TATA MOTORS LIMITED

INTRODUCTION
Tata Motors Limited (formerly TELCO, short for Tata Engineering and Locomotive Company) is an
Indianmultinational automotive manufacturing company headquartered in Mumbai, Maharashtra, India
and a subsidiary of theTata Group. Its products include passenger cars, trucks, vans, coaches, buses,
construction equipment and military vehicles. It is the world's seventeenth-largest motor
vehicle manufacturing company, fourth-largest truck manufacturer and second-largest bus
manufacturer by volume with consolidated revenues of INR 2,32,834 crores (USD 38.9 billion) in 2013-
14.
Founded in 1945 as a manufacturer of locomotives, the company manufactured its first commercial
vehicle in 1954 in collaboration with Daimler-Benz AG, which ended in 1969. Tata Motors entered the
passenger vehicle market in 1991 with the launch of the Tata Sierra, becoming the first Indian
manufacturer to achieve the capability of developing a competitive indigenous automobile.In 1998, Tata
launched the first fully indigenous Indian passenger car, the Indica, and in 2008 launched the Tata Nano,
the world's most affordable car. Tata Motors acquired the South Korean truck manufacturer Daewoo
Commercial Vehicles Company in 2004 and purchased Jaguar Land Rover from Ford in 2008.
MISSION
To be passionate in anticipating and providing the best vehicles and experiences that excite our
customers globally.
VISSION
Most admired by our customers, employees, business partners and shareholders for the experience and
value they enjoy from being with us.
ORGANISATION STRUCTURE
The organizational structure of Tata Motors follows the matrix form which incorporates the elements of
functional and divisional organizational structures. It is a global automotive giant operating in various
automobile sectors across distant geographies; hence there is a need to integrate its divisions along the
various functional units of its business. If we look at the organizational structure of Tata Motors, we will
find that the functional units are divided into the categories of Finance, Strategy, Engineering,
Communications, Human Resources and Legal. These functional departments construct the strategic
framework on which Tata Motors different business sectors are based; such as India Operations,
Commercial Vehicle Business Unit and Passenger Car Business Unit. Tata Motors consists of flexible,
adaptive and multi-tasking individuals who can work in different situations in different roles.
Tata Motors encourages relationships at both formal and informal levels through designing flat
organizational structures at different divisional units.
Considering the span of control a flat organizational structure benefits Tata Motors because it has some
very experienced team of leaders who can provide a strategic direction to the management working
under their supervision. The organization is focused towards achieving the goals and visions set by Mr.
Ratan Tata, thus there is a visible need for autonomy which is well supported by a flatter structure.
Lesser levels in the organization
structure provide a better platform for innovation and customization of products.












ORGANIZATION CULTURE
An indistinguishable feature of organizational structure is the flow of information; the employees follow
a formalized pattern of reporting. Tata Motors follows a code of conduct that helps in deciding on and
assigning responsibilities to promote group working. One of the biggest benefits of such a structure is
the accessibility of top management to the middle and lower management level employees. This is
extremely critical in building a culture that is positive and productive. Tata Motors Ltd links all its
functional departments through Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP). It promotes easy sharing of
important information between its different departments. The various divisions and departments are
interconnected through intranet; thus promoting instant information sharing among the employees and
management. This is especially helpful in keeping the organizations human resources connected at
every level.
The current focus of Tata Motors is on revolutionizing the car business. This means the strategic focus in
on innovating and developing the domestic and international market. The two recent examples
supporting the rationale are the launch of Tatas worlds cheapest car- NANO and acquisition of Jaguar
and Land Rover brands (JLR). During the phase of Nano development and launch the whole organization
took it as their personal achievement. All these factors are strengthening the organizations culture
along with its organizational design by implementing the right business strategy.
Tata Motors works towards developing leaders keeping in view the context and culture in which they
are developed.
Elements of Organizational Culture at Tata Motors Ltd
The organizational culture of Tata Motors is understandable as the task culture. Tata Motors believes
in providing complete customer satisfaction and follows strict safety related measures and guidelines.
To provide a rich customer service experience it undertakes effective and efficient networking of sales
and service networking. It performs in concord with its customer requirements and expected levels of
performance and service. It also adapts itself to the various competitor strategies and upcoming rules
and regulations. Thus the culture within the organization is focused on dealing dynamic and challenging
forces of business environment and is very well complemented by its matrix and flat organization
structure.The culture at Tata encompasses:
Accountability
Customer and product focus
Speed
Excellence
LEADERSHIP
Tata Motors scale of operations is extremely huge and varied and has a matrix structure. This provides
it with an opportunity to cut costs and sustain its cost based competitive advantage and follow cost
leadership. In case of Jaguar Land Rover (JLR), Tata has followed special breakeven strategy where it has
concentrated on the factors such as material cost and manufacturing, warranties, selling and
administrative expenses, product development expenditure and human resource management. Also
TATA launched NANO at Rs 1lac to take over Indian personal car market through cost leadership.
TATAS CURRENT STRATEGIES

