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Indian Icon: A Cult Called Royal Enfield
About the BookTHE BUSINESS HISTORY OF THE CULT BRAND CALLED ROYAL ENFIELD,Royal Enfield.More than just the brand name of a legendary bike!Few brands inspire the kind of devotion that an Enfield does. Its distinctive look and feel, the sound of its engine and the image that it creates of its rider have all contributed to putting the brand on the kind of pedestal that others could only dream of. From the beginning of the brand’s journey in India in the early 1950s, the Enfield bikes have had quite a ride. Initial success and acceptance notwithstanding, by the 1980s, the brand was considered an underachiever and a basket case. Enter Vikram Lal of Eicher in 1990. Lal’s enthusiasm for the brand gave it a new lease of life. Later, his son Siddhartha’s time at the helm saw marketing, product and vision all come together to catapult the bike to iconic status. In the past few years, Enfield has come to represent successful business turnarounds even as its bikes have found newer and newer converts. Indian A Cult Called Royal Enfield by former Mint journalist Amrit Raj maps the trail-blazing story of the brand, the company and, most of all, the individuals who have made it what it is. It is also the story of the clash of the old guard with the new leading to dramatic changes in the business. In a first, the book bares the behind-the-scenes takeover dramas and the bare-knuckled battle to create a premium homegrown consumer brand for the global markets. Extensively researched and expertly narrated, the book takes you to the heart of the Royal Enfield story. A worthy addition to the shelf of both business readers as well as Royal Enfield aficionados.About the AuthorAmrit Raj was a national editor with Mint and led the newspaper’s national corporate bureau till April 2019. He wrote extensively on Indian corporates, family businesses and other corporate matters. He is currently pursuing a senior role at a technology company.
- GenresBiography
291 pages, Hardcover
Published November 30, 2020
22 people are currently reading
137 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 21 of 21 reviews
December 18, 2020
When a friend called and asked me whether I would like to review a book on Royal Enfield, or “RE” as it is referred to amongst its enthusiasts, my interest was piqued. I have had a ringside seat to the brand for almost two decades by virtue of being closely engaged to the brand and riding as well as to several of its protagonists. What could possibly be left to write about, I wondered, given that the brand had literally been written about ad nauseum over the years. Every bit of “content” had been squeezed from it by a legion of journalists, bloggers, copywriters, business analysts and story tellers. So what now? Is it possible that the writer had managed to go beyond the obvious and ferret out hidden secrets of the brand and its mind boggling success over the years? Had he managed to touch its soul and speak to its heart? Perhaps even star gaze into the future?
Unfortunately, by the time I turned over the last page of the book, my hopes were somewhat tempered. It becomes clear fairly quickly that the book sticks to a reporting format, rather than going deeper into insights and analysis. The content is largely based on interviews with company insiders and thereby limited by their field of vision. Not much attempt has been made to understand the emotional and sociological constructs of what represents a biker and how that reflects upon the brand in turn. It’s informative and mildly interesting, without being deeply engaging or thought provoking.
The first part is an averagely engaging company infomercial with a documentary type feel to it. Readers unfamiliar with the RE story would find the trivia interesting, but others would end up skimming through it. Things then start to get interesting towards the second half. Not because it dives deeper into the brand building world, but because things start to go wrong in paradise. The book switches to juicy internal gossip backed by surprising straight talk from company insiders, some of whom still work for the company. There are moments of refreshing clarity and candor and one can see the writers own understanding maturing as he speaks to more people and spends more time with the brand.
