SWOT analysis for the Tata Nano

Question 1

The first pillar is focused on acts and activities. The Blue Ocean leadership innovation
strategy is based on acts and activities that leadership should adopt to provide growth in
innovation whereby the results are based on results as compared to just ideology. As such
the strategy is about what needs to be done to improve on innovation in regards to the
specific steps that need to be taken to encourage the implementation of new technologies.
According to this pillar, leadership is supposed to take steps by carrying out acts and
activities that lead to innovation. By doing so, it will be possible to foster innovation at all
levels of an organization.

The second pillar is to connect leadership to the existing realities in the market through the
engagement of people who will confront them with such realities. This pillar is in response
to the fact that in most cases the leadership approaches of organizations are often generic
and detached with the realities of the markets and thus out of touch with what customers
and the general market expect (Mi, 2015). As per the Blue ocean leadership, the focus is
placed on lack of subscription to the generic approach to leadership but rather on the focus
on what is required in the market. The way to achieve that is through having leadership
being confronted by people who are in touch with market realities.

The third pillar is the distribution of leadership across various levels of management. That
is cognizance of the fact that in today's demanding and dynamic world, organizations have
to put in place leadership at all levels of management to make leadership more responsive
not only to the needs of the market but also to organizational needs. That is opposed to the
illusion of expecting the top management of organizations to provide the necessary
leadership to create innovation. To greater innovation, it is important to have leadership at
all levels of management in cognizance of the fact that middle-level managers are more in
touch with the market realities as compared to top-level management.

The fourth pillar is the pursuit of high impact leadership activities and acts at low costs.
The idea here is to do away with the notion that leadership activities and acts are often a
bonus of the work done by the regular people which creates a situation whereby leadership
relies heavily on the activities of subordinates to perform their roles in innovation. The goal
here is to have leadership play a more active role in fostering innovation while at the same
time doing so at a low cost.

Question 2

In regards to the application of Blue Ocean strategy pillars to the Tata Nano case, there are
several key implications. The first pillar focuses on acts and activities whereby the company
should have done more to foster innovation in line with their quest to create an economically
feasible yet functional low-cost care for the mass market. The goal here should have been to rely
on activities that foster innovation which to come up with new yet functional technologies to be
used in the production of the Tata Nano. For instance, the team should have done more to ensure
that the materials used in the production of the car were made using innovative technologies to
achieve the goal of being functional yet low cost.

The second pillar deals with the connection of leadership with market realities by having people
who will confront the leadership with the market realities. In this case, Tata as a company should
have done more to actively involve its leadership with people who are connected with the
realities of the market such as the consumers, car dealers, mechanics and other kinds of authority
figures in the automobile market. By doing so, the company leadership would be in a better
position to know what the realities of the market are which would have enabled them to know
what is possible and what is not within the objectives of the task.

The third pillar is to have leadership distributed at all levels of the organization. This is one of
the best ways to foster innovation for a company like Tata which provides itself in being in touch
with the needs of the common man. By having leadership at all levels of management, the
company would be better placed to foster innovation by connecting with the needs of the market
(Verma et al., 2019). Having leadership at all levels of management would also create a more
effective chain of command that is more connected with people on the ground who are involved
in the day to day requirements of the market. For instance, the company should have leadership
at the level of the market such as the sales representatives who are more in touch with the needs
of the customers an essential part of fostering innovation.

The fourth pillar is to have more pursuit of the high-level impact of leadership acts. That means
having leadership play a more active role in fostering innovation as opposed to just supervising
the work of others. For instance, instead of Ratan Tata only dreaming up the ideal economical
car for the mass market, he should have been more active in the process of designing the car
instead of leaving the innovation to his team of engineers.

Question 3

In my assessment of Tata's execution, there are several things the company did right and some
they did wrong. One of the right things the company did right is to only include the bare
minimum in regards to the functional parts of the car. For instance, doing away with systems
such as air conditioning and radio systems was a good way to reduce the cost of the car. The
second thing the car did right was to partner with Bosch to come up with the design of an engine
that is not only functional and economical but also lightweight and cheap to produce. Among the
things the company did wrong was to design a compact car for the average Indian family with
only two doors since that would cause a lot of inconvenience for the users of the car. The
company also made a wrong move by underestimating the production costs of the Tata Nano and
it later emerged that it would not be economically feasible to produce the car and sell it at the
target price of $1984.

Question 4

Porter's five forces apply as follows for the Tata Nano case.

1. Competitive rivalry-High-there are several other car companies trying to achieve the same
goal as Tata Nano which is to produce a cheap yet practical car for the mass market.
2. Supplier Power-High-there is only a few suppliers for Tata and the each of the suppliers wield
high power since they provide the company with suppliers that are not easily found in the market
which means that the suppliers hold the power to determine prices.

3. Buyer Power-Medium-On average only about half of the population of the target market in
India would be able to afford to buy the Tata Nano at the price the company is selling the car
which means that the power of the buyer, in this case, is average.

4. The threat of substitution-High-There is several other brands selling economical cars such as
Suzuki, Toyota, and Ford which means that customer can substitute the Tata Nano with brands
from those companies.

5. Threats of new entrants-low-there are hardly any new entrants into the market division of
cheap and subcompact cars.