughs. "I have to create more people who think like me, act like me, and give the best service to our customers. That’s not an easy transition. That’s not easy to communicate. It’s not an easy action to be implemented on the shop floor. It calls for a lot of focus, a lot of training, a lot of hand-holding and a lot of confidence-building."

Badve has set itself some aggressive targets in terms of business expansion. "Our primary focus is to diversify our product portfolio by gaining significant market share in the electric vehicle space, which is already creating disruptions in the existing automative industry," Shrikant says. "We hope to expand our exports to 15 per cent of our turnover by 2025. We also intend to be listed and go public by the end of the 2023 financial year,, which would help us to further diversify and grow our business."

To ensure its suppliers are on the same page, Badve Engineering invites them to its factories. "We show them the new things we’re doing so they can learn all about them and potentially implement them at their factories too," Shrikant says.

As a brand ambassador and principal delegate for both the Indian government’s Make in India and the Maharashtra government’s Magnetic Maharashtra initiatives, Shrikant remains firmly committed to bolstering the country’s share of revenue from the manufacturing sector.

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