Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/128227
MZ's Ramasam" lIasuthellllan By Before this, in the hands of Korous and his partners, MZ (known for a brief time as MuZ while rights ALAN CATHCART PHOTOS BY KEL EDGE ifty-seven-year-old Malaysian businessman Ramasamy Vasuthewan - better known to all and sundry in his adopted world of motorcycles as Vasu - is one half of the managerial duo directing the resurgence of former Communist East Germany's major motorcycle manufacturer. MZ is the creator of the modern generation of road-racing two-strokes, which were later copied by all four Japanese manufacturers but are now setting out along a different path with the imminent delivery of the first multicylinder MZ four-stroke model, the parallel-twin 1000S. Vasu's Czech-born German colleague Petr-Karel Korous was given the responsibility by the West German government's privatization agency of plotting MZ's survival in a market economy, and in best Victor Kayam mode, he liked it so much, he bought the company. Vasu is joint-CEO of the Zschopau-based factory located near Chemnitz (a.k.a. Karl-Marz-Stadt in the pre-glasnost era), which was acquired in 1996 by Malaysia's huge Hong Leong Group, one of the Asian country's largest business conglomerates owned by the nation's minority Chinese population. F to the MZ name were settled in the courts in a dispute with the new Turkish owners of the cheap 'n' cheerful two-stroke range that had been MZ's staple product in the DDR days) had relied on an engine supply agreement negotiated with Yamaha to produce a range of worthy four-stroke singles powered by the Japanese firm's XTZ660 five-valve trailbike motor, including the Skorpion streetbike and Bagheera/Mastiff off-road models. But lacking sufficient capital to develop its own engines, MZ struggled to survive until it was acquired by its Malaysian owners late in 1996. At that point Vasu was headhunted from his 25-year career as a top executive in Kuala Lumpur with Unilever to act as Hong Leong management's eyes and ears in its new German subsidiary and to establish a business plan for the company's development. Since May, 2002, Vasu has been in charge of implementing that plan, making the chance to talk about MZ's future in his office in the firm's small but efficient factory in the hills above Zschopau all the more timely, with the imminent launch onto the world stage of the 1000S, which the company has brought to market from a clean sheet '----------------- -----n e VII" S of paper in record time, under three years. Vasu, what's the division of responsibilities between you and Petr Korous, as joint-CEOs of MZ? Basically, I take care of the business side, including overall strategy, sales performance, day-to-day operation and budgets, while Petr focuses on product development and the integration of the R&D department with production. We work very closely together and I ·believe make a good team, reporting jointly to the quarterly meetings of Hong Leong directors in Malaysia. How's it been for you, as an Asian trans\.::).. planted from hot and sultry Malaysia to take charge of an established German company in a very different climate, both in terms of temperature and culture, and ultimately calling the shots here.to local employees used to working in a Teutonic business structure, whether communist or capitalist? Have you encountered any discrimination or a sense of not belonging, along the way? I must say honestly this has been a very enjoyi"'lable experience, which I look forward to prolonging. I've personally never felt any kind of discrimination, even though there's the presumption that, particularly in East Germany with its more n