Tatas current focus is on leveraging its capabilities in the automobile sector and expanding its market
and distribution network with a focus on understanding the preferences of local consumers and
developing in-house engineering capabilities.
Since the automobile industry is significantly affected by cyclicality. To reduce its impact, Tata Motors is
continuously expanding its operations in different varied segments by manufacturing wide range of
products across distant geographies.
Tata Motors is expanding internationally on the concept of two-fold strategy. Firstly it is expanding
across geographies through strategic acquisitions. Latest examples are acquisition of Jaguar Land Rover
(JLR) and Daewoo Motors Ltd. Secondly it is expanding its current product range into chosen countries,
such as expansion of its Indica brand of cars in UK.

INNOVATION
Innovation in Tata Motors is not a recent phenomenon, but is a part of its legacy. The Companys culture
of perpetual search for excellence is highly attributed to the Tatas ethos and incessant efforts of its
employees in the past several decades to serve the customers by bringing continuous innovation in its
products and processes.
PRODUCTS:
Tata Motors created several breakthrough products in the past which changed the market dynamics and
helped in providing a new customer experience.
1. 407 platform in 1980s: Tata Motors came out with its innovative 407 platform which was designed to
suit the Indian conditions. It quickly became the bestseller in LCVs and the platform still continues
control 2/3rd of the market even in the third decade of its existence.
2. Indica in the late 90s.More Car per car: This was the first indigenously designed passenger car in
India and it was innovative in the sense that it provided more value for money in terms of internal
space, contemporary features and all that at a very competitive price.
3. ACE Last mile distribution vehicle: Ace was Indias first mini-truck launched in 2005.The Ace helped
in meeting that last mile distribution need with emergence of Hub and spoke transportation model in
India.
4. NANO the Peoples car/ Rupees 1 lakh car : The target price itself became the source of innovation,
the big names in the industry just rubbished it as false claims and commented that it was impossible to
make a CAR at that price.
5. WORLD TRUCK - a new era in the Indian automobile industry : The new generation range of trucks
which would match with the best in the world in performance at a lower life-cycle cost . It will create a
new benchmark in India in terms of power, speed, carrying capacity, operating economy and trims and a
new experience for the drivers in terms of drivability and comfort.
PROCESS:
Sustainability of innovation in products needed to be complemented with innovative changes in the
organizational processes too. Some examples are:
Adoption of the Tata Business Excellence Model (TBEM)
Use of IT systems has been a benchmark and highly leveraged in the organization throughout the
VALUE CHAIN.
Product Development Process. Institutionalized Stage Gate process in the organization is a benchmark
in itself.
Internalization philosophy : Tata Motors made some major global acquisitions like TDCV, JLR , Hispano,
etc. Unlike many other Japanese / US players, TATA followed an innovative approach to be seen as a
local company in the country of operation.
PEOPLE:
Identifying leaders through assessment centers.
Putting them into challenging assignments and giving them International exposure .
Breaking the functional silos by shifting from a hierarchical organization to a more CFT approach.
MERGERS AND ACQUISITIONS
Mar 2004: Acquisition of Daewoo Commercial Vehicle company(Korea)
Feb 2005: 21% stake in Hispano Carrocera (Spain)
Apr 2005: Merger with Tata Finance
Mar 2008: Acquisition of Jaguar & Land Rover (UK)
Oct 2009: Remaining 79% stake in Hispano Carrocera (Spain)