It could be termed as a rather unusual marriage. How
else can one define a $40-45 million Tata Technologies' acquisition (in 2005) of
$130 million UK-based company Incat?
More than third its size in terms of valuation! Yet the union seems to bearing
fruits. Tata Technologies is leveraging Incat's global presence, while Incat is
benefiting from Tata Technologies vast resource pool.
Things seem to have settled down after the acquisition in 2005 and there seems
to be a renewed focus in the company's approach. Part of it, was the debut of
Incat in India.
Shashwat Chaturvedi from CyberMedia News spoke to Patrick McGoldrick, chief
executive officer and managing director, Tata Technologies, on the latest moves
by the company, and other such issues. McGoldrick is an industry veteran with
over three decades of experience. He joined the Tata Group in 1981 and is a
founder director of Tata Technologies. Excerpts.
How is the engineering and design (E&D) market evolving?
E&D market has now matured substantially and is on the
verge of taking off. Theoretically speaking, it is at the same inflection point
say when Infosys stood at Rs. 1000 crore. There is a lot of action happening,
and we see lot more demand coming in for E&D services from auto and airline
majors. The E&D offshore market is expected to be around $5 billion in 2010, we
hope to garner around 10 per cent of that market pie, say approximately $500
million.
How has the Incat acquisition helped?
Customers today not only demand superior quality of work but also intimacy and
understanding. So when a Daimler Chrysler asks for a door-closer, one must know
that it quite different from the door-closer used by say General Motors. These
minute differences can be quite a critical factor for the success of a company.
Incat over the years has been working with all these global auto and aerospace
majors and they have an understanding going with them. With the acquisition,
Tata Technologies has acquired all that domain expertise, customer intimacy and
global presence in a single swoop and we both have benefited from this move.
Why have you retained Incat as a brand name?
Post acquisition, during our interactions with the clients, we received a mix
feedback. While they were quite happy and buoyant at the prospects of working
with Tata company, but they were of the view that since Incat was quite a global
brand name, why change it? After much deliberation, we decided to retain it.
There is often the debate about the threat from China to the Indian market.
Your views.
My views are quite on the contrary. While everything is going quite well for
China at the moment, they have great infrastructure, etc. But they have also
implemented population control and not much democracy. This might work in
India's favor in the coming years. With its highly educated talent pool, India
will be a force to reckon with in the future.
How is your association with Tata Motors?
It is very strong indeed, Tata Motors was our parent company and is still a
highly valued customer. We have been associated with all the projects of Tata
Motors.
Even Ratan Tata's much touted Rs. 1 lakh car?
Yes. We have been involved with that as well.
So when will it see the light of the day?
We do not have any control on that aspect, just involved in design and
development.
What are the future plans for Tata Technologies?
Currently, we are some 3000 people strong and we have aggressive plans for the
coming days. We already have development centers in India, U.S., Germany and are
mulling over a few other options. We are also open to acquiring more companies
that complement us. All said and done, we are quite ambitious and would not shy
away from taking bold steps.
© CyberMedia News