Tata Motors on revamp drive

K. Giriprakash Updated - March 12, 2018 at 09:23 PM.

Auto major to introduce newer platforms, products

Going hi-tech: Ankush Arora, Senior Vice-President, passenger vehicles (commercial), Tata Motors, at the launch of a hi-tech showroom in Bangalore on Friday. — G.R.N. Somashekar

As part of its reorganisation process, Tata Motors is effecting a series of changes in the way it runs its business.

Ankush Arora, Senior Vice-President, commercial and passenger vehicle business unit of Tata Motors, told Business Line that the company will introduce newer platforms, products as well as fully revamp its showrooms across the country.

Arora has also been nominated to head a committee to examine the various subsidiaries and joint ventures of Tata Motors and come out with recommendations on their future course. “We have some work to do on that. Whether they are delivering the intent and do we need to make them bigger,” he said.

Strategy

He pointed out that while products will be the centrepiece of Tata Motors’ strategy, “we will up our ante as far as quality and customer experience is concerned. We will have to differentiate ourselves and be disruptive if we have to reposition the image of our brand,” Arora said.

The company will fully revamp close to 150 of the 200 of its showrooms and service centres across the country.

These showrooms will make use of digital media as much as possible. All TV screens across the showrooms will be networked centrally and content and message will be uniform throughout.

“We will look to target the youth in India. To do that, we are looking at our entire network differently and one of the elements will be to upgrade our network to be more modern, progressive and consumer friendly from where we are today.”

The company is also launching a mobile application for its sales consultants to keep them updated on their daily work list. “We have to train our people and get them on board to start looking at customers in a different way.” Arora said.

He said newer platforms will be introduced though he did not share details about them. “We will see evolution of existing platforms and new platforms as would be required by the business.” Tata Motors has lined up a series of launches till 2020.

Arora, who was with General Motors before joining Tata Motors, said though no decision has been taken whether any of the existing passenger cars will be phased out, it was always better to focus on good products.

Focus on costs

He said one of the ways to negotiate through the current crisis facing the auto industry was to focus on costs. “Our focus will be to manage costs more effectively either in terms of purchasing, expenses or our inventories.”

Arora also said that Nano has been repositioned as a smart city car and more features will be introduced in the car in the near future.

> giriprakash.k@thehindu.co.in

Published on September 14, 2013 16:45