I find myself wishing he had persevered a little more in building that relationship with the brand. One wonders if he would realize at some stage that there was one big missing piece from the entire puzzle. The external community of riders, mechanics and enthusiasts who in many ways made RE what it is today. And perhaps therein lies the untold story? At some stage RE obviously became much more than just a consumer brand. It started to represent a way of life, a certain personality, a way to be and a way to engage with the rest of the world. The company and its advertising gurus admittedly spotted this possibility early and gave it plenty of nudges in the right direction. But the real establishment of this brand as a lifestyle happened organically, outside of the company walls. It was driven by its users and predominantly by the strong and close knit riding clubs that emerged at the same time due to a cocktail of cultural and economic shifts in urban India. These clubs defined, built and enforced what it meant to be RE and a RE rider. The company often just efficiently piggy backed. Many clubs bordered on being cults with their own gurus and groupies. Being part of the community meant not just being a rider, but following an unwritten code of ethics and behavior, subscribing to a set of shared beliefs as well as proselytising to non-believers with almost religious fervor. All of this created a close knit, supportive and emotionally gratifying family which millions of Indian youth yearned to belong to. They were going through an identity crisis and looking to break free from the shackles of a predictable, monotonous Indian middle class life. In that sense the external communities impact was amplified several times over. And not just in terms of brand building. Some of them also contributed to product development and design of models that were later to emerge from the RE stable as indigenous developments. Many aspects were rumoured to be copied or ripped off from prototypes built by the community and never tacitly acknowledged. Juicy stories waiting to be picked. This is such an interesting, layered and important part of the narrative, that it almost seems inexcusable to have blanked it out from the larger story. It also answers the question that must inevitably occur to the author and to all readers. Why isn’t RE able to replicate its roaring success in other countries, using the same formula?
The community is the missing link that the book fails to find.
The book also presents the entry of Rudy and the following internal turbulence within the organization as one of the defining moments that upset the band wagon. But one also gets the sense that in many ways, Rudy was in the right place at the right time, and then in the wrong place at the wrong time. His impact on the brand seems frankly overstated. Maybe the real Achilles heel of the company was a far more fundamental relationship failure with its own stakeholders? Did the company get caught up in the dizzying momentum of the growth they were witnessing? Or perhaps some degree of hubris set in? For e.g. the writer mentions the popular Sturgis style event, “Rider Mania”, more than once in the book. But he does not seem to have figured out that at some stage, things got so bad that the company and the RE clubs would host separate Rider Mania events, with the company sometimes completely absent from the community event, or at best a grudging sponsor. Nor has much attention been paid to the changing competitive environment and how RE reacted to the same. Over time, other biking brands caught up with the idea of leveraging the “biking spirit”. Product gaps were narrowing and the RE clubs were no longer defending the brand fiercely, riding proudly through the countryside with flags fluttering and creating free content on social media that came straight from the heart. When the brands known weakness around quality issues kept getting amplified on social media, there was no longer a die hard set of influencers batting it back saying “it’s all part of the experience of being an RE owner and the rites of passage for belonging to the community” ….
Perhaps Rudy was someone who came from the FMCG world and did not understand what it meant for a brand to be like religion. But the book doesn’t ask the logical question that follows. What was rest of the organization and its leadership doing while all this was happening. Did no one notice that the glue that binds was coming unstuck? Or did no one care? Was there a corporate culture of using people and groups and dropping them when they were no longer useful? Even worse, did someone make the mistake of taking the Indian consumer and community base for granted as the brand readied itself for global aspirations? These are investigative questions that deserve to be asked.
The book could have been so much more complex, layered and engaging, if it had incorporated these aspects. But on its own, it is still an interesting slice of automotive history, captured in an easy reading fashion.
Unfortunately, by the time I turned over the last page of the book, my hopes were somewhat tempered. It becomes clear fairly quickly that the book sticks to a reporting format, rather than going deeper into insights and analysis. The content is largely based on interviews with company insiders and thereby limited by their field of vision. Not much attempt has been made to understand the emotional and sociological constructs of what represents a biker and how that reflects upon the brand in turn. It’s informative and mildly interesting, without being deeply engaging or thought provoking.
The first part is an averagely engaging company infomercial with a documentary type feel to it. Readers unfamiliar with the RE story would find the trivia interesting, but others would end up skimming through it. Things then start to get interesting towards the second half. Not because it dives deeper into the brand building world, but because things start to go wrong in paradise. The book switches to juicy internal gossip backed by surprising straight talk from company insiders, some of whom still work for the company. There are moments of refreshing clarity and candor and one can see the writers own understanding maturing as he speaks to more people and spends more time with the brand.
