Case exam 2013 2014: TATA Nano
Tata Motors is India's largest automobile company, with consolidated revenues of USD 34.7 billion in
2012-13. Through subsidiaries and associate companies, Tata Motors has operations in the UK,
South Korea, Thailand, Spain, South Africa and Indonesia. Among them is Jaguar Land Rover, the business comprising the two iconic British brands Jaguar and Land Rover, which Tata bought in 2008.
In the same year Tata Motors launched the Tata Nano, the cheapest car in the world. When Tata
Motors, the automaker from the $68 billion Tata Group of India, announced the launch of a people’s car in 2003, the idea had everything in it to make the Indian middle-class dream of owning their first car come true. Nano looked to be the perfect platform to reap the fortune at the Base-of-thePyramid (a term which denotes the poorest socio-economic group, or the 4 billion people on earth who live on less than US$2.50 per day), and more importantly, showcase to the world how frugal innovations in the developing world could create affordable cars with a price tag of $2,500. While
India's population is more than one billion people, only around one million passenger cars were sold in the country in 2007. By contrast, more than seven million motorcycles and scooters were sold. Mr.
Tata said the tiny car is aimed at keeping the families of India's growing middle class from having to travel with as many as four people on a scooter. "It will provide Indian families with a safe form of transport”. The rising affluence among the target audience, the middle class of India and thriving rural residents, seemed to hold enormous potential. The Indian economy was booming, with rising salaries in the services sector in general and the IT sector in particular. Even government employees got pay hikes, thanks to the pay revisions periodically instituted for all