Tata Motors Limited (TM), a subsidiary of Tata Sons Pvt. Ltd., was the market leader in the passenger electric vehicle (EV) segment in India. Natarajan Chandrasekaran, chair of Tata Sons, was pleased with the work of Shailesh Chandra who, as managing director of Tata Motors Passenger Vehicles and Tata Passenger Electric Mobility (TPEM), had been instrumental in TM’s successful turnaround. Chandrasekaran wanted Chandra and his team to capitalize on the robust demand for passenger EVs in India to reach 25 per cent of TM’s total sales by 2029, up from 8 per cent in December 2022. However, attaining it was not easy because he would face an onslaught from multiple competitors that would threaten TM’s existing market share. To enable TM to maintain its leadership position in this segment in India and to grow over time, Chandra and his team had to ensure they correctly assessed the passenger EV industry’s competitive forces. From this analysis, Chandra would then have to evaluate his competitors’ strategies and formulate TM’s defence and growth plans.
The control of the state-run airline Air India was handed over to Tata Sons on January 27, 2022, by the Government of India. Air India had returned to Tata Sons with a severely dented reputation, being known for bad service, frequent delays, and flight cancellations. Therefore, rejuvenating Air India would be a daunting task. Some industry experts felt that the takeover of Air India was the best chance the airline had of a commercial revival; others were not so optimistic. Despite the lingering skepticism, the chief executive officer of Air India was confident of an effective turnaround. He wanted to capture 30 per cent of India’s domestic aviation market in the next five years and brand Air India as the carrier of choice for passengers worldwide. He wanted Air India to compete against world-leading airlines such as Emirates and Singapore Airlines. However, he had some questions to resolve. What strategies should Air India adopt to undergo such a drastic brand repositioning? Could Air India revitalize its brand and become a leader among the world’s top airlines?
Kia Motors India (Kia) had tasted success in India within a year of the launch of its product Seltos. Kia’s managing director and chief executive officer was quite happy with the sales figures for Seltos, the mid-sized sport utility vehicle (SUV) launched in August 2019, and was fairly confident that Kia’s compact SUV Sonet would follow the same path. Kia’s positioning strategies had worked very well thus far, and the company had been able to cultivate a brand image of a premium automaker whose products were considered aspirational.<br><br>However, Kia’s competitors seemed to have learned from Kia’s success in realizing what worked for Indian consumers and were starting to launch new variants of existing models. In the face of this competitive onslaught and slowing economic growth in India, the chief executive officer had to formulate strategies that would keep Kia’s growth trajectory on track. Could his understanding of the dynamics of the SUV segment in India enable him to frame effective positioning and growth strategies that would continue to work for Kia?
In June 2019, the Indian government's think tank, Niti Aayog, mandated that all new motorized two-wheelers with an engine capacity of up to 150 cubic centimetres (cc) would need to be electric-powered by 2025. The chief executive officer and co-founder of Ather Energy wholeheartedly supported this mandate, as his firm's objective was to develop India's first smart electric scooter. Despite his confidence in revolutionizing the concept of two-wheeler driving in India, the task ahead was challenging and complex. How could the company encourage consumers to purchase Ather Energy’s products? What personality types should the company cater to? What roles did Indian consumers' requirements and psychology play in motivating them to purchase Ather Energy’s products?
In order to shift 30 per cent of the country’s transport fleet to electric by 2030, the Indian government had launched multiple programs to promote usage of hybrid and electric vehicles (EV) in the country and had agreed to provide various fiscal and non-fiscal incentives to EV firms up until 2020. Many leading automobile manufacturers in India were investing millions of dollars in designing and manufacturing EVs, building the infrastructure required for running EVs, and creating the components required for the battery system used in EVs. Despite these multiple public and private initiatives, by September 2018 it had became apparent that many macro and micro issues were present in the overall environment that was being built for the smooth running of EVs. Would Mahindra Electric Mobility Limited and other automobile firms be able to effectively formulate strategies and compete successfully in this dynamic and changing business environment?