I find myself wishing he had persevered a little more in building that relationship with the brand. One wonders if he would realize at some stage that there was one big missing piece from the entire puzzle. The external community of riders, mechanics and enthusiasts who in many ways made RE what it is today. And perhaps therein lies the untold story? At some stage RE obviously became much more than just a consumer brand. It started to represent a way of life, a certain personality, a way to be and a way to engage with the rest of the world. The company and its advertising gurus admittedly spotted this possibility early and gave it plenty of nudges in the right direction. But the real establishment of this brand as a lifestyle happened organically, outside of the company walls. It was driven by its users and predominantly by the strong and close knit riding clubs that emerged at the same time due to a cocktail of cultural and economic shifts in urban India. These clubs defined, built and enforced what it meant to be RE and a RE rider. The company often just efficiently piggy backed. Many clubs bordered on being cults with their own gurus and groupies. Being part of the community meant not just being a rider, but following an unwritten code of ethics and behavior, subscribing to a set of shared beliefs as well as proselytising to non-believers with almost religious fervor. All of this created a close knit, supportive and emotionally gratifying family which millions of Indian youth yearned to belong to. They were going through an identity crisis and looking to break free from the shackles of a predictable, monotonous Indian middle class life. In that sense the external communities impact was amplified several times over. And not just in terms of brand building. Some of them also contributed to product development and design of models that were later to emerge from the RE stable as indigenous developments. Many aspects were rumoured to be copied or ripped off from prototypes built by the community and never tacitly acknowledged. Juicy stories waiting to be picked. This is such an interesting, layered and important part of the narrative, that it almost seems inexcusable to have blanked it out from the larger story. It also answers the question that must inevitably occur to the author and to all readers. Why isn’t RE able to replicate its roaring success in other countries, using the same formula?
The community is the missing link that the book fails to find.
The book also presents the entry of Rudy and the following internal turbulence within the organization as one of the defining moments that upset the band wagon. But one also gets the sense that in many ways, Rudy was in the right place at the right time, and then in the wrong place at the wrong time. His impact on the brand seems frankly overstated. Maybe the real Achilles heel of the company was a far more fundamental relationship failure with its own stakeholders? Did the company get caught up in the dizzying momentum of the growth they were witnessing? Or perhaps some degree of hubris set in? For e.g. the writer mentions the popular Sturgis style event, “Rider Mania”, more than once in the book. But he does not seem to have figured out that at some stage, things got so bad that the company and the RE clubs would host separate Rider Mania events, with the company sometimes completely absent from the community event, or at best a grudging sponsor. Nor has much attention been paid to the changing competitive environment and how RE reacted to the same. Over time, other biking brands caught up with the idea of leveraging the “biking spirit”. Product gaps were narrowing and the RE clubs were no longer defending the brand fiercely, riding proudly through the countryside with flags fluttering and creating free content on social media that came straight from the heart. When the brands known weakness around quality issues kept getting amplified on social media, there was no longer a die hard set of influencers batting it back saying “it’s all part of the experience of being an RE owner and the rites of passage for belonging to the community” ….
Perhaps Rudy was someone who came from the FMCG world and did not understand what it meant for a brand to be like religion. But the book doesn’t ask the logical question that follows. What was rest of the organization and its leadership doing while all this was happening. Did no one notice that the glue that binds was coming unstuck? Or did no one care? Was there a corporate culture of using people and groups and dropping them when they were no longer useful? Even worse, did someone make the mistake of taking the Indian consumer and community base for granted as the brand readied itself for global aspirations? These are investigative questions that deserve to be asked.
The book could have been so much more complex, layered and engaging, if it had incorporated these aspects. But on its own, it is still an interesting slice of automotive history, captured in an easy reading fashion.
November 30, 2020
Must read for Petrol Heads
There are multiple books on Indian Automotive scene and this one just got added to the list.
The author has made an honest attempt to capture the complete storyline of the brand in India. Over the course of nicely drafted chapters, author has captured how a failed company was turned around and became the trend setter.
Important business and marketing lessons in the book. Also a reflection that Royal Enfield is different.
The book captures some of the Indian Automotive family battles as well. I would have loved to hear more on latest challenges as well. Maybe more on the Jawa Challenge or the KTM one. The same.is though discussed but just touched upon.
