Der Meister

Martin Schwenk, Managing Director and CEO, Mercedes-Benz India, tells TURN OF SPEED (TOS) about “the new normal,” how their product launches for this year remain unaffected, as well as how the response to their Digital initiative has been overwhelming.  Read on…   TOS: Tell us about the preparatory steps that you, at Mercedes-Benz, have taken in order to ensure that your employees who return to work are safe in your office and at the plant?  MS: We started our production facility form 6th May and [have been] gradually ramping up operations. We started in a graded manner, which means we have partial operations with restricted manpower, right now around  40-50% of our employees have resumed work. We have implemented all safety measures – temperature check during entry and exit, sanitisation every couple of hours and strict use of masks. We are also strictly adhering to social distancing protocols in the cafeteria, bus transportation and our work station. Our sales and customers services teams are fully operational including our warehouse operations.   TOS: What is happening with the dealers? How are the dealers ensuring that potential buyers who will visit their showroom, (Post Lockdown), especially the ones who wish to physically test drive your new vehicles continue to remain virus-free?  MS: We