About

Can you briefly explain how the legal team is structured, highlighting key individuals and their role within the department?

Our legal team is structured to mirror the global matrix organisation at our headquarters in Germany. We collaborate and closely work with our counterparts at the headquarters in resolving legal issues. Our counsel play a dual role, as specialists in certain niche areas of law (such as intellectual property, information technology, and automotive laws) and as generalists advising on a broad range of topics. While the general counsel bears primary responsibility to advise the board, the remaining legal counsel functional report to the deputy general counsel, Vishal Mittal. The deputy general counsel bears target responsibility to the general counsel.

What are the most significant projects that your legal team has been involved with in the last two years?

Our team has been consistently awarded “Best Performing Corporate Department” for the past five years by the sales team at Bosch. We were involved in some key transactions for Bosch India the past two years, namely, the sale of Bosch Packaging Business in 2019; Bosch India’s first investment in an Indian start-up in 2018 and establishment of Bosch India’s DNA Platform for start-ups; and the establishment of the joint venture with Prettl, PREBO Automotive, a company which will be engaged in the manufacture of precision sub-components for automotive products. The team was also involved in transactional legal services for Bosch’s products and solutions based on emerging technologies and new age themes – such as environmental sensors in the Smart City Sector, connected vehicle solutions, IOT based energy and electrical monitoring devices, low cost non-invasive health monitoring devices, etc. Bosch successfully won the deal for smart metering project by the Orissa government, the establishment of a greenfield solar power plant in Bangalore to supply solar electricity to BIAL, and the establishment of checks and processes to ensure compliance of automotive norms including BS VI.

What will be the main focus for the company in the next 12 months and how does the team intend to assist with this?

Beyond mobility – a major portion of Bosch’s activities will focus on building effective solutions for a connected future. This will include using big data for energy sector strategies, deploying digital solutions to get power tools into active state securing hubs of urban movement such as airports and metro stations with smart surveillance solutions, among other initiatives. Bosch also plans to move from traditional hardware business to new age business of sensors, software and services; Automotive sector – The implementation of BSVI in the automotive sector and adoption of electro-mobility solutions built for Indian conditions, Bosch is ready to support the implementation of these norms with emission-free mobility solution plans.

Considerable upfront investments – in the form of capital investments, high spending on R&D, and opening new markets, as well as through M&As for operational excellence.

How has the team harnessed technology to improve output or drive efficiencies?

As part of our digitalisation initiative, we have harnessed technology in the following ways: an in-house ticketing system for streamlining flow of contract requests to legal team; an in-house contract management tool working as a contract repository and triggering alerts for renewal of contracts; Effective use of online collaboration rooms and shared folders for enabling work from any location and to ensure seamless legal services and effective proxy system in the absence of associates; Process page ‘Proview’ is used for publishing legal processes, templates, and playbooks for access by business colleagues; and the use of the company’s blog site for dedicated team pages and for ideation purposes.

Can you sum up the team culture/ethos? Giving some information afterwards about how this is developed.

We are a team driven by results. Therefore it is important to have all members of the team coordinate and work together in a seamless, professional manner, sharing their expertise and experience in various areas of work. Team members are encouraged to have open dialogues with each other. We take the idea of diversity seriously and have a gender equal composition in the team. The team also engages whole-heartedly in company’s initiatives to better the work environment. We also believe in giving back to the legal community by helping young lawyers discover their interests in the law by offering well-designed, paid internship programmes to deserving students. We endeavour to better our services every year which has led us to always rank among the top three teams within the company offering shared services to internal clients. Focus on…