Quote:
Originally Posted by wilful A fairly long report in ET talks about how Mistry is actively involved in shaping Tata Motors future after Karl Slym's death. He is reported to be betting heavily on the upcoming Bolt and Zest. The search for Slym's successor intensifies even as Mistry is revamping the top management set up. http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/...w/33523335.cms |
Can it even get more gibberish than this.
"Think out of the box".
"Sharper meetings"
"Strategy team".
What are they running? MBA school or something?
Frankly speaking, this article just looks like an article for the sake of the article. All full of buzzwords and no substance.
And people are getting fooled that anything will change.
I mean look at Tata
1. The first Indian company to create the luxury SUV segment at an affordable price. It created an entire segment for Mahindra
2. The first Indian company to create a people mover at good price. Again, gifted this segment to Mahindra
3. The first Indian company to create the "Economy diesel hatch". Heck, the first company in India which showed us that a hatchback need not be an iron maiden. Gifted the segment to Hyundai and Maruti
The old Tata Motors atleast had vision to create segments.
Now even that is gone.
Where is the Safari Roadmap. Toyota comes and sells a glorified pickup truck and actually beats Tata hollow.
Competitors make smaller cars at a higher price, and outsell Tata.
And is the problem really that insurmountable?
Tata owns JLR. That gives Tata access to technology which a company like Maruti can only dream to have.
Does Tata leverage that tech? Heck no way. Who cares.
And the less said about their execution the better. Tata is the first company(or among the first) in India to create a nation wide vehicle service tracker system. Every component failure is in their database.
Did Tata do a complete analysis of why cars were coming again and again to the ASS and fix the blame?
Its easy. If a component is failing in 10% of the cars, take the designer or the person incharge to task.
All the things are in place. Yet Tata does not believe in execution. Even the old vision of new segments is lost. I guess there is no morale.
The designer dreams of a concept and the engineering makes a juggad out of that concept cutting corners here and there. Now even the designers seem to have run away.
If Tata wants to turnaround, it should stop with this buzzword methodology, and get the hands dirty.
First step
Identify all problematic areas. For example, if power steering is failing in a high number of cars - Fix that. Ditto for injectors, fuel pump, alternators etc., Make sure the next car does not reuse those components
Real world example -
Tata Aria. A high percentage of Aria's have alignment issues due to one simple nut not being of the right spec. Its replicated in the the Storme. Why?
Second step
Long term roadmap.
where is the long term roadmap. Mahindra did not have one after XUV. They bought Rexton to fill the 17L spot and future SUVs. Tata bought JLR and sat on it. JLR has vehicles like defender which have a huge brand presence in the market. Leverage that to fill the 15L-20L gap above the Safari
Real world example
The fiasco called storme. 900 units/month. New wine in new bottle which looks worse than old bottle. Too little too late. The Storme could have been the vehicle to have. I mean, you look and the front, and go wow. Then you go to the rear and go
So where was the problem? No passion, as Mr. Ratan Tata once remarked. Idea was born, to make a better safari, and then execution - poof
Third step -
Passion
Marketing and product design has to be handed over to people who actually love cars. People who understand cars. And that is missing. Mahindra atleast attempts top show passion by their expedition campaigns. Heck a jugaad like Thar sells similar to the Safari. No ABS, no airbags, no power windows, 1980 body and dashboard, poor seating position.... and it sells so much.
Tata did a me too through their
Explore series.
It flopped due to nobody at helm. then their created some trail driving thingy. Did few events, then fizzz
Now it wants to do Soul.
Safari has such a dedicated fan following that a criticism of this vehicle draws a lynch mob, yet Tata cannot capitalize on that. What does it have to say about their incompetence?
If Tata wants a turnaround, it needs to take their existing portfolio and revamp it.
You cannot pick and choose. For example, for 2 years it was all about zest and Bolt, and everything else was ignored.
Who works like this.
Now they will ignore hatch and sedan and go to SUV?
You have to manage everything. you cannot do one product at a time. Do all.
For example. Sumo. Such a lovely platform. And such a cheap platform. What can not be done with it?
It can be the one stop expedition vehicle.
Some quality issues need to be sorted, and underpinnings improved, and they can eat the Scorpio market.
Make the product so good that you offer a 5 year warranty. People will come back to Tata again.
Right now many feel Tata makes junk which lasts 2 years - The duration of the warranty. Give 5 year warranty standard. This is the only way market will trust you again.
But no. Tata is not going to do that. Instead its going to make core teams, A teams, B teams and move people around, while morale keeps going down, development slows to a trickle, after sales service keeps ruining cars, and Mr Mistry keeps doing short and sharp meetings and thinking out of the box. and guess what Mahindra and Maruti will run away with all the boxes