On November 1, Hero MotoCorp, the new avatar of Hero Honda, announced that its dealers sold a record 650,000 motorcycles and scooters in October. Farmers had harvested their crops, and salaried people had got Diwali bonuses; the company had no reason to complain. Some days before that, it had declared its financial results for the quarter ended September 2011, the first full quarter without Honda as a shareholder, which showed that sale as well as profit had hit at an all-time high. For several years, the Munjals, the promoters of the company, have been known as sharp businessmen but their success was always credited to technology and innovation from Honda. The ride without Honda was the real test of their skills.
