Tata, Take Two

Tata, the India conglomerate which is purchasing the British car brands Jaguar and LandRover (”JLR”) from Ford, is an interesting company. (See previous post from Chris.)

Lead by Ratan Tata, the company has a long-term growth strategy in a number of industries. Tata is already the owner of two large British companies, Tetley Tea and Corus Steel. They also make wristwatches and earth-moving equipment and they run a chain of luxury hotels. The number of industries they are involved in is impressive – this includes Indian companies, acquisitions throughout the world and joint ventures. (Just to name a couple of the JVs: McGraw-Hill, AIG Life Insurance, BP Solar.)

In the automotive industry, Tata Motors has long built cars for the Indian market. Recently, the Tata Nano, a subcompact car priced at $2500, has received a lot of press. Tata Engineering, an off-shore services group, works with practically all automakers around the globe. With the purchase of JLR, Tata Motors expands their range within the industry.

We tend to think of India as the off-shore place for software development and call centers, but with the rise of average incomes and the consumer product market, Indian companies have been able to grow.
One of my mottoes: What comes around, goes around. Globalization is going full-circle.

The questions for Tata Motors: Can they succeed where Ford failed and get a profit out of Jaguar? Can they be successful in both the high- and low-end of the market?

Image from www.state.gov.