DaimlerChrysler India CEO and MD Hans-Michael Huber is bullish on the company's India operations and targets a growth of about 10 - 15 per cent this fiscal.
The company announced its fifth Mercedes Golf Trophy in Pune recently, the first rounds of which tees off in Mumbai's Willingdon Club today (14 January).
On the sidelines of the press conference to announce the launch, indiantelevision.com's Hetal Adesara caught up with Huber for a t?te-?-t?te.
Excerpts:
DaimlerChrysler has been associated with golf for the last four years. What are the other sports that the company has been associated with? We are not involved with any other sport. If you ask me why specifically golf, it is because first of all golf is THE sport that is typical for our select group of customers and they enjoy it. Also, golf is an ideal means to spend time together and have a good time. It is a communicative sport and has an ideal mix of entertainment and competition. By the end of the tournament, we spend a lot of time with our customers and they in turn spend a lot of time with each other. So, these are our two different approaches. |
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How important a market India is to you as compared to the rest of the world? |
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Can you put a number to DaimlerChrysler India's growth rate in the last couple of years? |
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In the luxury car segment in India, what's your take on competition? Otherwise, I am very convinced that ours is the best car in the world. Right now, we are the only premium manufacturer assembling cars here with a full fledge dealer network. Among the group of competitors that we have worldwide, we are the only ones who have successfully set up operations in India 10 years ago. What I imply is that we are here and the rest are yet to come. That's the difference. There will definitely be more competition coming up, but that has yet to happen. |
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What's on the agenda for 2005 as far as India is concerned? The challenge thereby is to continue the quality of what we do; the quality not only of the product but also of the services that we render and of the dealer networks. Hence our focus this year will be to focus on continued profitable growth and providing quality services to our customers. |
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Are there any new car launches in the near future? |
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I believe DaimlerChrysler has launched an eco-friendly car… |
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Out of all your models, which one is doing the best in India? |
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What is your take on Indian Formula 1? For us it would be a big thing to have it here. But we should not underestimate the challenge of hosting a Formula 1 race. The challenge is not only to develop a Formula 1 circuit but also to develop the infrastructure in such a city - from the airport to the roads to the hotels. F1 would be a big boost to any city in India but at the same time it will be quite a challenge. It would be great to have it but we should be aware of what it means. |
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This is the fifth year that DaimlerChrysler is hosting the Mercedes Golf Trophy. What are your expectations this year? |
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Are you contemplating expansion of this tournament to other Indian cities ? But that will take some time as we are a small company. We carry a big brand name but we are still small and making this event in four cities is quite a challenge. It's not only the money but also the logistics. |
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Will there be any advertising stints that DaimlerChrysler will be undertaking this year in India? We always maintain a certain presence in the ads but compared to what other people are doing, this is rather low key. And like I said before, we have a very select customer base and we know them to the extent that we can talk to them individually. So we can either spend the money on a TV campaign or we can invite our customers to a day of golfing. And we'd rather go for the latter. |