The Hot Cat and the Beast are here!!! - What can we learn from the JLR acquisition

A lot has been said about Tata Motors' acquisition of British marque brands Jaguar and Land Rover. And much more has been said about how, due to the global recession, the acquisition can go awry. That said and done, Tata Motors launched the cars in India last Sunday. The mood of the top management was upbeat and it seemed, apparently, there were minimal differences between the managements of both the companies. Post launch, during the press session,some interesting questions were on a. how will Tata Motors find synegies between handling high-end brands and low-cost car models b. how will Tata Motors, that doesnt have experience of handling high-end automobiles, run the recently acquired companies.

I strongly believe Tata shall not face much problem in integrating these brands into the Tata fold.

Here's why.

Over the years various Tata companies have made acquisitions in their respective domains. Moreover, they have successfully integrated these companies in the Tata fold without affecting their brand values and internal culture. Having gone through the ups and downs of acquistion and integration, the top management of Tata Group is fairly acquinted with the whole process. Though Tata Motors may not have had brand as prestigious as JLR, it has successfully launched the innovative low-cost car Nano. It means the company can rapidly adopt to demands of handling different business models and brands. Remember how Tata Motors bounced back after the initial failure of Indica.

More importantly, as far the very acquisition is concerned, Tata Group has never acquired a company without any strategic imperetive, value additions and synergy. The top management of the group is interested in collaborative work and not running the writ of the group on the new company.

And that's why:

1. Tetley is able to retain its high-end customers despite being acquired by a third world tea company i.e. Tata Tea

2. The Corus acquistion and its subsequent integration is successful; the current problems in the company are due to the external financial crisis and doesnt indicate any glitch in the integration.

3. The labour unions of JLR chose Tata Motors over other automobile companies and equity players.


The JLR acquistion will provide tremendous opportunities to Tata Motors for cross-learning, handling a diverse brand portfolio and much more. Furthermore, it shall make an excellent case study on how a company can manage M & A.