Swedish firm finds its bearings

The purpose is to diversify the portfolio and "create a second brand" for the group, Makhija said. "The SKF brand focuses on energy-saving performance and aims at the premium markets. The second brand will help us tap into areas where performance requirements are lower."

While SKF has been a supplier of all bearings to Ferrari Formula One since 1947, it does not go for prominent publicity events, so not many individual customers are familiar with the brand, even though the cars they drive use SKF bearings.

But according to Makhija, it's not really necessary for a B2B firm to build a household name. Rather, SKF should be known in the right places and for the right reasons.

Despite popular concerns that industrialization is to blame for many environmental problems, Makhija argued that it is in fact a substantial part of the solution.

One endeavor is a recent partnership with the World Wide Fund for Nature, in which it pledges aggressive targets for reducing greenhouse gas emissions for SKF, its suppliers and logistics operations.

It started the BeyondZero portfolio including 12 products and solutions that will both improve energy efficiency and support more environmentally friendly energy production.

The goal, according to Makhija, is to reduce carbon dioxide for all transport managed by SKF by 30 percent in 2016 below 2011 levels and reduce energy use per unit of output by 5 percent year-on-year during that period.

That translates into financial input of 10 billion krona by 2016, quadrupling its current budget in 2012.

In addition, SKF is devoted to other corporate social responsibility activities.

Each year, it funds young soccer players from China's poverty-stricken areas to participate in the world's largest youth soccer tournament, the Gothia Cup in Gothenburg, Sweden.

It also sponsors students from Shanghai's Tongji University and the Beijing Institute of Technology to participate in the annual eco-marathon contest to see whose designs could travel the farthest distance using the least amount of fuel.

By providing energy-saving bearings to all youth teams and lending a hand in drafting engineering design, SKF not only creates a strong presence in the sector but, more importantly, educates future stakeholders through the use of energy-efficient ideas in designing critical components in automobiles.

"It is necessary for employees to be sensitive and engaged with the local community. Simply put, we want to be Chinese in China. This is the philosophy with which we do business worldwide."

Q+A: Rakesh Makhija

hewei@chinadaily.com.cn