Jaguar Land Rover Organisation - Essay Example

Business report for Jaguar Land Rover Table of Contents Table of Contents 2 Introduction 3 Answer to Question UK Automobile Industry 3 Answer to Question 2: Jaguar Land Rover Organisation 5 Answer to Question 3: A Questionnaire to Measure Nationwide Customer Perceptions: 7 Answer to Question 4: Selection of Data Collection Approach (Online): 10 Conclusion 12 Reference list 13 Introduction In the current business report of Jaguar Land Rover will concentrate on various segments like market sustainability and growth. Firstly, the automobile industry of the UK is outlined and then in the second question a short summary of Jaguar Land Rover organisation is provided. In the third segment, a set of question developed so that the brief idea can be generated on perception of the UK based customers regarding the Jaguar Land Rover cars can be obtained (Hicks and Upton, 2010). Finally, in the fourth question, one suitable data collection approach is selected. In the current study, online questionnaire survey is selected to gather the data. The study will be outlining automobile market condition and position of Jaguar Land Rover. Answer to Question 1: UK Automobile Industry According to researchers, automotive industry of the UK is holding the top position in terms of exporting to different countries. Major firms have invested more than £6 billion over the last three years from 2012 to 2014 (Kpmg.com, 2015b). Researchers have argued that automotive sales faced the challenge of financial recession effectively. High end car manufacturers are able to recover their loss and developed their income level same as the pre-recessional state. The UK based car industry is expected to increase the production level to 2 million vehicles by the year 2017. It will be the highest level of output in such industry during the last 10 years (Kpmg.com, 2015a). Moreover, UK based automotive industry also indicates that nearly 1,509,762 cars were constructed during the year 2013. Within which 87,671 were developed for the commercial purpose. The industry also produced almost 2,553,316 engines during the period (Kpmg.com, 2015b). The industry recorded with a revenue generation of £59.3 billion during the year 2013-2014. The industry is having different car manufacturers like the Bentley, Infiniti, London Taxi Company, Ford and Jaguar Land Rover (SMMT, 2015). These firms are producing different types of cars and spare parts for the local and international demands. The industry or the firms can be justified based on some segments like manufacturing, supply chain, economy, business environment and environmental credentials (SMMT, 2015). Manufacturing The UK automobile industry outlines that there are nearly seven mainstream car companies, seven commercial automobile producers and nine bus and coach manufacturers (Kpmg.com, 2015a). In addition, it is also observed that premium and sports cars are gaining interest among the UK based automotive market and there are almost eight manufacturers and nearly 100 expert and niche brands. Moreover, eight Formula One teams are headquartered in the UK area. Automotive manufacturers are adopting innovative approach for attracting customers (SMMT, 2015). Supply Chain Automobile market of the UK consists of nearly 2,350 companies which supply cars, spare parts and other car related services. These firms are having the employee range of nearly 82,000. The UK Government is empowering local firms to grab the opportunity of £3bn by supplying spare parts to the UK based car manufacturers. Moreover, £4.8bn is generated by the local manufacturers as annual added value (Kpmg.com, 2015b). Local ancillary firms are helping motor vehicle assembly operations of the UK. The industry report shows that UK car manufacturers are obtaining nearly 80% components from the local ancillary industries. Economy Automotive manufacturing generates huge revenue and reports high amount of turnover. Turnover of the automobile segment signifies with almost two thirds of total UK manufacturing turnover (Kpmg.com, 2015a). UK automobile industry rerecords with an annual turnover of nearly £60bn and sources employment for almost 731,000 people. 10% of the overall UK export volume is generated from the automobile segment (SMMT, 2015). Business Environment The UK automotive regulations have certain rules as car manufacturing firms are planning to purchase components from local firms. Spare parts of the high technology cars are increasing demands of local made equipments. On the other hand, “low carbon and electric vehicles” are gaining importance after the year 2012 (Kpmg.com, 2015b). Society of Motor Manufacturer and Traders and The Automotive Council are the controller of the industry. Environmental Credentials Automobile manufacturers are looking for environmental development policies. During the last 10 years, car manufacturers are looking to reduce the carbon emissions. According to the car registration facts, new cars are able to reduce CO2 emission by nearly 25% (Kpmg.com, 2015a). The industry is planning to invest nearly £150bn in the upcoming 20 years to develop “low and ultra-low carbon vehicle technologies” (SMMT, 2015). Answer to Question 2: Jaguar Land Rover Organisation Jaguar Land Rover is one of the major UK based high end mobile manufacturers. According to the number of production units, they are holding the top position. The organisation is a merged entity of two iconic British car brands named Land Rover and Jaguar. Land Rover is famous for their premium all-terrain motor vehicles (Kpmg.com, 2015b). On the other hand, Jaguar produces “premier luxury sports saloon and sports car marquees” (jaguar.co.uk, 2015). Both the companies are leading their specialised car manufacturing segments around the world. Among the British car brands these two brands are highly accepted among the customers. Land Rover was a part of the BMW Corporation and Jaguar was a part of the Ford Company (Jaguarlandrover.com, 2015). During the year 2008, both the