When would Tata/ Mahindra be THERE? Carrying forward from another thread (Captiva Launched) where an off topic discussion was happenning on why Tata and Mahindra are not on par with the world's leading automobile manufacturers. Thought that this might be a separate topis for discussion in itself. Her are my thoughts.
The automobile business is not only about technology. It is about economics too.
On technology front, one cannot accumulate in 10-15 years the same learning that another company might have in 50 years. This is true for product dsgn as well as mfg technology. You can get outside help in product dsgn to some extent, but it is difficult to get outside help in mfg practice. Even in the product dsgn space, you will get help in designing sub-systems (engine, geartrain, braking, electronics) But a OEM still has to integrate these sub-systems into a package.
Companies like Toyota,GM,Suzuki,Fiat etc. sell cars around the world and have economies of scale and hence afford to put on more sunk cost in their product development. A company like Tata or Mahindra cannot do that. Their low cost of development (being in India) is negated by the low volume to some extent.
They even cannot penetrate other markets overnight and start selling globally in huge numbers. Even a company like Toyota has taken so long to catch up with GM in the numbers game. I would also like to quote Ratan Tata who said that even if the Nano has potential to sell in millions around the world, Tata Motors by no stretch of imagination would have resources to crank out those many cars.
This is a marathon and not a 100m sprint. Building capability and capacity is a long drawn activity. And I am sure that 20 years down the line, an Indian company will be up there near the top. What say guys?? cheers: |