Comeback Plan

Tata Motors is driving its way back into the leadership position with new launches and aggressive focus on innovation and technology.

- Munish Shekhavat

Tata Motors has initiated around 20 projects, covering the entire gamut of the company's businesses, including factories and sales network. The initiative has been taken up as an attempt to cut costs and improve efficiency of the automobile manufacturer.

The Mumbai-headquartered automobile company, which saw demonetisation impact its sales in the last two months of last year, is also planning to launch at least two new products, including a compact sedan and a sports utility vehicle (SUV), during the next financial year (2017- 18) as it aims to post sales better than those of the industry.

"Product is a very obvious thing which everyone sees, but it is just the tip of an iceberg. There is a lot of activity happening below the iceberg. We are completely refurbishing our network in terms of processes, people and training, which have started giving results," discloses Mayank Pareek, the president of Tata Motors' passenger vehicles business unit.

The company's senior management is driving these 20 impact projects, which began in September 2016, covering the whole gamut of Tata Motors' businesses. "Senior people, like me, are owners of these projects. These are literally transformational projects, and these 20 projects are on cost and efficiency, which are globally competitive," adds Mr Pareek. However, he has refused to share exact figures related to saving cost through these projects. "These projects will be very significant, and they will result in huge cost gains and not the usual one percent kind of stuff," stresses Mr Pareek.

Ambitious target