companies were acquired by Tata Motors Company of India, from Ford. Currently, both the organisations are working as sole company entity (Jaguarlandrover.com, 2015). Tata motors developed the business with the help of the Asian market. Products ranges remained unchanged by the new owners. Tata Motors Limited helped Jaguar Land Rover in transforming operational channels in working with the complete potential (Hicks and Upton, 2010). Tata Motors also boosted the brand value of Jaguar Land Rover in terms of increasing goodwill. The organisation has introduced interactive training and development schedule that helped them in maintaining highly efficient employee base. Currently, they are having international employee base of 32,000 people (Jaguarlandrover.com, 2015). Moreover, their supply chain provides the source of nearly 210,000 UK based vacancy in the automobile segment (Jaguarlandrover.com, 2015). Land Rover is specialised in developing cars like “urban SUV, all-terrain vehicle and off road SUV in the UK. Their major car range is Range Rover, Range Rover Sport, Range Rover Evoque (convertible and nonconvertible), Discovery, New Discovery Sport, Freelander 2, Defender and Special Vehicle Operations” (Landrover.com, 2015). On the other hand, Jaguar producing high end luxury vehicles like Saloon, Sport Brake, Coupé, Convertible and Concept Cars. Such cars are famous among the global customers. These diversified ranges helped them in obtaining proper profit. During the year 2014, company statistics expressed that 381,108 Land Rovers and 81,570 Jaguar were produced during that time (Jaguarlandrover.com, 2015). Financial reports state that revenue reported with growth and amounting £19.386 billion in the financial year 2014. Operating income of the firm reported as £3.393 billion and net income reported £2.501 billion. In addition, total assets of the firm increased to £15.589 billion. Total equity of Jaguar Land Rover reported as £5.864 billion (Jaguarlandrover.com, 2015). In the UK market, there are various luxury and all terrain cars. Jaguar Land Rover is facing huge challenge from the Lexus, Mercedes Benz, Audi, BMW, Ford and Saab. In addition, in the Asian and European market they are facing the challenge of the Volkswagen, Vauxhall, Renault, Toyota, Honda and many other medium-scaled cars (Jaguarlandrover.com, 2015). Intense competition in the UK based automobile market reduces the profitability of the Jaguar Land Rover (MacNeill and Bailey, 2010). Thus, innovation and technology factors are utilised in order to obtain more customer attraction. Jaguar Land Rover is implementing innovative engineering system and attractive design for their cars. Under the ownership of Tata motors, the firm is planning for achieving global growth (Saunders, 2011). They have developed “state-of-the-art manufacturing facility” so that they are able to produce products efficiently (Jaguarlandrover.com, 2015). Research and development strategies are highly used by the firm to develop their products. They are also increasing the allocation of the different EU policies that are going to help in social and environmental sustainability. Answer to Question 3: A Questionnaire to Measure Nationwide Customer Perceptions: Jaguar Land Rover is one of the major car brands in the UK, so, in order to make survey on business position, customer’s expectation judgement is essential. In the current segment, some open ended and close ended questions will be designed to gain insight on the customer’s perception. Following questionnaire will be offered to the customers. Q. 1. Which type of car will you prefer while purchasing any vehicle? Premium all-terrain vehicles Premier luxury sports saloon Sports car marques Hatchback Sports utility vehicle Q. 2. What according to you is the USP of Jaguar Land Rover? Style Price Performance Technology Brand value Q. 3. How will you rank Jaguar Land Rover? Premium high end cars Economic luxury vehicles Q. 4. Which car segment of Jaguar do you prefer most? Saloon SportBrake Coupé Convertible Concept cars Q. 5. Which car of Land Rover is more lucrative? Range Rover Range Rover Sport Range Rover Evoque Discovery New Discovery Sport Freelander 2 Defender Q. 6. Which car brand will you select in order to buy a high end car? Bentley Ford Jaguar Land Rover BMW Lexus Mercedes Benz Audi Ferrari Porsche Aston Martin Lamborghini Q. 7. Which section of Jaguar Land Rover need to be developed to attract more customers? Fuel efficiency Designing Advanced technology Advertisement Q. 8. What do you expect as an innovative strategy from Jaguar Land Rover? Developing small economic cars Commercial vehicles Concept and eco-cars Formula one cars Commercial vehicles From the above mentioned questionnaire, customer perception on different attributes is collected. First question will be helping out in outlining the preference of types of cars. Second question helps to investigate on the customer perception regarding the USP of Jaguar Land Rover. In the third question customers perception regarding economic ranking will be generated. Fourth and fifth questions will be investigating on the car brand of Jaguar and Land Rover individually. Sixth question provides rank of the Jaguar Land Rover in terms of its competitors. On the contrary, sixth question will be collecting the customer perception on the limitations of Jaguar Land Rover. This question will help the management in obtaining an insight on the area of further development. Finally, eighth question will be offering certain innovative strategies that customers accepts as effective enough to increase competency, sustainability and market share in the UK automotive market. Jaguar Land Rover is one of the major high-end vehicles brands, so, customers’ perceptions is crucial to contrast current UK automobile market condition. Answer to Question 4: Selection of Data Collection Approach (Online): In the current study, customer perception research of the Jaguar Land Rover will be done with the help of the online questionnaire. The questionnaire