馬欣德拉 廉價並非印度製造唯一優勢

For his latest automotive venture, Anand Mahindra has turned Asia’s conventional industrial wisdom on its head.

阿南德•馬欣德拉(Anand Mahindra)最新的汽車事業顛覆了亞洲的傳統產業智慧。

Instead of assembling the product — the new GenZe electric scooter — with low-cost factory labour in Asia and exporting it to the US, India’s Mahindra & Mahindra has opted for what it calls an “all-American product”. It was designed in Silicon Valley and will be made in Ann Arbor, Michigan under the supervision of 60 relatively expensive engineers, with components from across the globe.

印度企業馬欣德拉(Mahindra & Mahindra)並沒有利用亞洲工廠裏的低成本勞動力組裝其新產品——GenZe電動摩托車——並出口到美國，而是選擇打造一款“全美國產品”。這款產品在硅谷設計，將在密歇根州安阿伯(Ann Arbor, Michigan)製造，製造過程會在60名薪水相對亞洲較高的工程師指導下進行，使用的部件將來自全球各地。

“This is the new animal that a global new product manufacturing set-up is going to be,” says Mr Mahindra, the Harvard-educated billionaire who took the helm of the $16bn Indian conglomerate as chairman three years ago.

“一種新的全球化產品製造模式就將是這樣的，”有哈佛大學(Harvard University)教育背景的億萬富翁馬欣德拉說，3年前他開始作爲董事長執掌這家市值160億美元的印度企業集團。

“We really felt that India didn’t have the start-up atmosphere . . . We had a number of people join us from [US electric carmaker] Tesla Motors, for example, because they were excited about this and the Valley allows people just to migrate and to try out new things.”

“我們確實感覺印度沒有初創企業的氛圍……比如，一些來自（美國電動汽車製造商）特斯拉汽車(Tesla Motors)的人加入了我們，因爲他們對此感到興奮，而硅谷又允許人們隨意遷入，試驗新的事物。”

The GenZe is a modest project for the time being. The $3,000 scooter with a computer touchscreen and power sockets for cellphones and laptops is aimed at students and young professionals and is expected to launch in Berkeley, California and Portland, Oregon in a few months, with initial annual production capacity of 20,000 units.

就目前而言，GenZe是一個規模較小的項目。這款售價3000美元的電動摩托車配有一塊電腦觸摸屏，以及爲手機和筆記本電腦設計的充電口，目標客戶羣是學生和年輕的專業人士，預計幾個月後將在加州伯克利和俄勒岡州波特蘭發售，初步的年產量爲兩萬臺。

But the plan exemplifies the challenges facing the business models of traditional Indian manufacturers such as Mahindra, and illustrates the difficultiesNarendra Modi, India’s prime minister, will have in creating millions of jobs through his “Make in India” campaign of promoting the country as a low-cost alternative to China.

但這個計劃充分體現出馬欣德拉等傳統印度生產商的商業模式面臨的挑戰，也表明印度總理納倫德拉•莫迪(Narendra Modi)通過他本人提出的“印度製造”(Make in India)計劃創造數百萬就業機會的打算將面臨的困難。“印度製造”計劃旨在宣揚印度成本更低、可替代中國。

The Mahindra conglomerate’s existing US businesses are based largely on the competitiveness of Asian manufacturing and services: the group is the world’s largest tractor brand by volume and sells the vehicles made in India, Japan and South Korea through 525 American dealerships aimed primarily at smaller enterprises and hobby farmers. Tech Mahindraprovides IT services to 360 of the Fortune 500 companies.

馬欣德拉企業集團旗下現有的美國業務基本以亞洲製造業和服務業的競爭力爲基礎：該集團擁有以銷量計世界最大的拖拉機品牌，通過525家美國經銷商銷售在印度、日本和韓國生產的拖拉機，主要面向中小型企業和農業愛好者。Tech Mahindra向《財富》(Fortune) 500強企業中的360家企業提供IT服務。

Interviewed in his Mumbai of¬fice, Mr Mahindra is as cheerful as ever under his trademark shock of white-streaked hair, but he is grappling with an upheaval in global manufacturing that has seen the rapid rise of automation, more demand for high-tech products, and intense competition in an Indian domestic automotive market beset by economic uncertainty and unpredictable monsoon rains.

