Tata Nano - The People's Car
Posted: 2 Feb 2012
Date Written: March 28, 2011
Abstract
The case explores how Tata Motors, India's largest automobile company, developed the Nano, the world's cheapest car. The case focuses on the translation of Ratan Tata's (Chairman of Tata Motors) vision of a safe affordable car for the masses by Ravi Kant, Managing Director of Tata Motors into the Nano Project. The case raises questions around breaking the price - quality barrier and changing existing internal processes to accommodate revolutionary new ideas. The dilemma of success - Tata Nano was a runaway bestseller - left Tata Motors debating how large a bet they should make on the Nano and what kind of capacity commitment this requires.
Learning Objective: The case illustrates how to build a global company that can successfully compete with companies from developed economies and how large companies innovate in a breakthrough way in the marketplace.
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