will be distributed via social media pages in Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn (Walker and Tobias, 2005). Such questionnaire and data collection source is useful in terms of obtaining higher response. Mainly, it is more feasible than the face to face, telephonic and postal methods. In the current method, the above mentioned questions will be distributed among the potentials customers. It is the most emerging data collection technique during the last few years. Thus, in the current research online or social media methods are used to outline the Jaguar Land Rover customer perception market research. It is using the technological development feasibly so that the customers are able to respond to the questions effectively (Wells, 2013). It is very easy to design, and conduct survey on the customers of Jaguar Land Rover by using the social media. Such surveys reduce the cost of data collection and features more accuracy in analysis of the collected facts. However, there are certain limitation of the technique in comparison to the conventional methods likes letters, telephone and personal interview. Major advantages and disadvantages will be stated as follows; Advantages: Low costs: Use of social media provides cost effective advantages for conducting the market research. Such survey does not require many representatives, overhead costs and transport cost. Many social media offers free of charges data collection. Moreover, this type of techniques does not involve any recurring cost (Jaguarlandrover.com, 2015). Computerisation and instantaneous access: Such tool or technique of data collection offers the respondents to provide real time data. Manipulative actions are avoided in such techniques. The collected response directly stored in the electronic system. Moreover, it helps in making the analysis of the collected response easy. Responses are stored chronologically, thus, using the customers perception related factors regarding Jaguar Land Rover can be obtained easily through online data collection (Wigley, 2013). Lower amount of time: Online surveys provide instant reach among the respondents, so, such data collection method will be taking least amount of time than the conventional sources. Questionnaire can be distributed among the respondents easily and maximum numbers of respondents can be reached quickly. Convenience for respondents: Respondents can feel more ease in such survey as they can provide their valuable response for the concerned issue. Mainly, social media is gaining popularity among the people irrespective of their age, demographic background and economic capability (SMMT, 2015). Flexibility in research design: Surveys can be redesigned or planned as per the changing customer behaviour. Researcher can cope up with the complex situation. Questionnaire patterns can be changed if the respondents feel complexity. In the Jaguar Land Rover, customers survey is very essential to justify the customers response (SMMT, 2015). Moreover, such data collection technique does not require any interviewer. So, Jaguar Land Rover customers will be providing non-manipulated response. Respondents will not be influenced in any point of the survey process. On the other hand, sharing of personal information will increase as respondents are not interacting with any persons. Jaguar Land Rover customers are normally high end income groups, so, they are concerned for their personal security and safety (Saunders, 2011). However, such data collection process has certain limitation like it could lead to least authenticated data collection. People can give biased response and some time professional and personal fatigue can hamper the survey. Conclusion Form the current study; it has been observed that the UK automobile industry is one of major manufacturing industries in the country. The industry is having huge potentials of growth and profitability. Jaguar Land Rover is the leading UK based automobile company having the various luxuries and all terrain cars. SUV and saloon type cars are having the most popularity among the global customers. The set of the questionnaires are going to help in gaining an insight on customer’s perception regarding Jaguar Land Rover cars and other spare parts they are selling to the clients. Finally, it can be stated that online or social media data collection approach will be helping in obtaining feasible response from existing and potential customers of Jaguar Land Rover. Reference list jaguar.co.uk. 2015. [online] Available at: [Accessed 13 June 2015]. Hicks, J. and Upton, S., 2010. Jaguar Land Rover “transition to high performance” training program. Industrial and Commercial Training, 42(5), pp.247-250. Jaguarlandrover.com, 2015. About Us | Jaguar Land Rover Corporate Website. [online] Available at: [Accessed 13 June 2015]. Kpmg.com, 2015a. The UK Automotive Industry and the EU | KPMG | UK. [online] Available at: [Accessed 13 Jun. 2015]. Kpmg.com, 2015b. The UK Automotive Industry and the EU | KPMG | UK. [online] Available at: [Accessed 13 Jun. 2015]. Landrover.com, 2015. Land Rover 4x4 Vehicles and Luxury SUV. [online] Available at: [Accessed 13 June 2015]. MacNeill, S. and Bailey, D., 2010. Changing policies for the automotive industry in an old industrial region: an open innovation model for the UK West Midlands?. International Journal of Automotive Technology and Management, 10(2), p.128. Saunders, D., 2011. Jaguar Land Rover goes for speed. Strategic HR Review, 10(1), p. 257-258. SMMT, 2015. UK automotive industry & sector | SMMT. [online] Available at: [Accessed 13 Jun. 2015]. Walker, D. and Tobias, A., 2005. Would the UK automotive industry benefit from entering the European Monetary Union? A drive too far? Strat. Change, 14(6), pp.327-335. Wells, P., 2013. Sustainable business models and the automotive industry: A commentary. IIMB Management Review, 25(4), pp.228-239. Wigley, A., 2013. Considering mobile learning? A case study from Jaguar Land Rover. Development and Learning in Organizations, 27(4), pp.12-14. Read More