Apollo-CV Awards 2017
Our humble tribute to the industry.
The eighth edition of ApolloCV Awards (2017) will go down in history as the one that dared to step away from the traddition of being held in the last week of January in every calendar year. The ceremony, this time, was held on February 09, 2017, and marked yet another round of resounding success with the strong support of the CV industry, and from our partner Apollo Tyres. The nomination call for the awards, both for the fleet side and the non-fleet side, was announced in the November 2016 issue of CV magazine. Nomination calls were simultanously sent to OEMs, CV components manufacturers, application builders and transporters over email and other communication mediums. The intention was to reach out to as many stakeholders in the CV industry as was possible. There was some reason for worry. The nomination call for awards coincided with the call by prime minister Narendra Modi to withdraw Rs.500 and Rs.1000 currency notes from circulation with immediate effect on the evening of November 08, 2016. As long queues formed outside banks, and transporters spoke about facing supply chain disruption even as they managed to keep the cash flow unaffected, the amount of nominations we received were overwhelming. Over 45 nominations were received in a short span of time. Numerous nominations were received on the fleet side.
The Apollo-CV Awards 2017 saw Kaushik Madhavan, Director – Automotive & Transportation, Frost & Sullivan, come in as a
new jury member, taking the jury count to five. The awards would profit from Kaushik’s experience and knowledge in the field of automobiles and transportation. The five jury members, comprising Kaushik Madhavan, Rajat Kataria, Divisional Head, Marketing CV (Asia Pacific, Middle East, North Africa), Apollo Tyres, Dilip Chhabria, Founder, DC Design, VG Ramakrishnan, Managing Director, Avanteum Advisors, and Bhushan Mhapralkar, Editor, CV magazine, met in Mumbai in January 2017 to adjudge OEMs (trucks and buses), auto components and CV application award categories. It was not an easy task. After absteining from nominating products for many years, two OEMs chose to participate this year. The 50 nonfleet nominations reflected upon the changes – undercurrents and complexities, that are sweeping the CV industry. New trends, including blurring of boundaries between various CV segments was observed. Also observed was a move towards higher tonnage and higher digistiaton in the quest to up efficiency, safety and lower the TCO. With sales figures in 2016 indicating good growth (especially in the M&HCV category) until the decision to withdraw currency in November 2016 kicked in, the CV industry introduced a good number of products in the respective calendar year. Conspicuously missing were nominations in the SCV category. If this indicated a move to higher tonnage CVs as boundaries blurred, it was not easy for the jury to judge; to pick up the winners. Especially in the wake of a firm resolve by the CV industry to conquer challenges; to keep moving, and to turn out new, exciting products.
Many intricacies evolved as the judging process progressed. The process involved long debates; a deep exploration of domain knowledge and experience was resorted to. It was after considerable effort that the results were achieved. They were born out of the consideration for parameters like (a) fitness for application, (b) quality of aggregates, (c) fuel efficiency and top speed, (d) option to have a vehicle better suited for the purpose, (e) price, and (f) sales. This was applied to vehicles that were made available during the 2016 calendar year. The jury arrived at 24 awards to do justice to all the constituents. The expertise of Metric Consultancy Ltd. was tapped into. To first invite and then vet fleet operator and dealer nominations. Metric dealt with 622 nominations over a span of three months. These nominations were put through the wringer using the Journey of Excellence parameter derived from the British Quality Foundation.
To host senior representatives of the CV industry was a privilege. To watch them interact with the incumbents provided a glimpse of the shape of things to come. The picture (on the left) should provide a fair idea of what happened at the Jury meet on January 20, 2017. On the following pages is a synopses for each of the panel discussion that preceded the awards evening. As one may discover, the industry heavyweights did not hesitate to air their views on issues that are important and have the ability to influence the course of the industry. First, let us get to understand who the nominations were, and who won on the evening of February 09, 2017, when the Apollo-CV Awards 2017 were announced.