Team-BHP - Ex-Chevrolet President Karl Slym to head Tata Motors in India

Tata Motors has pulled off a fantastic coup by announcing the appointment of Mr. Karl Slym as its Managing Director. Slym is the former President and MD of General Motors India. He will take over his responsibilities from October 1, 2012.

He succeeds PM Telang who retired from his post in June this year. As MD of Tata Motors, Slym will lead all operations of the company in India, and overseas markets like South Korea, Thailand, Spain, Indonesia and South Africa. However, Tata's subsidiary Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) will continue to be managed independently.

Karl Slym led GM India from Oct 1, 2007 to January 1, 2012. He began his career in Toyota as a senior manager. After moving to GM in 1995, he executed many roles in the company’s operations across the world. Before taking over GM India, Slym was the head of quality for GM Asia Pacific-Seoul.

He is attributed for strengthening GM's position in the Indian car scene at a difficult time when its parent company in the US filed for bankruptcy. Successful models like the Cruze and Beat were launched during his tenure. He also aggressively expanded Chevrolet's dealership network.

Slym left GM India earlier this year to join GM’s larger operation in China as the Executive Vice President of SAIC Motor and Wuling Motors.

Ex-Chevrolet President Karl Slym to head Tata Motors in India-mr._karl_slym-medium.jpg

This is a good move.
AND he is quite proactive.
Once, I was in begging mode for a job in the auto sector, and was marking out mails to all the head-honchos.
He was one of the few who caught my mail.
He aligned an interview for me!!

An exec level who guy who actually checks his own email?
has to be thorough.

Thats great news. I am sure Karl brings with him a mountain of automative experience and pulls Tata Motors out of the rut it is in now. Hope we can see some fresh launches from TaMo under his leadership.

He surely put GM India in a strong position in the Indian automative scene with the launches of Beat and Cruze. All the best to Karl and Tata Motors.

Wow...that is indeed some coup from Tata Motor's stable! Karl Slym was probably the only CEO of a auto major I knew of (save for Ravi Kant from Tata Motors) and that is purely based on how he projected himself across the Chevy support organization here in India. I would love to see him take the current portfolio heads on and make some urgent design changes. The Indica/Indigo/Manza philosphy is too long in the tooth and needs a new direction (and not just an over haul).

Has GM become a favorite hunting ground for TaMo;)? IIRC, their previous MD was also from GM; Opel. And, now from Chevy.

All the best to TaMo under him. His act of coming out and assuring the customers for Chevy Spark was well received by the market in general and TeamBhp in perticular. May be he can do something similar to quell customer apprehensions for Tata products too.

Going by the recent speech by Ratan Tata and this appointment, we can be rest assured that they are taking things seriously and in the market for a long haul. I wish them all the success they deserve.

Welcome back Mr. Sym; I admire this man for what he had done for Chevy in India. If given a full green light, he can turn around things for TaMo in a big way...I still remember how efficiently he handled GM bankruptcy from India perspective "There for you, there for India".

Thats indeed a good move by Tata Motors. Karl Slym has been known to good on his product portfolio and quite aggressive at that.

I remember when Beat Petrol was launched, he was asked questions on why not Diesel, he kept saying that it will come later and indeed it came out quite soon, Diesel Beat has kept the sales of Beat higher, else Petrol one would have died down.

I had a 5 minute interview with him and he seemed very aggressive on his plans for India, Also, when Cruze was launched, it was launched in MT only, he had said that AT version will come soon, and indeed the AT version was launched.

He has quite a good idea of what the market wants hence he didnt launch Petrol Cruze.

"There for you, There for India" - campaign all across, print, online, radio cannot be forgotten.

I am for one happy for Tata Motors to make a good choice, hope he is here for a longer time as results cannot be expected in a short time.

Well I am impressed by the move,replacement of Telang was not going to be easy job. So they have to take some chance anyway.

I am still not sure how much good Karl Slym did to Chevy during his stint, other than keeping it afloat. All I know is he too was part of an ad campaign talking about Chevrolet free service promise.

But on hindsight, Tata motors has all the good characters to be a market leader, good products, good design right price (except Aria). All it needs is the X-factor to get it back on track.
Its right that they need some outside eyes to correct their act. So finally, hats off a right move.

Karl Slim is appointed as MD of Tata Motors, NOT just head of passenger car division. Passenger Car Division is only a fraction of total TaMo revenues. With so many cash rich, multinationals trying to enter CV scene in India, times ahead will be crucial for TaMos CV operations. I personally think, it would have better if they chose some one with more experence in CV or Sales/Marketing as the MD, but a new head with independent charge for Passenger Car division. Ideally split TaMo operations to 3 divisions with seperate heads, CV, Passenger Cars and JLR.
Meantime, it will be a good for the Passenger Car division. Hope things will improve there. Hope he will be able to change the mindset of the lethargic Middle Management who has their own fiefdoms. Impart confidence in smart, energetic young engineers and MBAs.