Kirloskar Oil Engines, Kirloskar Chillers, Kirloskar Pneumatic, Kirloskar Ferrous Industries and Kirloskar Industries have undertaken a refresh of their respective business vision. The refreshed vision is aligned with the need to be future-ready in a constantly evolving world and stems from the desire to enhance the experience throughout the customer journey.

• Refresh exercise spans business vision, offerings, technology, brand articulation and employee practices
• Engineering-led businesses to transform into solution providers with customer-centricity being more important than ever

The exercise involves not just a revitalisation of the businesses from robust, engineering-led firms to solution providers that lead today’s transformed industrial landscape, but also being more customer-centric than ever before.

In line with our founder’s vision of ensuring that all products are a step ahead of time, the companies will constantly innovate with an eye on the future.

The expanded vision implies a promise to all customers that their dreams can now be truly limitless and will be fulfilled.

The ‘Limitless’ vision will span over eight business areas, laying the foundation for aggressive plans in the B2C domain whilst continuing to power robust growth in the B2B companies. This will include large investments over two to three years across all business lines. This also involves infusion of new technologies, apart from new offerings including real estate and NBFC.

Radiant future

A refreshed brand identity and colours have been adopted as a part of this exercise. While the logo has elements of human-centricity and future-readiness, the colours allude to the legacy that the 130-year-old name carries, and the years put in to fulfil the dreams of those it has touched. The values of Innovative thinking, Empathy, Collaboration, Integrity, Excellence and Value-creation will be deeply entrenched in the operations going forward.

The refreshed logo symbolises our transformation and the journey towards a ‘Limitless’ future. The ‘i’ combines a human icon and a forward-looking arrow that shows the progression and growth of the people impacted. It also indicates that the companies are future-ready and will always strive to satisfy the needs of the customers. The inspiration was drawn from the colour copper that naturally evolves every day. Hence, the copper patina colour palette has been used – from shiny browns, to darker browns, blues and finally greens. Teal is the final stage of this patina, that protects every element within it. This is the inspiration behind the colours of the identity you see today.

To strengthen their businesses, the companies are expanding their leadership. Industry veterans that have joined in the recent past include Mahesh Chhabria at Kirloskar Industries, Vimal Bhandari at Arka Fincap, Vinesh Jairath for the real estate business and K Srinivasan at Kirloskar Pneumatic. Industry veterans RV Gumaste, Sanjeev Nimkar and Avinash Manjul continue to lead Kirloskar Ferrous Industries, Kirloskar Oil Engines and Kirloskar Chillers respectively.

The legacy businesses have already embarked on their ‘Limitless’ journey by integrating new-age technologies and processes such as 3D printing, the Internet of Things, digitisation, artificial intelligence and so on. The benefits of these technologies are far reaching – from shrinking the time taken to bringing products to market to enormous cost savings.

Among the new consumer-facing businesses, there will be significant investment in the realty business Avante Spaces and Arka Fincap, the non-banking finance company (NBFC). Avante Spaces is developing the first of its land parcels based on customer-centric and future-forward principles. The business is looking at a mixed-development offering that includes retail and commercial space in smart buildings.

Arka Fincap was established last year as a subsidiary of Kirloskar Oil Engines and began operations with a seed capital of Rs 1,000 crore. It is focusing on structured term financing solutions for corporations and loans to MSME borrowers and the real estate sector. In three years, Arka Fincap will expand into retail lending and consumer finance.

Detailing the refresh, Atul Kirloskar, Executive Chairman of Kirloskar Oil Engines, said: “We have undertaken the journey towards becoming a fully integrated conglomerate. Our new vision keeps the changing needs of the customer in mind, reorienting us from manufacturing to solutions around it. We are going from a solid, engineering-driven firm to a future-ready firm, geared for an enhanced customer experience. We are looking at the adoption of new-age technology solutions and digitisation, a future-ready team that is exposed to the best people practices and recognises and rewards performance.”

Rahul Kirloskar, Executive Chairman of Kirloskar Pneumatic, said: “The customer is at the heart of everything we do, and we constantly evolve to exceed their expectations. We are now expanding our horizons and have made leaps from just products to solutions, to customer centricity and now to digital architecture. This change is reflective of our new philosophy to create better lives, better opportunities and a better tomorrow for our customers and for society.”

The conglomerate has been an integral part of India’s industrial revolution. Now it will define the future.