SWOT ANALYSIS OF TATA MOTORS LIMITED COMPANY PROFILE:

Tata Motors Limited is India's largest automobile company. It is the leader in commercial vehicles segment. It is ranked among the top three in passenger vehicles segment such as compact car, midsize car and other utility vehicle segments. It is the world's second largest bus manufacturer and world's fourth largest truck manufacturer. Tata Motors Limited is established in 1945 with its vision "best in the manner in which we operate, best in the products we deliver, and best in our value system and ethics." The company has 24000 employees who are guided by its vision. HISTORY The first vehicles of the company has rolled out in 1954 and now more than 5.9 million Tata vehicles run on the Indian roads. Tata motors has started a strategic alliance with Fiat in 2005 following which a new industrial joint venture was set up to produce both Fiat and Tata cars and Fiat powertrains. Tata motors acts as a market distributor for Fiat branded cars in India. After its success in Indian automobile segment, Tata motors has started in diversification which, as a result, became the first company from engineering sector in India to be listed in New York Stock Exchange in September 2004. It has also emerged as an International automobile company. Tata motors now has its operations in United Kingdom, South Korea, Thailand and Spain. Tata motors has acquired Daewoo, South Korea's second largest truck maker in 2004. Then it has formed a joint venture with Brazil-based Marcopolo, the leader in body-building for buses and coaches in order to manufacture fully built buses and coaches for India and other International markets. The foundation of the company's growth over the last 50 years is a deep understanding of economic stimuli and customer needs, and the ability to translate them into customer-desired offerings through leading edge R&D. With over 3,000 engineers and scientists, the company's Engineering Research Centre, established in 1966, has enabled pioneering technologies and products. The company today has R&D centres in Pune, Jamshedpur, Lucknow, Dharwad in India, and in South Korea, Spain, and the UK. It was Tata Motors, which developed the first indigenously developed Light Commercial Vehicle, India's first Sports Utility Vehicle and, in 1998, the Tata Indica, India's first fully indigenous passenger car. Within two years of launch, Tata Indica became India's largest selling car in its segment. In 2005, Tata Motors created a new segment by launching the Tata Ace, India's first indigenously developed mini-truck. [http://www.tatamotors.com/our_world/profile.php] accessed on 02-Jan-2011

STRENGTHS
Tata Motors has already established its brand in the automobile segment in India and other International markets. It is now the leader in this industry with majority of market share.

Tata Motors produces low cost, fuel efficient vehicles in India. It has targeted normal middle class person who is feasible to buy a car for his family. It has launched Tata Indica, a passenger car in 1998 which became the largest selling car in the segment 2 years after its launch. Tata Motors has spread widely across the country. With 3500 touch points, the company has easy and fast access to its network of dealers, sales, services and spare parts in almost every areas. The company's recent acquisitions of foreign brands has increased its global presence.

The human resource of Tata Motors is very strong with around 24000 employees. Tata Motors has its own manufacturing plants in India. Their acquisitions play an important role in exchange of knowledge. Since it has acquired Daewoo and Jaguar Landrover, the company has learnt the disciplines and work methodology of how the global brands operate, what strategy they follow and how do they overcome problems in the business, their techniques and so on. This is expertise exchange is good and healthy for an organisation. The product portfolio of Tata Motors has been enhanced by their acquisitions and alliances. The company has a strong focus and strategy on the management development for its further expansion and growth as a leader globally.

WEAKNESSES
The rate of return on Tata Motors shares is low which in turn affects its growth in financial terms amidst investors. Tata Motors is still behind the technology advancements despite having large R&D Department in the country. It is still producing vehicles in the old generation platforms without any additional developments in the engineering department. Customers expect new technologies which Tata motors fail to meet. It also affects its competitive advantage over its rivals. While most of the other car manufacturers in the country has concentrated on the luxury car segment, Tata Motors remain isolated from luxury car market which is a disadvantage to the company. Tata Motors fails to meet the safety and emission standard norms as regulated by the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM).

OPPORTUNITIES
Since Tata Motors has bought one of the world's luxurious car brands Jaguar and Landrover from Ford Motors officially in 2008 for a whooping 2.3million(GBP), it has increased its possibility of gaining a substantial amount of market share in the luxury car segments. These added acquisitions to Tata's portfolio will certainly gain competitive advantage. Tata Motors has launched a low cost car Nano which is targeted towards the customers who have low purchasing power. It has also planned to launch its Nano in other countries which is an opportunity to grow globally.

Tata Motors can install additional safety features such as dual air bags to increase its customer satisfaction levels. It should focus strongly on the luxury car segments also. Since Nano is doing well on the Indian roads and the demand is rising, the production of Nano cars should be increased which reduces the long waitlists for Nano.

THREATS
Since the other car manufacturers are attracting the customers in terms of quality and riding comfort they offer, Tata Motors should also concentrate on this aspect failing which results in losing the customers. Tata motors have an advantage of being a low-cost producer. If the other rival companies find those development methods, Tata can no longer have a competitive advantage. Since the prices of steel and aluminium are rising high, it can pose a major threat to this low cost producer. Though the sales of Tata Motors have increased by 1% ending November 2010, absence of safety features and inability to meet the SIAM standards can heavily impact sales.