There are multiple books on Indian Automotive scene and this one just got added to the list.
The author has made an honest attempt to capture the complete storyline of the brand in India. Over the course of nicely drafted chapters, author has captured how a failed company was turned around and became the trend setter.
Important business and marketing lessons in the book. Also a reflection that Royal Enfield is different.
The book captures some of the Indian Automotive family battles as well. I would have loved to hear more on latest challenges as well. Maybe more on the Jawa Challenge or the KTM one. The same.is though discussed but just touched upon.
December 15, 2020
Easy & fun for marketing enthusiasts. Not very insightful on strategy
January 1, 2021
Reading this really brought back childhood memories of all the Royal Enfield things that were happening when I was a kid.
More importantly, it highlights how well Sidlal understood what needed to be done to bring the Royal Enfield motorcycle in young people's life again.
One can understand the struggles a CEO faces in scaling the brand from what it really is.
And if you're a petrol head and in love with the brand, it'll be a nice experience to go through the insides of the brand.
Wouldn't say it was super in depth but for me it was the right level of information.
Well written by Amrit Raj and all the best to Sid Lal for making Royal Enfield a global brand.
More importantly, it highlights how well Sidlal understood what needed to be done to bring the Royal Enfield motorcycle in young people's life again.
One can understand the struggles a CEO faces in scaling the brand from what it really is.
And if you're a petrol head and in love with the brand, it'll be a nice experience to go through the insides of the brand.
Wouldn't say it was super in depth but for me it was the right level of information.
Well written by Amrit Raj and all the best to Sid Lal for making Royal Enfield a global brand.
January 21, 2021
The story that every indian aged 20-50 wants to read. The book outlines the history and present of Royal Enfield. The way the story is told is a bit slow and cold. But it is still about the bike everyone wants to have in india. I hope some author does more justice to the brand and Siddharth Lal.
September 5, 2022
This is a really nice book. It tells you everything about Royal Enfield from its origin to its whole journey. It will give nostalgia to all those motorcycle enthusiasts who followed bikes. It talks about Pulsars, Hero Honda and everything in between. It talks about how the whole motorcycle industry changed. But the stories are just one part of the book, the other side talks about business, the strategies and decisions taken by Siddharth Lal and other executives at RE to take the brand where it is today.
July 16, 2021
Like many others, I have been intrigued by the beauty of the machine that is Royal Enfield for years. It was only befitting that I bought this unofficial autobiography when I chanced upon it at the Mumbai airport two months back.
"Indian Icon" is a book not just for the fanboys (yours truly pleads guilty of being one) but for every marketing, economics and history (yes!) buff who will enjoy learning how an over century and half old company turned 180 to reinvent itself into a modern global powerhouse while still keeping itself attached to the old school charm. Of how several individuals full of grit and a vision took it forward to make it into what it is today, a brand with a legacy.
It is a book that I know I will love to keep coming back to from time to time.
"Indian Icon" is a book not just for the fanboys (yours truly pleads guilty of being one) but for every marketing, economics and history (yes!) buff who will enjoy learning how an over century and half old company turned 180 to reinvent itself into a modern global powerhouse while still keeping itself attached to the old school charm. Of how several individuals full of grit and a vision took it forward to make it into what it is today, a brand with a legacy.
It is a book that I know I will love to keep coming back to from time to time.
January 4, 2021
A business story full of important business lessons..........the journey of this company has seen a lot of ups and downs, and somewhere, it also gives us a perspective to face such circumstances if and when we come face to face with them.
January 28, 2021
An inspiring turnaround story of one of the most iconic brands in India. A great read for marketeers and brand managers apart from the Enfield enthusiasts.
June 26, 2022
This book explains the histogram of Iconic Brand - Royal Enfield.
Book is very well documented META VERSION of how one would see RE as overall brand package i.e. style, comfort and design.
Very limited number of brands are in the desirable mode for the youth of this country and making it one of them as a product really requires a lot of effort and out of the box thinking.
Competition in automotive industry is pushing to adopt the best of the best polices, raw material and technology. While local names like TVS, Bajaj and Hero have demonstrated economical X commercial side of the business on the other hand, RE has manifested Macho appeal, durability and
worked as memorabilia.
