[sriramv.iyer]

I attended some management workshop and the consultant there had interacted with Honda India and their strategy.

He said that their deviation of goals achieved is 0.02% for their 15 year strategy! (i.e., they predicted their growth in numbers, sales way back in 1995!)

He also said that the low number of Jazz are in sync with strategy. I don't know if I can believe that.

I am so very happy that Jazz is not selling. H badge alone cannot sell. They need a good car to go behind it.

The reason why H became popular was because of the product behind it.

[prashanthyr]

Honda is probably losing a nice chunk of money on every Jazz it sells, considering the investment coupled with low sales.

I wonder how Honda's suppliers are faring, especially those exclusively supplying parts for the Jazz considering the investment that would have gone in to make a high quality product, which the Jazz undoubtedly is.

I wouldn't be surprised if Honda decides to pull the plug on the Jazz, given that it wont reduce the price for fear of losing its premium image.

[lazy]

Jazz is a good car. Though I am not going to buy it.

We took 2 TD of this car, consecutive weekends.
After the first one, I came away thinking its a damn cool car, so spacious, nice consoles, fit & finish, cool seats etc, though did feel underpowered.
Wife liked it more than the City. Me too actually, atleast the interiors.

However, the 2nd TD made me realize how noisy it is, esp. when trying to catch up speed to overtake or just after a speedbreaker etc.

And.....the entire roof has just 1 light.....too much !!!!

Anyways, I'd buy it if it werent this noisy.

cheers
lazy

[manishverma0675]

I too took a TD of Honda Jazz,it was good, spacious but lacked the low end torque.Finally when it came to decide I felt that it was way too overpriced in comparison with the competitors,and no surprise that the car sales have been a failure,even though Honda claims that this is in tune with their 15 year deviation plan.Honda seriously need to revist their marketing strategy,they seem to be losing the plot here.

[CARDEEP]

Honda definitely needs to justify (lower) the prices of the cars, else the sales will continue the nosedive. The Jazz & Civic are no longer the number generators, despite being wonderful cars, & the City sales are are also decreasing. If they do not work on the pricing, they will loose whatever share to the newer cars (from Fiat~T-jet, Ford~New Fiesta, VW~Vento, etc.)...

... & then they will claim that thay had predicted Honda India's downfall 15 years back (pun intended).

[sbraj]

Very keen to know the May sales figure for Honda, especially City. Any numbers from Honda?

[rutvij]

Originally Posted by sbraj

Very keen to know the May sales figure for Honda, especially City. Any numbers from Honda?

Model wise sales break-up for the month of May:
Jazz: 205; City: 3121; Civic: 533; Accord: 173; CR-V: 35

[sbraj]

Originally Posted by rutvij

Model wise sales break-up for the month of May:
Jazz: 205; City: 3121; Civic: 533; Accord: 173; CR-V: 35

Very interesting. This year numbers for City are below.

Jan 2010 - 4485
Feb 2010 - 5076
Mar 2010 - 4338
Apr 2010 - 2787
May 2010 - 3121

Though the down trend is reversed for City, increase in May is marginal (+334) compared to the drop in April (-1551). Is the City figure going to stabilize at 3000, down from 4500 figure? If I were Honda, I would be really worried.

Civic numbers are impressive, compared to recent trend.

I guess this topic is better discussed in May sales thread. We might be going

[PYSO]

Originally Posted by sriramv.iyer

I attended some management workshop and the consultant there had interacted with Honda India and their strategy.

He said that their deviation of goals achieved is 0.02% for their 15 year strategy! (i.e., they predicted their growth in numbers, sales way back in 1995!)

Whoever told you all this is full of GAS (of the smelliest variety)

Cant believe any company has a strategic plan longer than 5 years into the future.

15 years strategic plan! My foot!!!

Anyways, the last time I checked Honda Cars India had made a loss (of 160 crores in 2008-09). Guess that was also part of the strategy cooked up in 1995!

[sriramv.iyer]

Originally Posted by PYSO

Whoever told you all this is full of GAS (of the smelliest variety)

Cant believe any company has a strategic plan longer than 5 years into the future.

15 years strategic plan! My foot!!!

Anyways, the last time I checked Honda Cars India had made a loss (of 160 crores in 2008-09). Guess that was also part of the strategy cooked up in 1995!

I know Japanese have work on strategies to very detailed levels for a considerable duration (not limited to 5 years) - I've personally been to Japan and worked with top electronics and communications companies. And, I also have great regards for the senior management consultant who shared this info. That's why I decided to share the information. You are entitled to your opinion though!

[PYSO]

Originally Posted by sriramv.iyer

I know Japanese have work on strategies to very detailed levels for a considerable duration (not limited to 5 years) - I've personally been to Japan and worked with top electronics and communications companies. And, I also have great regards for the senior management consultant who shared this info. That's why I decided to share the information. You are entitled to your opinion though!

Well, let me put it differently.

Indian Car market is growing at double digit figures (is it 20% or so, the last few months on a year-on-year basis). We see Honda sales growing negative in April and May (year-on-year). Now, I cannot imagine any company aiming for negative growth while the market is growing at 20% positive growth. So, the claim that they are within 0.02% deviation from their strategic plan is ridiculous.

Anyways, I see Honda hitting the floor worse in the coming months. And I am quite confident their small car coming next year will fail miserably too. Guess, their strategic plans are created to see themselves rubbing their nose in the dust

[specialist1968]

[SIZE=4][COLOR=blue]Interesting news in businessline:
"Honda plans updated variant to Jazz up sales [/COLOR][/SIZE]"
The Hindu Business Line : Honda plans updated variant to Jazz up sales

[Joy73US]

Originally Posted by PYSO

Whoever told you all this is full of GAS (of the smelliest variety)

Cant believe any company has a strategic plan longer than 5 years into the future.

15 years strategic plan! My foot!!!

Anyways, the last time I checked Honda Cars India had made a loss (of 160 crores in 2008-09). Guess that was also part of the strategy cooked up in 1995!

I spent 3 years in Honda and one of the first few employees who witnessed the Greater Noida factory being built. During my discussions with PPC ( Production Planning and Control) expatriates, they informed that they do planning for 20 Years. So its nothing surprising if you heard of 15 year strategy.

[himanshugoswami]

IMHO, a possible plan for Jazz's recovery should be:

keep the price the same
plonk in the 1.5L engine from the city with alloys and wider tyres

you will have the ultimate hot hatch in the country and an ideal city car all rolled into one.

If they did this, i for sure would buy one.

[PYSO]

Originally Posted by Joy73US

I spent 3 years in Honda and one of the first few employees who witnessed the Greater Noida factory being built. During my discussions with PPC ( Production Planning and Control) expatriates, they informed that they do planning for 20 Years. So its nothing surprising if you heard of 15 year strategy.

Companies can have a strategic vision for 20 years into the future. But to have a strategic plan with sales numbers and profit numbers planned 15 years into future is smelly GAS! And to talk about 0.02% deviation from a 15 year old sales plan is the smelliest GAS!

However, there are some matters where car manufacturers do indeed think 20 years or more ahead. One such example is in making sure of the availability of spares from suppliers 20 years into future. For example, car manufacturers insist from electronic chip suppliers that the chips used in the cars are available after X number of years. In the past it used to be 50 years, but lately it is far lesser years. What electronic chip manufacturers do is to produce extra quanitities of the chips and put them into cold storage (as it is impossible to make the same chips after 20 years).