Bosch Global Software Tech bets on people, passion and politics to drive growth – Express Mobility News

What have been the key lessons learned since you took the helm of Bosch Global Software Technologies three years ago?

I took over in the middle of the pandemic, and then we got used to moving over 25,000 people into their homes. We are an engineering company with a lot of work on hardware; we had to move equipment into homes to maintain our engineering services. The good news is that we have never had any disruption and every project has been completed worldwide.

In 2022, there was a lot of pent-up demand and a change in attitude towards work, which led to a lot of pressure on employee retention. THE industry

the attrition rate was above 20-29%. We had to intervene quickly to manage this situation because our projects were becoming very large. We had over 20% growth in 2022 and had to manage growth on one side and attrition on the other, ultimately we got there.

Just to give you some numbers, in 2022 we hired 9,000 people, that’s a lot of action in one year. We also opened more centers like the Hyderabad and Pune centers which came alive and grew to 1,400-1,500 associates in a span of about 15 months.

I think the learning would be to never imagine that you reach the steady state like I mentioned. During the pandemic, we faced the post-Covid supply chain crisis, the talent shortage followed by war and its impact on the supply chain.

We are now in the era of mobility disruption, where we are looking at software-defined vehicles, with software being the most valued vehicles, and this space being contested by various people and different types of businesses. That’s the kind of attention we’re focused on right now.

How are you handling the talent crisis, especially with some companies ready to offer lucrative packages?

We cannot compete directly with many of them because our life

the duration is very different and our scope is very different. The people who work with us with passion are those who love the field. They are very passionate about complex automotive systems and solving difficult problems. If there is an opportunity to work for an e-commerce startup rather than solving the autonomous driving problem technologythere are people who will choose autonomous driving, regardless of their salary.

This is the crowd we aim to favor. We focus on passionate, domain-oriented people who want to solve deep technology problems. We really go all out for this and have our own incentive models for people who are in this area. This is linked to the type of projects they work on, take ownership of and carry out in this area. We did very well there.

As software plays a central role in mobility, what role do you see for companies like BGSW?

Bosch

has always been a software-rich company, the only thing was that our software was deeply integrated into the electronics – into the hardware. BGSW would complete the value chain and we will have components, systems, edge software, cloud software, middleware and the full stack. We will have the complete value chain and, depending on the context in which it is played by the different equipment manufacturers, we will play a different role. In some areas, for example, we are full stack providers or we are at the edge, in some areas we are on the cloud, but you would see BGSW playing those roles in different parts of the value chain.

Can you tell us about the evolution, growing importance and acceptance of software around the world? automobile industry?

This is evolving as we speak. If you see the customer or mobility-consumer experience in the car

is largely created through software – whether it’s infotainment and connected vehicles, Internet Connected Vehicles (car), as they call it. This is largely created through rich software experience. But a four-wheeled vehicle is a much more complex system. A vehicle is sometimes said to be a smartphone on wheels.

But as we move forward three to five years – I won’t put the timeline on it as quickly as that, but the software-defined experience for mobility consumers is going to increase exponentially as we move forward because of the upgrades level made to the car, in the cabin. experience, additional features, lifetime value of the car and ease of maintaining the car. In addition, the security aspect, autonomy, ADAS levels 1, 2, 3. All these elements will largely depend on the software content.

The electrification megatrend is seen as a huge opportunity as software can play an important differentiating role in terms of range, charging and BMS?

Electrification also brings home the fact of vehicle-to-infrastructure (V2X) connectivity. You will see a lot more players coming in, charging stations and vehicles interacting with each other, looking for the right charging stations or green energy based charging stations. Many of these will come into play more and more. For example, the parking infrastructure and the car communicate with each other.

You will also see more customization from vehicle to car, passenger and driver of the car.

Does BGSW also help automakers in their quest for alternative fuel vehicles?

We are also working on the themes of hydrogen-based thermal engines. For example, we are working on complete fuel cell systems for hydrogen and electrolysis vehicles. We also have a hydrogen truck demonstrator here at India

If you look at the ethanol based IC engine project, it was done by BGSW for India.

When the Indian government introduced ethanol blends for vehicles, calibrating engines to run on ethanol blend was a close engineering project between Bosch India and Bosch Global Software Technologies.

What about the two-wheeler and utility vehicle space?

We work extensively in the two-wheeler segment and are working closely with the government on the policy framework to improve two-wheeler safety. For example, ABS and the computer for two-wheelers. We are working with Royal Enfield on their two-wheeler connectivity platform.

In the field of commercial vehicles, we work on several systems on trucks, light commercial vehicles and different tonnages of commercial vehicles.

What are your future areas of intervention and your plans for new investments?

In Vietnam, last year we opened our center in Hanoi, in the north of the country. This is where we will continue to develop this further and the centers in Pune and Hyderabad will also be pushed to develop further. We will continue to increase our workforce across BGSW.

Currently, in India, we are around 31,000 people. By the end of next year, we will easily add about 1,000 to 1,500 people. This will be a net addition and not a replacement for attrition. We will add about 600 people to Vietnam. Mexico is in its infancy, so its percentage will increase much more.

We may even be considering opening a boutique interface center somewhere in the United States.