Karl Slym, President & MD, GM India has spent close to three years in the Indian market. The times have changed him considerably, more with respect to his understanding of the Indian customer. Slym shares with B&E the decisions taken in the hard times and the strategy forward with GM’s Chinese JV Partner.
B&E: GM has seen some of the toughest times in India and even in the current situation, the company has been unable to touch high volumes in its India journey. What are the key takeaways so far?
Karl Slym: The journey for GM in India has been very exciting so far. The past three years have been very exciting in particular because of the fact that it was a time when all was going as per the plan; where we had just introduced the Spark to the Indian market and we were pleased with the outlook. But then recession came along and General Motors filed for bankruptcy. No matter how much we tried to reinforce that it was back in North America that General Motors was facing problems and everything was fine in India, it wasn’t working. Be it an employee, a previous customer, a prospective customer or a supplier; all were worried about the future of GM in the Indian market. It was then that the ‘There for you – There for India’ campaign started to make rounds.
B&E: It was the same time when we saw you on the idiot box as well. What was the foundation behind you being the brand ambassador for the company?
Slym: We had a long discussion about the same for hours and came to a conclusion that it cannot be a Bollywood star who could convince the stakeholders about a bright future for GM in India. That could only be the person who is in charge of running the Indian operations. And the rest of that is now history.
B&E: Now, you have a JV with SAIC, which is your partner in the Chinese market as well. How are you expecting things to change in the times to come for the Indian market post the JV?
Slym: The JV is already eight months old, as it started on the 5th of February; and I can bet that you haven’t seen anything really changing in the company since then. The reason is because our plan is to ensure that the world should not feel any difference. The best way I can explain is that earlier I used to have only a GM menu but now I can bring in an SAIC menu as well. It’s like the consumer can have both vegetarian and non vegetarian food in the same restaurant. Earlier, in the GM menu we were not able to address the CV demand and as close to 40% of the vehicle sales happen in the CV segment in India. We now plan to bring CVs to the Indian market. We have already proven our success through global products like Beat and Spark and by partnering with a player that has proved it can succeed in the emerging market environment; you will see a lot of benefits of the same going forward.
B&E: GM has seen some of the toughest times in India and even in the current situation, the company has been unable to touch high volumes in its India journey. What are the key takeaways so far?
Karl Slym: The journey for GM in India has been very exciting so far. The past three years have been very exciting in particular because of the fact that it was a time when all was going as per the plan; where we had just introduced the Spark to the Indian market and we were pleased with the outlook. But then recession came along and General Motors filed for bankruptcy. No matter how much we tried to reinforce that it was back in North America that General Motors was facing problems and everything was fine in India, it wasn’t working. Be it an employee, a previous customer, a prospective customer or a supplier; all were worried about the future of GM in the Indian market. It was then that the ‘There for you – There for India’ campaign started to make rounds.
B&E: It was the same time when we saw you on the idiot box as well. What was the foundation behind you being the brand ambassador for the company?
Slym: We had a long discussion about the same for hours and came to a conclusion that it cannot be a Bollywood star who could convince the stakeholders about a bright future for GM in India. That could only be the person who is in charge of running the Indian operations. And the rest of that is now history.
B&E: Now, you have a JV with SAIC, which is your partner in the Chinese market as well. How are you expecting things to change in the times to come for the Indian market post the JV?
Slym: The JV is already eight months old, as it started on the 5th of February; and I can bet that you haven’t seen anything really changing in the company since then. The reason is because our plan is to ensure that the world should not feel any difference. The best way I can explain is that earlier I used to have only a GM menu but now I can bring in an SAIC menu as well. It’s like the consumer can have both vegetarian and non vegetarian food in the same restaurant. Earlier, in the GM menu we were not able to address the CV demand and as close to 40% of the vehicle sales happen in the CV segment in India. We now plan to bring CVs to the Indian market. We have already proven our success through global products like Beat and Spark and by partnering with a player that has proved it can succeed in the emerging market environment; you will see a lot of benefits of the same going forward.
Source : IIPM Editorial, 2012.
An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri
and Arindam Chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist).
For More IIPM Info, Visit below mentioned IIPM articles
An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri
and Arindam Chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist).
For More IIPM Info, Visit below mentioned IIPM articles
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