The news broke a couple of days back that Tata Motors has appointed Karl Slym, the former head of GM India, as its managing director effective October. 1. For those who dont know, Slym played an important role for GM in India. Just when GM filed for bankruptcy it was him who made an impact in the Indian shores by marketing.
He came on many advertisement’s and managed to revive sales. It’s due to Mr. Slym that GM India’s sales grew by 21%. Mr. Slym headed the India operations for General Motors from 2007 until last year and took over as executive vice president at SAIC GM Wuling Automobile Co, GM’s joint venture in China.
Mr. Slym is a person who brings international experience and considerable knowledge of Indian markets, having worked at GM India for four years, from 2007 to 2011. He would be able to understand local culture and diversity and relate well to marketing tricks.
He had carved out a commanding share of the Indian auto market by revamping the offerings. The Cruze and Beat are class leading in their segments. He is also well acclimatized to the enormous diversity of the local market. And helped generate enough revenue/profits to rein in the deteriorating prospects for GM in US/Europe.
It was tough times for Tata ahead as their flagship Aria is performing worst from the lot. Its not good news for the other models either, all of them need upgrades and are in desperate need of a replacement. The Nano although averaging around eight thousand units a month is still way under that predicted. So will Karl Slym live up to the hype and be a game changer for Tata? Well, lets wait and watch.
Until then enjoy the new Nano advertisement featuring Dhanush
Click on the link if you cannot view the ad: http://youtu.be/uZMdSmJLTVE
Article by Yash Bhatia
