Rajeev Chaba

President and managing director, MG motor India .

- Hormazd Sorabjee

SAIC Motor IS the first Chinese carmaker to enter India. But unlike other multinationals, it has straightaway appointed an Indian to lead its operations. the choice was easy – SAIC was impressed with Rajeev Chaba when he led sales and marketing for GM China, SAIC’s joint-venture partner and before that, when he was the only CEo of GM India to deliver a profit. In his first media interaction, Chabha tells us his plans of cracking the competitive Indian market, rationale behind leading with the MG brand and expansion plans.

SAIC is coming quite late to India and will face competition from a lot of well-entrenched players. What is the strategy for success?

SAIC knows well that it’s not going to be easy to crack the Indian market. Many multinationals have found it difficult to make inroads here; around 70 percent of the market is held by around three or four companies, while eight or nine big international players collectively have a market share of only 15 percent. the country is going to be the third-largest car market by 2020 and cannot be ignored since SAIC has a plan to be a substantial global player in the long term. You need to have a very different strategy with game-changing features in your models. We know about the patience, perseverance and product portfolio required to be successful here, and also to have a portfolio which is relevant for India, in terms of the price point and value for money. We are committed to offer a compelling proposition to the Indian consumers from the product and customer service perspective.

A lot of multinationals have actually fallen out because they’ve not been able to support their products with a dealership network. Do you think network is the biggest challenge?