GARY PUSEY
AT the time of writing it is exactly 75 days since JLR’S new boss, exrenault Chief Executive Thierry Bolloré, took up his new role. As we all know, he joined at a particularly challenging time for the company. Covid was just the latest in a series of problems, including Brexit uncertainties, the industrywide diesel sales crash, and the collapse of sales in China, that have forced the company to lay off a significant proportion of its workforce and embark on a cost-cutting programme.
A number of commentators have also suggested that at least some of the company’s problems have been selfinflicted, including things like the headlong pursuit of higher sales volumes; the introduction of too many overlapping models, some of which appear to compete with one another; the failed attempt to create a Jaguar to compete with the likes of the 3 Series BMW; the focus on diesel rather than petrol, and the huge investment required to launch the in-house Ingenium engine. Hindsight is a wonderful thing, although it is of little benefit to JLR’S executives, who must be skilled in the altogether more difficult art of foresight.
Just after Monsieur Bollore’s appointment, an interesting article appeared in Autocar, written by the magazine’s very wellconnected Editor-in-chief, Steve Cropley, who is known to be an astute observer of all things JLR. I read it with deep interest and fascination. It certainly resonated with me.
Entitled ‘Dear Thierry’, it was styled as an ‘open letter’ to the incoming CEO and offered some insightful perspectives, one of which was a timely reminder that customers ‘do not buy a JLR’. They buy a ‘Jaguar’ or a ‘Range Rover’, a ‘Discovery’ or a ‘Defender’. I’ve often heard it said that in some important markets such as the USA buyers are almost universally unaware of the overarching Land Rover brand while totally recognising Range Rover, Discovery and Defender.
Steve argued eloquently for a separation of the brands and more freedom for them to determine their respective directions, with Range Rover leading the pack and focussed on becoming an ever-more luxurious and upmarket competitor to Bentley. The same theme seemed to extend to the JLR Classic and JLR Special Vehicle Operations, which he argued should be separated into Jaguar and Land Rover businesses, free to concentrate on their own individual heritages and their own takes on reborn and bespoke vehicles.
The letter also suggested that JLR should abandon its ambitions to become a volume manufacturer, which was very much at the heart of Sir Ralf Speth’s strategic direction for the company, and instead aim for lower volume, high-margin premium products. Among these he suggested there should be a lighter, more efficient electric Land Rover concept to stimulate a sense of where the company might be going, and to counter the fact that big, heavy, diesel Land Rovers are becoming increasingly out of step with the times. He also talked about the need to announce clearer plans for the future of the Discovery, describing it as ‘the one recent Landie that didn’t work’, and the rapid expansion of the Defender family of vehicles. He also appealed for ‘increased toughness’ in Land Rovers because the ‘drive to school aspect has been overemphasised in the recent past’.
One particular paragraph caught my eye to the extent that I had to read it several times. ‘Find a design advocate and leader with the same high profile and authority as current incumbent Gerry Mcgovern,’ it read, ‘ready to step up whenever he chooses to go’. Mcgovern is 64 years old, and I decided I couldn’t work out whether this was an appeal to Monsieur Bolloré to do some succession planning just in case Gerry decides to retire, or whether it was an implicit suggestion that he should!
We don’t know whether Thierry Bolloré read Steve’s ‘open letter’ but I’m guessing it made its way onto his desk. What he thought of it we will never know. In fact, at the moment we don’t know anything at all about the new CEO’S thoughts, ambitions and plans, because to the outside world he has so far been completely unseen and unheard. At the end of July, the company put out a brief press release announcing his appointment, but try as I might I cannot find anything more from him, other than a quote in a JLR press release in early November regarding the promotion of two senior executives to the board.
JLR is a complicated business and like all big corporates will have its factions, cliques and egos. It is also a business of two distinct halves that were a bit of a shotgun marriage in 2008 when Tata bought them both, and they have never really come together in any meaningful way. Monsieur Bolloré will have been talking to a lot of people inside the company who will have no doubt been sharing their thoughts on what needs to be done. Their new boss is wise to have invested the time in listening and learning, because when he does decide where he wants to take the company it is vital that he gets it right.
By the time you read these words Thierry Bolloré may have broken cover, and we will have at last heard what his plans are for the future of JLR.
“Hindsight is a wonderful thing, although it is of little benefit to JLR'S executives, who must be skilled in the altogether more difficult art of foresight”