Not chasing numbers

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Yet, there’s no definite ‘NO’ to small cars...

As the Indian appetite for four wheelers zooms, the stature of US carmaker Ford is growing alongside in the country. It’s all about manoeuvring those dream machines in style and Ford India Limited (FIL) definitely knows the art. Having entered India in 1995 in a JV with Mahindra & Mahindra (M&M), FIL today is a wholly owned subsidiary of US-based Ford Motor Company and is fast endearing itself to the Indian consumer with Fiesta, Fusion, Ikon and Endeavor. Moreover, with Fiesta diesel and the recently launched diesel version of its premium hatchback Fusion, FIL is now attempting to build a robust diesel portfolio.

FIL is presently on a revamping spree of all its dealerships under Ford Brand@Retail, a global corporate identity programme to offer world-class purchase and ownership experience to customers. In an exclusive interview with 4Ps B&M, Arvind Matthew, MD, Ford India, reveals its future strategies.

What’s your market share target by 2010?
My objective is ‘brand’. We are not chasing numbers like others. We want to attain brand recognition and we have done a fairly good job in that. I am focused toward satisfying my consumer’s demand wherever he is and to maintain my reputation with him. Even with our new launch Fusion, I am not taking the short-cut approach. Our target is the urban consumer
– we’re giving him our best.

Do you have any capacity expansion plans?
In typical Indian way, we will continue to make small little things quietly and in an efficient way to continuously improve. For now, there are no mega announcements.

What is the overall strategy of Ford in India?
India is a huge market that one cannot afford to ignore it. We are happy with the way that we have targeted all our cars. A few of our cars have shared technology so there are common components that we package and sell in different forms to our consumers. In this case we attain economies of scale which helps us even if one of the cars is not achieving a lot of numbers. I want to be able to use shared technology, reduce my engineering expense, spread my investment but still be able to differentiate my product for each consumer.

Do you plan a small car in India?
At the moment, I don’t have any announcement as far as small car is concerned, but at the same time, we will keep on going. This market is undoubtedly huge with a massive potential whether it is small, middle or large size cars, we just need to make sure where we position our next offering. Currently, we want to focus on our present portfolio.

What challenges does Ford India face?
The major long term challenge that all in the industry face is the availability of qualified people. And we’re very particular about how we recruit, develop and train our people so that we can retain them. As far as competition is concerned, I think it’s good to have them, or we’ll return to the sleepy old days of 1991 and I hope we never go back there.

Edit bureau: Aditi Soni & Disha Gandhi

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Source : IIPM Editorial, 2008

An IIPM and Professor Arindam Chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist) Initiative

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