在位於孟買的辦公室接受採訪時，一頭標誌性花白頭髮的馬欣德拉一如既往地喜氣洋洋，但他正在艱難應對全球製造業的一場鉅變，這個行業見證了自動化的迅速崛起、高科技產品的需求上升、受困於經濟前景不確定和變化莫測的季風雨的印度國內汽車市場的激烈競爭。

“We [in India] are not where China was when it made its decision to go in for labour-intensive manufacturing. It was in the right place at the right time. It became the world’s supplier and grew rich on the back of that. I don’t think India has that opportunity — that is our biggest problem,” he says.

“我們（印度）如今所處的境況與中國決定發展勞動力密集製造業時的情況不同。當時中國處於正確的地點和時機。中國成爲了世界的供應商，並依靠這一點富裕起來。我不認爲印度有這樣的機會——這是我們最大的問題，”馬欣德拉說。

“The world is moving away from simply low-cost elements. Products today are products which require a brand, which require innovation, and which have a very strong element of both IT and services involved in them.”

“當今世界，只看低成本元素日益行不通了。今天的產品需要品牌，需要創新，需要同時包含很強的IT和服務要素。”

Mr Mahindra explains this in terms of Barbie dolls. In the old days, it was just a doll, but in the future it could be something robotic that walks and thinks — “intelligent Barbie — it sounds like an oxymoron”, he says with a smile.

馬欣德拉用芭比娃娃來做解釋。過去，這僅僅是個娃娃，但是將來可能會是能走能思考的機器人了。“智能芭比——雖然這聽起來有些矛盾”，他微笑着說。

India in general, and companies such as Mahindra, are by no means excluded from this new, high-tech manufacturing world. It is true that India suffers from poor education and a desperate shortage of skills, but it also has well-known strengths in IT in geographical areas that overlap with those of the motor industry: in Chennai, Gurgaon, Pune and Mumbai, for example. The two sectors are closely connected too: while the core of Mahindra’s Indian motor business is SUVs for the price-conscious local market, Tech Mahindra’s international work includes producing software for driverless vehicles.

整體而言，印度、以及像馬欣德拉這樣的企業，無論如何都不會被排除在這個新的高科技製造世界之外。儘管印度確實飽受教育水平低下和技能嚴重匱乏之困，但印度世所聞名的IT優勢所處的地理區位也恰好與汽車工業的所在地重合：比如金奈(Chennai)，古爾岡(Gurgaon)，浦那(Pune)和孟買。這兩個行業也是密切相連的：馬欣德拉在印度的核心汽車業務是面向當地對價格敏感的市場提供運動型多功能車(SUV)，Tech Mahindra的國際業務則包括爲無人駕駛汽車開發軟件。

“When people think of manufacturing, it is no longer a very simplistic framework that you can apply, a very binary one that ‘I need to make something low-cost so I go to China . . . Now China’s place in the sun is gone, go to India’,” he says. “That’s not how people are going to have to think. They’re going to have to create a footprint which might be like a neural network which involves nodes in various places.

“當人們思考製造業的時候，使用那種簡單化的思維模式已經行不通了，那種兩段論——‘我需要生產低成本的東西，我就去中國……如今中國不是最佳製造地了，我就去印度’，”他說。“這不是人們以後不得不採取的思維方式。人們將不得不創造這樣的足跡，或許就像神經網絡一樣，節點遍佈各個地方。”

“You incubate a product in an atmosphere where that product is best incubated. So, for example, we incubated our electric scooter in California. Because it’s low-volume manufacturing but high-intelligence, intensive manufacturing, we are starting in Michigan. At a point where the volume is going to be much higher and labour is a much higher component, we will pick a different part of the world, most likely India.”

“你孵化一個產品，會選擇最適合孵化它的環境。所以，打個比方，我們會在加州孵化我們的電動摩托車。它是個小批量生產的產品，但高度智能化、生產集約化，因此我們從密歇根州起步。到了某個程度，其產量會大幅度提高，工人的數量也會大幅增加，屆時我們將選擇其他地區，最可能的就是印度。”

As well as struggling to devise a profitable manufacturing strategy for the future, Mr Mahindra is grappling with the need to make sense of a highly diversified conglomerate of the sort often unpopular with focused investors and financial analysts.

馬欣德拉除了難以制定出面向未來的可盈利製造策略，還難以對高度多元化企業集團的合理性進行必要的證明，這類企業通常不受重點投資者和金融分析師的待見。

With its origins in a quintessentially Indian family enterprise built in a protected post-independence economy, Mahindra not only sells IT services, tractors, trucks, cars, three-wheelers, two-wheelers and small aircraft, but is also involved in defence, renewable energy, banking, insurance, retail, real estate and holidays. Mr Mahindra, a member of the third generation, whose own wealth is estimated by Forbes at $1.2bn, is not shy of acquisitions. He bought Ssangyong Motor and the scandal-hit Satyam Computer Services among others — and is constantly on the watch for the chance to buy a high-end automotive brand.

