Apollo Tyres has seen stunning growth in recent years as the Indian-based organisation has strategically entered the African and European markets and become a global brand. Today, the high-performance tyre manufacturer has four manufacturing units in India, three in southern Africa, and one in the Netherlands.
As Vice Chairman and Managing Director, Neeraj Kanwar is carefully positioning Apollo Tyres for the road ahead. Neeraj recently spoke to The CEO Magazine about the companys global expansion and development and his journey to leading Apollo Tyres.
I did my industrial engineering degree at Lehigh University in Pennsylvania in the United States, and then I worked for a short period of time at the American Express Bank in New York. This was during the early 1990s, and in 1993 I came back to India and started a small, non-banking finance company.
I started that company and I did everythinghiring and firing people, and investments in equity and markets. It was hard-core training. I then came into Apollo Tyres sometime in late 1994, early 1995. When I came in, I had training in the marketing and sales department where I was really in the field.