We see headwinds as positive, says Mercedes-Benz CEO Roland Folger

You came to head Merc in Indiawhen it was facing intense competition from BMW and Audi. What is the situation now?
In 2015, the positive thing was that we were just on the way of taking over the number one position again. We did hard work. On the back of a very good product revolution, we were able to cover significant amount of new products which were attractive for the market. The radical expansion of our service network also helped.

Then the whole discussion came about the diesel ban. As per data on the environmental impact, cars were responsible for only 16% of the overall emission. Out of that, diesel cars are even less. I found it hard to get facts and figures with regard to the public discussions. And that was an interesting learning curve .... there were other issues in play than the factual issues. It is lot about people that feel threatened in their environment and they were looking for something to pin this on. What I found difficult to accept was that if you want to change something why would you go after the diesel above 2 litres because it only contributes 0.065% of all particles. How is that going to help? For us the impact of the diesel ban was significant. 30% of our overall Indian market was affected and out of that 80% were diesel vehicles. So there was significant dent on our business.

Despite the headwind, how did you bounce back ?
As a company, we now see the headwind as positive. What made us stay in the number one position was that we had learnt a very important lesson that if you stand still, if you believe that you have earned that no. 1 position, then you are more prone to lose it. One has to keep pushing the envelope, keep always moving ahead and questioning the status quo. I think as a company and our dealers have understood that sitting on your laurels is the best recipe to lose them. With that change in attitude and a new level of internally working together have become a crystal point of our development.

Inspite of our competitors’ aggressive positioning, we have been able to solidify our leadership position. In the past, it was all about product. Now, our focus has increased to stay in contact with customers.