Siddhartha Lal: The Guy who changed the Fortunes of Royal Enfield

Royal Enfield is amongst the coolest motorcycle brand in the country today. The bike has been ruling hearts since its inception in India. Came for the purpose of highway patrolling by Indian Army, the bike today has become the most favourite touring motorcycle for youths. This was not the case a decade back. It wasn’t the first choice for the youngsters as they preferred the slick and stylish bikes for their road or college trips.

10 years back, Royal Enfield was struggling from image crisis due to less sales and was about to shut its shop down. Then came into picture, the Siddhartha Lal, the CEO of Royal Enfield, he had difficult decision to make-whether to make Royal Enfield a major player in two-wheeler industry or to do 13 small businesses. He left aside 13 businesses and put all his focus and money behind Royal Enfield and trucks. In an interview with economic times, he told “In my mind the basic question was this; do we want to be a mediocre player in 15 small businesses or to be good in just one or two businesses” The rest is history.  



In the next five years, he transformed the image of Royal Enfield and became a major player in the Indian automobile industry. The marketing strategies like sponsoring mountain biking, cross country runs helped to expand its network rapidly across the nation. The result is now most of us has at least one friend who keeps telling us to plan a road trip Leh-Ladakh on Royal Enfield.

With proper marketing techniques and love it generated amongst the youth, Royal Enfield is now the most successful component of Eicher Motors. The most of the credit for the success goes to the man who transformed the image of the bike, the Siddhartha Lal. He is the one who developed the biking culture in his team and motivated them to travel and connect with the brand. The brand “Royal Enfield” has a rich legacy and its USP, the Siddhartha Lal is the architect for its makeover from the scratch.



The success of Siddhartha Lal can be seen from selling 25,000 motorcycles in 2005 to 300,000 bikes last year. Under the leadership of Siddhartha Lal, the company was successful in expanding its reach to the West. Now this home grown company exports 6,000 units every year, which is quite an achievement for a company who manufactures cruising bikes. With this success rate in past decade, it would not be surprise if the company gives tough competition to Harley in future.