The Maruti Story

Fri, 16 Jan 2026 00:00:00 +0000

In 1986-87, Maruti sold more cars than all other passenger car makers in India combined.

And then… things went wrong. Sales slowed sharply because:

Indian government’s 1986 budget increased component duties by 5%
Yen strengthened by 22% (Maruti imported parts from Suzuki, Japan)

Most auto companies would have waited for the market to recover. Maruti didn’t.

They did something unexpected for an Indian carmaker at the time: they started exporting to Hungary, France, Netherlands…

Build a Billion Dollar Company

Fri, 02 Jan 2026 00:00:00 +0000

I recently read an advance reader copy of “How to Build a Billion Dollar Company” by Guillaume Moubeche. The book explores into what sets billion-dollar companies apart, filled with real-world anecdotes. Here are my key takeaways:

Embracing Paradoxes
It spans a wide spectrum of themes and embraces paradoxes that prophesy an all-inclusive environment. For instance, it showcases anecdotes about ’trusting everyone’ but later warns about ’trusting no one’. Likewise, it shares exemplars for both ‘founder as the face’ type as well as the ‘founder stays invisible’ type.

Leadership-Insights on Rohan Surve's personal page

The Maruti Story

Build a Billion Dollar Company