NRB Bearings Ltd's Vice Chairman and Managing Director Harshbeena Zaveri - who has made it to Business Today's MPW list for the second consecutive year - is ready to take up challenges. The auto-ancillary industry may face a crisis in near future, with challenges of transiting to hybrid and electric vehicles. "I believe in energising and motivating the team in such challenges," she says.
NRB will invest over Rs 200 crore over the next couple of years in R&D and is beefing up infrastructure and manufacturing facilities. New products are coming out every year. "We have developed prototypes and will come out with new products every year," says Zaveri. "We have a flexible customised manufacturing policy suiting each of the clients; decision-making is decentralised and 30 per cent of our management team is less than 30 years old," she elaborates as the success mantra of NRB.
Despite the pangs of demonetisation and Goods and Services Tax (GST), NRB did well last year. It recorded a total income of `859 crore last year and had 37 per cent growth in exports to original equipment manufacturers (OEMs). NRB exports 25 per cent of its production, mainly to Original OEMs in Europe and the US.
Zaveri says unlike its competitors, the company looks at generating more profitability and had Rs 93 crore in profits at the group level in financial year 2017/18, a jump of 75 per cent over Rs 53 crore in the previous year.