Guenter Butschek leaving Tata Motors?

Mumbai: Top headhunters have begun approaching Tata Motors to pitch for the mandate to find a successor to managing director Guenter Butschek amid speculation that he hasn’t sought an extension of his term ending next month.Butschek has been working out of his home country Austria since the lockdown in 2020 and has not returned to India. Top officials familiar with the development said it is critical for someone to be in the country, instead of remote leadership, to build on the turnaround for the company.Butschek was hired in 2016 by then Tata Sons chairman Cyrus Mistry from Airbus Group, filling the position after the death of Karl Slym in January 2014. Tata Motors has had a history of expats in key positions, including group CEO Carl Peter Forster. This time, though, Tata Motors may appoint an Indian CEO, according to people aware of the matter.80261066Tata Motors makes commercial vehicles and passenger vehicles, which are handled by Girish Wagh and Shailesh Chandra, respectively, who report to chairman N Chandrasekaran.Tata Motors has seen significant growth in passenger vehicle sales after the launch of the Tiago mini, the Nexon compact SUV and the Altroz hatchback in the past year. The commercial vehicle business has seen a turnaround since the last quarter.“As a policy, we don’t comment on market rumours,” a Tata Motors spokesperson said in response to ET’s emailed query. Tata Sons did not comment.Butschek was focused on executing the “transformation” road map set out five years ago to turn the business around and be better prepared to deal with a crisis. Under him, the company took stringent steps to save cash and shifted from a ‘build to stock’ to a ‘make up order’ strategy. Butschek worked on ways to drive up market share through affordable models.The company sold more than 170,000 passenger vehicles in 2020, an 11% growth over the previous year and the first increase after years of declining sales. Last year, Tata Motors reached the No. 3 position in vehicle sales, overtaking UV major Mahindra & Mahindra and with new kid on the block Kia Motors at No. 4.EVs will be central to its strategy and the company is building an ecosystem working closely with group companies Tata Chemicals, Tata Autocomp and Tata Power.The market share and brand image of Tata Motors has improved substantially following the revamped passenger vehicle portfolio,” said Mitul Shah, head of research at Reliance Securities.In commercial vehicles too, there has been an uptick. With trucks a better margin business, growing volumes mean better cashflow.

from Economic Times https://ift.tt/35E5PvI
via IFTTT