Debasis MitraDirector - Marketing & Sales, Mercedes-Benz India
Nostalgia engulfs him when he recalls his days as an engineering student of North Bengal University. An average student during those days who used to manage his exams well, Debasis Mitra, Director – Marketing & Sales, Mercedes-Benz India recalls with a sense of excitement on his face, “We had a great smoky time in our college days. As parents were not around and no cellphones were in vogue those days, we also enjoyed a lot of good alcohol from Bhutan.” But even then, his skills of dealing with people were as good as they are today. This undoubtedly allowed him to stay active in the social and political circle of his college. In fact, it’s these skills, which brought him the responsibility of generating funds for the development of the college. Remembering those days he says, “Even during those fun days I used to dream big.”
His dreams finally got fulfilled, but it was 7 years after he passed out from college that he could bag a job in a Swedish company, Altlas Copco. For the record, his profile in the first job was to go door to door in Orissa, Nepal and Bhutan to sell compressors and, it used to take more than one year to seal a deal. But then, that hard work on the streets was the backbone for Mitra to understand customer psyche. Mitra says, “That experience is very useful for me even today.” On a lighter note, Mitra further adds, “Perhaps that is the only reason why I know Orissa better than an average Oriya. So, when people talk about the rise and boom of mining and iron industry in that region, I know exactly what they are taking about.”
After a few years, Mitra finally decided to undertake a post graduate programme in management from IIM Calcutta. It was only after completing his management post graduation that Mitra stepped into the world of automobiles and joined Mitsubishi as the Regional Manager for North India. But still life was not easy for Debasis. He explains, “The biggest challenge at that moment was to convince the dealers to build an infrastructure to reap rich returns in the long-run. Moreover, as Honda was very aggressive in pushing the City, it was very challenging to keep Honda at bay. But we managed it really well and stayed ahead of Honda in the northern region for at least three to three and a half years in my five year stint. However, Honda finally took over because Mitsubishi was not bringing in new products whereas Honda was expanding its product portfolio very aggressively.”
After successfully heading Mitsubishi’s North India sales division for over 5 years, Mitra finally moved to Middle East to join Nissan’s distribution division as the Head for sales. He humbly admits, “It was a very good learning experience as I was on the field doing sales.”
Later, when the India-shining story started travelling across the globe, it intrigued Mitra to return back to his home land. With the first possible opportunity, Mitra flew back to India as the Head-Marketing, Toyota India. Eventually, his association with Toyota for the next 5 years turned out to be a win-win situation for both the company and Mitra himself. During that period, fortunes of products like Qualis and Innova turned up in the Indian market. In the meantime, Mitra also launched the Toyota Corolla just before the cricket world cup in 2003. The work environment of Toyota made a long-lasting impact on him. “Be it the practical approach or the importance people are given in the company,” Mitra says, “If one captures the way of thinking that prevails in Toyota, one can gear up to do miracles in the industry.”
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Source : IIPM Editorial, 2011.
An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri and Arindam chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist).
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