Autobayng News Team
Anand Mahindra said the decision was a bet on the future and taught the company to learn ahead of the curve.“>
In India’s electric vehicle market space, Mahindra & Mahindra is an established name. But investing in the space decades ago invited its share of criticism from industry watchers who called it a crazy decision.
However, Anand Mahindra, Group Chairman, in a recent interview with McKinsey & Company, said the decision was a bet on the future and taught the company to learn ahead of the curve.
“When we invested in electric vehicles over a decade ago, people thought we were crazy. But it wasn’t a financial bet—it was a bet on the future. Even if it didn’t pay off immediately, it pushed us to learn ahead of the curve,” said Mahindra.Currently, Mahindra ranks among the top three EV players in the country’s passenger vehicle market, with its market share tripling to 19 per cent in 2025, from 7 per cent in 2024.Explaining the mantra behind his decision making, Mahindra said this approach reflects the asymmetric risk-taking appetite of the company.
“There’s a difference between being bold and being reckless. I have always believed in asymmetric risk-taking—where your downside is limited but your upside is transformational. You have to know what hill you’re willing to die on, and which ones you can simply walk around. That sense of proportion is what keeps you alive as a leader. We also had over 100,000 people in the group at that time, and I was brought up with a sense of responsibility to them,” he said.
Mahindra also talked about the culture at the Group he has built over the years, saying the culture is built conversation by conversation.
“When you’re growing as fast as we were, you have to look outside for talent as well as internally. My favourite part of hiring was the 90-minute, unstructured conversation with anyone we were considering for a top position. I wasn’t testing them; I was looking for curiosity. When someone’s eyes lit up while talking about what they had learned, I knew they belonged here,” he noted, essentially reflecting the eccentric approach he has followed to build the brand.
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