Wednesday, March 6, 2013

‘Slym’ing down is no more a priority for the ‘Beast’

GM has long realised that it cannot wish away India if it plans to stay in the Asian reckoning. But while it has been a leader in China, the intensely competitive Indian market is yet to take off for GM. Pawan Chabra drills and grills GM’s MD Karl Slym for a deeper look into how the company plans to change that orientation

Barack Obama’s entourage to India will include a whopping representation from 215 large and mid-sized American companies, who will seek to further the blooming American business interests in the country. Taking him around during his three day visit will be the Beast, a fortress that is disguised as a Cadillac, which is America’s First Limo. It is regarded as the world’s most advanced vehicle in terms of security, one whose myriad features are a closely guarded secret – held by its manufacturer and the US Secret Service.

As the Beast rumbles into India with the world’s most powerful man as its occupant, it carries a symbolic appeal for GM as well; being one of the many American businesses that have sought and attained welcome respite from their diving fortunes in the Indian market. And just like Barack Obama, GM’s expectations from its India connection are now reaching unprecedented heights, as Karl Slym, MD & President, GM India, would excitedly tell me.

In fact, the past three years that Slym has been in the Indian market have been full of action, both in India and back home in US. In his tenure, the parent company back in Detroit made its way to Chapter 11 reconstruction. For GM India – and for Slym personally – that time was perchance the worst as a significant number of prospective GM customers, worrying whether GM India would continue if GM global collapsed, either delayed their purchases or simply shifted their preferences. Slym smiles wryly as he reminisces to me the tough decisions he took to ensure that the business in India did not take a hit because of the problems back in the US. Be it the decision to be himself the brand ambassador of the company in the ‘There for you – There for India’ campaign or the host of other activities that the company carried out, Slym tells me he’s very much confident that Chevrolet now stands as one of the most promising brands in the Indian automobile circuit. Now that the bankruptcy woes are almost over and GM has made a comeback in both India and back home, the company is focused on larger objectives. After the company got the third cousin in the small car segment in January this year in the name of Beat, the battle for a much larger market share in India is very much on.

Numbers seem to flowing well for Slym. As per the J.D. Power Asia Pacific 2010 India Vehicle Dependability Study, the Spark and U-VA model of the company have topped the vehicle dependability index in their respective segments. As compared to the total sales of 87,000 that the company made in the financial year of April-March 2010, GM India has sold close over 51,000 vehicles in the first six months of this financial year. Slym is seemingly confident of the fact that he will be able to break the one lakh tag this fiscal year. “We expect to sell 2,00,000 units by the end of 2012 and 300,000 units by the end of 2013,” says Slym.


Source : IIPM Editorial, 2012.
An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri
and Arindam Chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist).

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