Girish Wagh to lead Tata Motors’ Commercial Vehicle Unit

Within a few days of Ravindra Pisharody quitting the top job, Tata Motors has appointed Girish Wagh to lead the commercial vehicles business of the company. The company said in a statement that Girish Wagh will take the charge of new role with immediate effect and will work with Ravi Pisharody for smooth transition.

Girish Wagh, 46, besides taking the charge of commercial vehicle business unit, has also been appointed as the member of the executive committee. The warhorse behind the development of two key projects of the company the Tata Nano and Tata Ace micro truck, Wagh’s appointment is part of company’s internal restructuring.

The official announcement of Girish Wagh as head of medium and heavy commercial vehicle product line will be announced at the right time. Meanwhile, he will continue studying the nature of new job. Ravi Pisharody served for almost 10 years and the abrupt resignation caught the industry completely off guard, especially when his tenure was extended a few months back. His main challenges were mainly on two fronts, tight noose competition and repeated slowdown in sales.

In the past seven years, the severe competition and entry of new players like Volvo, Daimler, Scania, Man and the advancement of traditional opponents Ashok Leyland, Mahindra & Mahindra and Eicher Motors has resulted Tata Motors share fall record high. Where seven years back Tata Motors was holding the majority of market share about 58 percent, in last fiscal this dropped to nearly 43 percent.

However, Wagh would find it difficult to turn things around at Tata Motors, especially when the share of the company in the medium and heavy truck space continues to decline. Although, Wagh’s immense experience in product development and engineering will open a whole new range of possibilities for the company.