It's Tata all over the business news. Tata will not only come out with the world's cheapest car but might soon produce two of the world's premier brands, The Washington Post wrote last week after Ford Motor Co. named Tata Motors Ltd. as the top bidder to start making Jaguar and Land Rover brands (beating out another Indian company in the process).
"Ford spokesman Jay Ward in London would not say how much Tata bid for
the automakers, nor would he say if two other bidders, Indian automaker
Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd. and U.S. private equity firm One Equity
Partners LLC, still were in the running. Last month people close to the
negotiations with Ford told the AP that potential suitors had submitted
bids for both companies that ranged from $1.5 billion to $2 billion."
Ratan Tata, who was ranked among the "25 most powerful people in business" by Fortune, has been getting global attention after the announcement on Thursday. Yesterday's New York Times had an interesting article headlined "Tata Pulls Ford Units Into Its Orbit."
When Ratan Tata visited the home of the designer Ralph Lauren last autumn, the two auto enthusiasts spent much of their time in the garage, admiring Mr. Lauren’s extensive car collection, including the Batmobile-esque 1955 Jaguar XKD.
Now Mr. Tata is poised to take over Jaguar itself.
And it called Tata the most unlikely of corporate titans.
... almost preternaturally humble, unabashedly open about the company’s mistakes and about the fact that he never really wanted to be an industrialist in the first place. He studied architecture at Cornell University , and after decades of working for the family business, he says he is even considering opening a small architecture firm when he retires. Never married, he lavishes attention on his dogs, writes thank-you notes to employees who do him favors, and is often spied on Sundays driving alone on Marine Drive in Mumbai in one of the several cars he owns.
BBC World had an analysis last month on whether India could make Jaguar a success.
Meanwhile, Tata's rupees one lakh car has been getting a lot of talk. The Economic Times in India called it "Power to the People."
Some say it will be called 'Jeh' (the first three letters of Jehangir RD Tata's name) but there is another school that seems to suggest it will be called 'Miracle'. But the names aren't important. What is important is that Tata's People's Car will change the Indian transportation scenario as decisively as Maruti 800 did in 1984.
This car looks a lot like the European Smart Car, at least from this illustration by Muntaser Mirkar.
Please post your thoughts and comments below.
Comments