It’s an odd day for public opinion when people get all concerned about UK household names like Jaguar and Land Rover being sold off to Tata, a business from an emerging economy which just happens to be part of what used to be the British Empire.
Especially odd when it’s being sold by an already foreign owner that was once the epitome of production line manufacturing - and also happens to be based in one of Britain’s old colonies.
But of course if you look at old maps long enough you will come to the conclusion that
a) it doesn’t really matter and b) as long as though a business owner produces consistent
returns and rates of growth, the brand will remain secure.
And if you buy enough stuff over the internet for long enough you’ll also realise that
economic models of perfect competition - where all price information is known - are perhaps
more real now than they ever were in the days of Keynsian theorists.
Back to ownership, consider this. A few years ago the United States wished to secure the tenure of its London Embassy by purchasing the freehold.
They duly approached the Duke of Westminster, who being not short of a few quid, agreed to consider the sale, conditionally, upon return of his family’s new world estates that were illegally confiscated in 1776.
Apparently the State Department didn’t get back to him. Neither did the American Indians, native to those estates. See what happens if you go back far enough?
2 comments so far
1 Raj // Mar 27, 2008 at 8:51 am
Wow! This caught me off guard really… Tata’s the Indian Prancing horse, Prancing all over Europe….
2 Raj // Mar 27, 2008 at 8:54 am
Also, as you said, the fact that India’s a ex-colony brit colony doesn’t really matter here, what matters is the question that will Tata Motors be able to turn it around for the ailing Jaguar Brand, time will answer this question, we need to wait and watch…