 "Guenter Butschek")
Guenter Butschek, the new chief executive and managing director of Tata Motors, is set to initiate crucial operational changes, overhaul brand positioning and spruce up manufacturing processes to make the company more agile.
Butschek, 55, who took over the reins a month ago, said his focus would be to make the company leaner and more flexible, which will help it respond faster to market changes than it has historically.
“We will identify the root causes of some of the inefficiencies we experience at Tata Motors. You need to be sufficiently agile and fast in responding to consumer demand and processes needs to be simpler. We will take very decisive decisions on short notice. Tata Motors will undergo a major transformation to get future ready,” he added.
Butschek has been tasked to turnaround the company’s fortunes, plagued by low demand despite the launch of three new products in six months. Butschek fills the void created by the demise of former MD Karl Slym in January 2014.
Tata Motors is desperate to gain the ground it lost to rivals like Mahindra & Mahindra and Honda in recent years. In the April-February period Tata Motors reported a fall of four per cent in domestic car, utility vehicle and multi-purpose vehicle (MPV) sales, even as the industry grew by about eight per cent. Its share has collapsed to 5.45 per cent compared to 14 per cent reported four years ago.
Analysts say Tata Motors has been slow in responding to changing consumer tastes. Besides, there are issues relating to its brand perception. In an hour-long maiden interaction with the media, Butschek said he realises both the loopholes and has hit the ground running.
“We need to very carefully consider how we position the brand. Sometimes the brand attributes are differently interpreted by products and also by the customer/market. There needs to be a clear statement that captures the brand values of Tata Motors, and serves as the backbone of the organisation and to the entire value chain. It has to be very crisply clear to our suppliers and customers,” he said.
Butschek, who was the former chief operating officer at Airbus, stressed the need to focus on three key elements - technology, design and quality - besides placing global products as a benchmark as against Indian products for making a rightful push in the market.
The company will not be reinventing the Tata Motors brand, but will reposition itself. "What we are going to communicate in a couple of weeks might look in the first instance like something new but to put it in context, it will be 'wow', which is the essence, and that is what we are looking for,” added Butschek.
Tata Motors also intends to cut down on its suppliers to improve quality and consistency. "We have room for improvement as far as productivity is concerned, and in quality. We will reduce the number of suppliers because this is one of the areas where it is right to say 'less is more', because I would focus my resources in the development of my strategic supply partners instead of wasting it on those who will remain substandard,” added Butschek.
On the product front, Butschek said besides the Nano, which has a great potential for the future the company, he will look not just to enter but create new segments. It is gearing up to launch the Tiago (hatchback), Hexa and Nexon (SUV) this year.
“We are at a crossroads where we need to think about gamechangers, the Nano was a gamechanger, the next generation Nano could be a gamechanger,” Butschek said.
