How the Mahindra Group Embraces Change

An adapted version of this newsletter first appeared on?Inc.com

The Mahindra Group’s purpose is a single word: Rise. It’s a word that guides how the company operates internally and how it runs both its commercial and charitable efforts. It includes rising through opportunity, self-belief, inclusivity and sustainability — along with rising to a challenge.

Anand Mahindra, the non-executive chairman of the Mahindra Group, told me on my podcast that there are three key elements of rising: accepting no limits, embracing alternative thinking, and driving positive change.

Mahindra Group is a multinational conglomerate, based in Mumbai, that has a presence across an array of industries. It does everything from making cars and planes, to building solar power systems, to operating resorts, to providing life insurance. Once just a two-man partnership, it now has annual revenue of $20 billion.

Anand Mahindra shared with me some of his beliefs on purpose as it relates to running a business. They include:

When a company embraces purpose, the effect can be powerful.

Among its many philanthropic efforts, Mahindra has helped finance the education of nearly half a million disadvantaged girls in India. And as part of its sustainability focus, it has planted millions of trees in India.

The company’s focus on purpose helped turn a two-man partnership to a multi-billion dollar company. After all, multipronged efforts that help people “rise” give customers more spending power, and greater access to the company’s products and services.

Having a clearly defined purpose is essential in the 21st century economy.

A turning point occurred, he believes, when the Occupy Wall Street movement over a decade ago made it clear that consumers did not trust large companies, and that they needed to change to regain that trust. More recently, the way companies responded to the pandemic was a crucial social barometer.

In a post-Covid world, consumers expect corporations to be “much more active and conscientious members of the community,” he said. “I don’t think there’s any going back from that right now.”

Purpose must continually be refreshed.

Mahindra said he is working on “Rise 2.0” to give his company’s purpose fresh momentum, just as it did after Occupy Wall Street and Covid. Whenever he is in doubt about which new direction to take, he says, “Wait a minute. I’m here to help people rise. I’m here to challenge myself and accept no limits. I’m here to think differently. And I’m going to ultimately ensure that what I do drives positive change.”

It can take courage to pursue purpose in a shareholder-obsessed environment.

It’s not easy to tell shareholders that short-term returns might be lower than expected because of the valuable things that a company is doing for society. But, he said, “if we don’t take a stand, consumers are going to vote with their wallets and move away from you.” And returns will eventually come down later anyway.

Mahindra said he learned courage from his mother, who was a teacher, golfer, writer and “just challenged herself constantly.” His mother warned him not to idolize one person, he said, but rather to make a composite of the leadership qualities he admired in many people: “That philosophy allows me to learn from everyone.”

It’s important to keep learning.

I asked Mahindra to offer some advice to young people and leaders of the future in a time of rapid technological and societal change. He said he was wary of dispensing advice because he still has so much to learn, but the advice he did give was appropriate: If you stay humble and curious, “you are eventually going to find a way of navigating through all of the turbulence around you.”

Employees are a key part of the stakeholder equation.

The pandemic further cemented Mahindra’s belief that his employees’ career and personal life missions should be aligned. Otherwise a stressful dichotomy emerges. What if “every day you went into work and you were of help to people, your work transformed lives, your work helped people rise?” That is what he aims to offer to his employees.

He thinks of his employees when he pictures what his legacy will be: “If people say that their time at Mahindra, while they were here, they were the best that they could be, that they’d really reached their full potential or exploited their potential, if they say that they were the best they could be during their years at Mahindra, I think I will have succeeded,” he said.