馬欣德拉起源於一個典型的印度家族企業，在獨立後受保護的經濟環境中逐漸壯大，它不僅銷售IT服務、拖拉機、卡車、汽車、三輪車、兩輪車和小型飛機，還涉足國防、可再生能源、銀行業、保險、零售、房地產以及度假產業。阿南德•馬欣德拉是該家族第三代成員，據福布斯(Forbes)估計他的資產爲12億美元。阿南德在收購企業時從不手軟，他收購的企業包括雙龍汽車(Ssangyong Motor)，以及陷入醜聞的薩蒂揚軟件技術有限公司(Satyam Computer Services)等等。阿南德還一直在留心收購一個高端汽車品牌的機會。

“We don’t call it a conglomerate, we call it a federation,” he says. “If you look at a spectrum between General Electric and Berkshire Hathaway, GE is a conglomerate, one single monolithic company with divisions, Berkshire Hathaway has multiple investments.”

阿南德說：“我們不會自稱爲企業集團，我們稱之爲聯盟。如果你將通用電氣(GE)和伯克希爾哈撒韋公司(Berkshire Hathaway)放在一個光譜的兩端，那麼通用電氣就是企業集團，一個有許多部門的單一整體公司。伯克希爾哈撒韋則擁有衆多投資項目。”

Mahindra, in short, is more Berkshire Hathaway than GE and the boss is in no mood to abandon the safety of diversification.

簡言之，馬欣德拉更像伯克希爾哈撒韋、而不是通用電氣，而老闆本人也無意放棄多元化帶來的安全保障。

“If I was sitting here and I had only one unit — an SUV diesel business — even if I was making a 25 per cent return today, your question would be, ‘Anand, are you going to survive?’ Right? Here I am. I’m seeding other parts.

“如果我坐在這個位子上，旗下只有一個部門，比如運動型多功能車(SUV)柴油車業務，哪怕現在我的回報率是25%，你仍會問，‘阿南德，你能生存下去嗎？’對吧？我已經決定了。我要培育其他業務。”

“I’ve got an electric vehicle business. If the world moves, in [big cities], away from vehicles and they say only two-wheelers, and battery two-wheelers, are going to be able to survive, guess who’ll have a product? If they say electric vehicles only in Delhi tomorrow after banning 10-year-old diesel vehicles [this was announced in April by the National Green Tribunal, but the ban has been suspended for the time being], guess who has a product?”

“我已經有了電動車業務。如果全世界（的大城市）要告別汽車，然後他們說只有兩輪車、電動兩輪車可以繼續使用，猜猜誰拿得出合適的產品？如果他們繼禁止10年車齡的柴油車上路後（印度國家綠色法庭(National Green Tribunal)今年4月宣佈該禁令，但暫未實施），明天又說在德里只能開電動車，你猜誰能拿出合適的產品？”

With a hint of defensiveness, Mr Mahindra rejects criticism by analysts of his moves into new markets and product categories. “The moment I say I’m going into scooters, they say ‘you’re crazy’. Six months later when BMW comes out with an electric scooter, it’s fine. But when Anand does it, because he’s some small guy in India, it’s not fine.”

馬欣德拉進軍新市場以及新的產品種類之舉受到了分析師的批評，對此他有些戒備地拒絕接受。“當我說我要做摩托車時，他們說‘你瘋了’。6個月後寶馬(BMW)推出了一款電動摩托車，大家都覺得沒問題。但是阿南德要做這個就不行，因爲他只是印度的一個小人物。”

Mahindra, of course, is not small — it has operations in 100 countries — but Mr Mahindra the conglomerate chief still describes himself as an entrepreneur, despite, or perhaps because of, the multitude of businesses he controls.

馬欣德拉當然不是小企業，它的業務遍及100個國家，但作爲企業集團老闆的阿南德仍將自己形容成一個創業者，儘管（或者是因爲）他操控着如此多業務。

“Our performance has borne out the fact that the model seems to work. I have been facing this question now for the past two decades and I’m still around, still have my job, so something must be working,” he says.

阿南德說:“我們的成績已經證明，這一模式似乎可行。過去二十年我一直面對着這個問題，而我還在這裏，還在這個位置上，所以有些東西肯定是可行的。”