All internal struggles, ups/downs of product development to protypes are explained in length in it. I would surely recommend this book to the biking tribe, explores and avid travelers.
Looking forward to see the updated edition of this book ( may be in the year 2027) which would explain how RE would evolve with upcoming tech advancements and shift as EV. How will it sustain its thump in the bikes while adopting to lithium culture :)
Book is very well documented META VERSION of how one would see RE as overall brand package i.e. style, comfort and design.
Very limited number of brands are in the desirable mode for the youth of this country and making it one of them as a product really requires a lot of effort and out of the box thinking.
Competition in automotive industry is pushing to adopt the best of the best polices, raw material and technology. While local names like TVS, Bajaj and Hero have demonstrated economical X commercial side of the business on the other hand, RE has manifested Macho appeal, durability and
worked as memorabilia.
All internal struggles, ups/downs of product development to protypes are explained in length in it. I would surely recommend this book to the biking tribe, explores and avid travelers.
Looking forward to see the updated edition of this book ( may be in the year 2027) which would explain how RE would evolve with upcoming tech advancements and shift as EV. How will it sustain its thump in the bikes while adopting to lithium culture :)
May 1, 2021
Ever noticed the direct correlation between the rise in altitude and the number of Royal Enfield’s seen ? I’ve looked out the window of my moving car when I’m in the hills and have been in awe of this regal beauty. The book starts well capturing real life stories of how this brand has left an impact in riders’ lives. It goes on explaining how the brand survived so many disruptive changes. I am not a bike rider, however I still enjoyed the story of grit and resilience which was instrumental in the survival of this brand across disruptions.
November 12, 2023
A racy book that flows with ease, not quite unlike a Royal Enfield shifting gears while cruising the high roads. It provides ample history and context about the brand, and provides good descriptions of the dramatis personae.
To its credit, it does not mince words when criticizing the issues and problems both the bike and the brand faced.
My only grouse is that it tends to be repetitive at times, and unabashedly fawns over the so-called resurrector of the brand Sid Lal and ends up being a genuflection for him.
To its credit, it does not mince words when criticizing the issues and problems both the bike and the brand faced.
My only grouse is that it tends to be repetitive at times, and unabashedly fawns over the so-called resurrector of the brand Sid Lal and ends up being a genuflection for him.
March 21, 2021
I found It average. The book documents the journey of Royal Enfield well but it's mostly consists of marketing lingo, getting into customer psyche, brand, imagination and lots of should and would.
I think it should and could have been more rich in substance. It was too focused on marketing and branding stuff.
I think it should and could have been more rich in substance. It was too focused on marketing and branding stuff.
December 21, 2021
This is a good book which talks about how the brand was built up. Many anecdotes of brand building can be picked up but if you are a Royal Enfield enthusiast first then you will miss out a couple of the insights that went into planning. One can read this book to understand what the company did right and wrong but as a Royal Enfield enthusiast, this is just okay.
January 12, 2023
A very nice read on Royal Enfield. Crisp in coverage, pays due homage to Siddharth and Vikram Lal.
Almost gets you to buy a bike if you haven’t already (I know now I would)
It won the Gaja book of the year award. That’s cool.
Almost gets you to buy a bike if you haven’t already (I know now I would)
It won the Gaja book of the year award. That’s cool.
March 8, 2025
A very interesting account of an iconic brand. The book could have been better if it carried more about the thought process of the individuals involved and more details about them. Currently the book feels like a compilation of various articles about the different phases of the brand
December 27, 2020
A book for Royal enfield enthusiasts and an interesting read on long term product and brand strategy.
Need more books like this to document Indian brands and history
Need more books like this to document Indian brands and history
January 28, 2021
Interesting book to show the complete cycle of an automotive company. Author’s extensive research is shown in the writing. Highly recommended for anyone who know Royal Enfield.
May 29, 2021
Great insight, amazing stories, many questions!
December 6, 2021
Very well-researched and passionately written book on the rise and rise of India's favorite bike The Bullet!
December 29, 2021
A nicely told story of an iconic and unique Indian brand.
Displaying 1 - 21 of 21 reviews