Global product development at Magnus Automobiles Limited

Abstract

“Arsene Wenger wore a very satisfied smile after his favorite team, Arsenal, winning against Dortmund in the second leg of the Champions league group stage game. On another day this would have made his day for Rajesh who was an ardent fan of Arsenal. Today it brought no more than a sigh of relief because of the contemplations regarding the Annual General Meeting scheduled in next two weeks and the proceedings attached to the same occupying his mind. Rajesh was the MD of Magnus Automobiles India Limited. He joined the Indian Division of European Automobile giant after his long stint with one of the top consulting firm. His leadership skills with previous firms had earned his place as Managing Diector of the newly established Magnus Automobiles India Limited. He was planning to meet the top management of Magnus Automobiles Ltd with a proposal to start new research and development facility for new product on E-bikes in India. Magnus Automobiles Ltd had a Global Development Centre which developed products in the electric bike category for European market. However the products had to be customized for the developing markets due to different customer needs. He had many questions occupying his mind and the critical among them was whether to go for a research and development facility in India or not. If the research and development facility was set in one of these countries, how much of work would be done in these facilities in the product development of an E-Bike. E-bike market in India and China were booming at a faster pace than one could imagine and a decision of setting up a product development center in one of these countries was time critical and Rajesh knew this. But this would require an entire organization restructuring and investment in new facilities. As the company was looking for growth opportunities, it would be difficult for Rajesh to convince the top management in the Annual General Meeting for an investment”