Bajaj Auto rejigs top structure; elevates Rakesh Sharma as its first CCO

Bajaj Auto has elevated Rakesh Sharma as its first Chief Commercial Officer (CCO) as part of an organisational rejig with heads of the company's different business units reporting to him.

In a letter to employees, Bajaj Auto Managing Director Rajiv Bajaj said the post of CCO was created to complement the offices of the ED (Executive Director- Pradeep Shrivastava) and CTO (Chief Technology Officer -Abraham Joseph).

The step has been taken to bring together "all our business units in the pursuit of four key issues", he said in the letter dated July 20, 2018.

These issues are product harmonisation leading to 'one world, one product'; marketing synergies creating 'one brand, one position'; customer focus resulting in 'one company, one quality'; and corporate alignment facilitating 'one stakeholder, one message', the letter said.

Announcing the appointment of Sharma , who was earlier COO, President International Business, Bajaj said,"this re-organisation will permit ED to accord greater focus to our internal operations while equally enabling me to take a couple of steps back from them in order that I may address some other matters that will merit my attention into the future".

Under the new structure, Eric Vas will continue to lead the Motorcycle Business Unit (MBU), reporting to the CCO.

Likewise, Ramesh Maheshwari will continue to lead the Intra-city Business Unit (IBU) and Subash Rao, the Auto Finance Business of Bajaj Finance (BFL-AF), with both reporting to Sharma, who assumes office with immediate effect.

KS Grihapathy will now lead the Export Business Unit (EBU), reporting to the CCO, Bajaj said.

He further said Amit Nandi, while reporting to the CCO, will continue to lead the Probiking Business Unit (PBU) and will, in addition to managing India for the KTM & Husqvarna brands, will also be responsible for all overseas KTM & Husqvarna markets that have been assigned to Bajaj Auto.

The newly conceived Urbanite Business Unit (UBU) will be led by Sumeet Narang, who will report to the CCO.

He will be responsible for spearheading Bajaj Auto's foray into "the promising world of urban mobility", Bajaj said.

"In the interest of continuity, Sumeet will also be guided through 2018-19 by Amit who has so far been overseeing this endeavour," he added.