Brands
The secret sauce to Royal Enfield’s success in India
MUMBAI: Royal Enfield or RE as it is popularly known has been one of the secretive brands that have forever been tight-lipped; never wanting to talk about its advertising, structure or business model. But it was a rare sight at Zee Melt 2018 where Royal Enfield president Rudratej Singh engaged with the audience for the first time to talk about why the brand stays away from advertising and its brand philosophy.
First produced in 1901, Royal Enfield is the oldest motorcycle brand in the world still in production, with the Bullet model enjoying the longest motorcycle production run of all time.
Singh kicked off his session with a short film that showcased how its consumers are not just consumers but rather a community who believe in the true spirit of riding. “We are a bunch of riders, for riders. We do not sell motorcycles but what your motorcycle can do in terms of experience,” he said.
Singh thinks that the entire team at Royal Enfield is a bunch of storytellers trapped in an automative company and they like to express themselves via its motorcycles. Although RE is the world’s fastest growing automative company today, Singh modestly calls it a small organism that is trying to become an organisation.
While other brands spend millions on advertisement and production, RE likes to keep it in-house and authentic. “Most of the communication and films for Royal Enfield are produced and directed in-house which saves us a lot of money rather than having an agency do it for us which would charge us nothing less than a few lakhs,” he says.
While everyone’s guessing the secret sauce of RE’s success, it is simply a balance between keeping it aspirational and accessible. The former in being authentic for what the brand stands for and the latter in terms of cost, cost of ownership, availability and usability.
Although the company sells motorcycles, it believes that it can motivate people to undertake travelling, something that RE owners definitely love to do, and self discover.
RE doesn’t believe in being omnipresent. For it, context matters. Singh said, “We would rather be visible on contextual events and gathering which are relevant to us rather than being present everywhere.” Royal Enfield spends a major chunk of its time and money on creating events, experiences and products. Singh said that the company has rejected several associations where it could have had front page coverage but did not do that since it was not relevant to them and it doesn’t believe in “that kind of marketing”.
The core of RE is to build meaningful relationships with its customers. This is done by sending frequent messages about joining its rides, attending events, being a part of the community and so on. This, in turn, has helped the brand in gaining consumer trust which is a huge asset for the motorcycle company.
Although the company has always refrained from television commercials and major advertisements on any platform, it has always been dragged into controversy, if not by its own will then by its competitor’s statements and ads. On this, Singh said, “We always knew that we are here to expand our own market and not snatch somebody else’s market. We analyse ourselves rather than nitpicking on other companies in the segment.”
Automation industry is all about product-led innovation and coming up with new products and launches but RE thinks of itself as a brand-led company which can do various things without being product led since brands tend to have a larger impact. Calling the company a zero GRP brand, Singh stated the reason for it being this way was because it has no money or time left and it becomes inauthentic the minute it tries to reach a large number of audience with similar communication. He said that a lot of focus for advertisers and marketers today is perennially on marketing and advertising. What you see now is only the lag of what has been happening in the industry for 15 years and the industry needs to buck up and do something about it. Marketers are trained to go for reach and frequency but the result of this approach is that people stop caring about the brand after a point of time because every communication they see around them is the same.
“We believe in getting across our message with minimum content and minimum cost. We don’t want to blast the internet and television spots with visibility. We always struggle with having little communication with a large group of audience at RE but we are okay with that,” he concluded.
Brands
Boeing appoints Barun as head of FP&A for global engineering function
Seasoned finance leader to steer budgets and strategy across global centres
BENGALURU: Boeing’s finance cockpit has a new pilot, and he is no stranger to turbulence or transformation. Boeing has appointed Barun as head of FP&A for global engineering, placing him at the centre of financial strategy for its worldwide engineering and technology operations.
Based in Bengaluru, Barun steps into a role that is as expansive as it is critical. He will serve as the primary finance lead for Boeing’s Engineering and Technology Centers globally, working closely with executive leadership to shape financial decisions, manage complex budgets, and design scalable finance processes that support the company’s growing engineering footprint.
In a note announcing his move Barun said, “I’m excited to share that I’ve joined Boeing Global Engineering. This opportunity is incredibly meaningful to me not just from a professional standpoint, but also for what Boeing represents globally.” He added that he looks forward to contributing to an organisation that continues to shape the future of aerospace and innovation.
Barun’s mandate spans strategic financial leadership, operational oversight, and stakeholder engagement. From directing large-scale budgets and schedules to influencing long-term organisational goals, the role blends financial discipline with business foresight. He will also lead cross-functional teams and partner with finance colleagues worldwide to support engineering programmes across geographies, including India.
The appointment caps a long stint at Juniper Networks, where Barun spent over a decade, most recently as finance senior manager. There, he led FP&A for global product business units and G&A functions, driving budgeting, forecasting, and long-range planning. He also played a key role in enterprise-wide transformation, including spearheading an Oracle to SAP ERP migration and building advanced analytics capabilities using tools such as Tableau and SAP Analytics Cloud.
His earlier career includes finance leadership roles at Sony India Software Centre, Cognizant Technology Solutions, and Mphasis, where he focused on financial planning, governance frameworks, and operational efficiency across global delivery centres.
A chartered accountant from the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India, Barun brings nearly two decades of experience across financial planning, digital transformation, and analytics-led decision making.
His appointment comes at a time when global engineering operations are becoming increasingly complex and distributed, requiring sharper financial oversight and agile planning. With Barun at the helm of FP&A for engineering, Boeing appears to be tightening its financial playbook as it looks to scale innovation with discipline.
