Om Prakash Munjal

Om Prakash "OP" Munjal (born August 26, 1928 in Kamalia , Pakistan , † August 13, 2015 in Ludhiana ) was an Indian entrepreneur . He was the founder of Hero Cycles , the world's largest company producing bicycles, and Hero Motors , an Indian manufacturer of components for two-wheelers .

Early years

Om Prakash Munal, later called “OP” for short, was the youngest of seven siblings in a Hindu family. After a few years he left school and never received any further training. When he was 16 years old, his family moved from Kamalia, his birthplace, to Amritsar . There the family - his three brothers Brijmohan Lall Munjal, Dayanand Munjal, Satyanand Munjal and himself - founded a company for the production of bicycle parts. The business flourished at first, but by the partition of India in 1947, conditions worsened, so the brothers decided with their company to Ludhiana in Punjab state to move.

Hero Cycles

The Munal family started their bicycle production with a capital of 50,000 rupees from a bank loan. The task of OP was to contact the dealers in the field. In 1956 the company expanded its production of bicycle parts to include whole bicycles, with the support of the then Prime Minister of Punjab. The company named Hero was the first in India to manufacture bicycles. In the first year 639 bicycles were manufactured. The expansion of production resulted in the training of engineers, mechanics and administrative staff as well as the training of subcontractors.

In the 1980s, Hero Cycles became the largest bicycle manufacturer in the world and as such was listed in the Guinness Book of Records in 1986 . In 2012 the company produced 19,000 bicycles a day. In September 2015, the highest production figure to date was reached with over 500,000 bikes (5.39 lakh ). At the time of his death in 2015, his company had 8,300 employees.

OP and his brother expanded the Hero Group and invested in various industries such as the automotive industry , information technology , services and others. Om and other members of the family also founded a joint venture between Hero Cycles and Honda , Hero MotoCorp , which became the world's largest manufacturer of motorcycles . In the late 1990s, Om was one of the first entrepreneurs with the idea of manufacturing electric bicycles in India .

OP managed the Hero Cycles , Hero Motors , Munjal Kiriu Industries , ZF Hero and Munjal Hospitality companies . When the company's empire was split up in 2007, he remained President of Hero Cycles . He was also President of the All India Cycle Manufacturers' Association on several occasions .

Om Munjal died after a brief illness on August 13, 2015 at the age of 86. At the time of his death he was one of the richest men in India.

Personality and private

Operating theater didn't stop working until he was 86 years old and until his last days in the hospital. He never sent any e-mails and rarely used a cell phone , but insisted on talking in person.

Om was a lover of poetry and nurtured talent in the field. He was known to greet guests with Urdu poems called Shers .

Om Prakash Munjal was married and had a son and four daughters with his wife Sudarshan. The son, Pankaj Munjal , succeeded his father in running the company.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b} Om Prakash Munjal, transport industrialist, 1928-2015. In: ft.com. August 28, 2015, accessed October 7, 2015 . 
2. ^ ^{A b} Express News Service: OP Munjal, founder of Hero Cycles, passes away at the age of 87. In: indianexpress.com. August 14, 2015, accessed March 25, 2016 . 
3. ↑ ^{a b c d e f} Om Prakash Munjal, cycle tycoon - obituary. In: telegraph.co.uk. September 30, 2015, accessed March 26, 2016 . 
4. ↑ The Begining- Hero Cycles India's Largest Manufacturer Cycle. In: herocycles.com. Retrieved March 26, 2016 (English). 
5. ↑ Yuga Chaudhari: Hero Cycles ramping up premium bicycles play | Latest News & Updates at Daily News & Analysis . Dnaindia.com. June 29, 2012. Retrieved August 13, 2015.
6. ↑ Ritesh Madhok: Hero Cycles sells highest number of cycles in September. (No longer available online.) In: indiancarsbikes.in. October 7, 2015, archived from the original on March 23, 2016 ; accessed on March 25, 2016 (English). Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
7. ↑ Amazing story of how Munjal built Hero Honda. Rediff.com, June 11, 2007, accessed March 25, 2016 . 
8. ↑ Munjals to set up family council. Indian Express, October 25, 2010, accessed August 13, 2015 . 
9. ↑ OP Munjal of Hero Cycles elected as president of the All India Cycle Manufacturers' Association (AICMA). (No longer available online.) Ludhianadistrict.com, archived from the original on March 4, 2016 ; accessed on March 26, 2016 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.