Thierry Bollore, the former Renault CEO who took the wheel at Jaguar Land Rover in September, last week ripped the covers off his new global strategy. If his plan is successful, JLR will shrink and grow at the same time — and build a stronger identity for troubled Jaguar.
The shrinkage will come from fewer nameplates and lower volume for Jaguar. JLR is abandoning its goal of 1 million global sales per year, a strategy put in place by Bollore's predecessor, Ralf Speth, who stepped down last fall from the CEO role and now is nonexecutive vice chairman. The company also announced last week that it is shrinking its global salaried work force by 2,000 employees.
JLR's growth will come in efficiencies gained from producing its vehicles on fewer architectures and deriving more revenue per vehicle by selling connected services and from subscriptions. "As a business we will be focused on value creation, on delivering quality and profits over volume," Bolllore said as he laid out his "Reimagine" strategy aimed at steering JLR into the zero-emissions era.