JLR's Entry Into India: A Proud Tata Purchase

People often gawk in awe of other successful people but seldom look at their failures. It is essential to know that failures are like diamond cutters; they keep cutting till the desired shape is achieved.

Ratan Tata is synonymous with success, generosity and every other adjective used to define a good human being more than just the chairman of a trillion-dollar group of companies built over a century.

An admirable quality about Ratan Tata is that he always talks more about his failures than his successes in his speeches. He loves to motivate people hoping that they will learn from his failures as he did.?

In 1999, Tata Motors released their first car, which also happened to be Ratan Tata’s dream project. However, the car was not received well throughout the country, which led to low sales. Saddened by this result, he decided to sell the entire automotive division to Ford.?

Unfortunately, the acquisition meeting that same year in Detroit went south for the Tata Group when Bill Ford insulted and humiliated the young entrepreneur based on the car’s poor design and execution. Bill Ford also said he was doing Tata a favour by purchasing his car division.

Instead of being discouraged and depressed, he took a positive stride on the situation and decided not to sell Tata Motors. The failure fueled him to work even harder on the project.?

Nine years later, in 2008, the United States of America hit a recession. Ford went into a global financial meltdown where it couldn't afford to sustain the production of its luxury car brands, Jaguar and Land Rover (JLR).

Despite all the criticism and red lights he received from his friends, Ratan Tata jumped to the rescue and acquired JLR for 2.3 billion dollars, thus saving Ford from bankruptcy.

With the ball in his court, he decided to use a simple three-point plan to revive the dying luxury car company. The goal was to rebrand, reduce liquidity and introduce new products.?

JLR managed to triple its sales from barely being able to sell 50,000 units in 2009 to selling 1,78,000 units in 2017!

The net worth of the British car company is close to 20 billion pounds today.?

The result didn’t just involve humbling Bill Ford but proved all the naysayers wrong. This shows that no matter what you do, never give up and never doubt yourself. Stay humble and work in silence. Let your success make the noise.?

By: Nanda Kishore