Reimagining Reimagine
IT WAS genuinely surprising when Thierry Bolloré stepped down as Jaguar Land Rover’s CEO in December 2022 due to ‘personal reasons’. Not only had he been in the job for just over two years but after spending the previous eight at Renault – alongterm specialist in electric cars, an area JLR is desperate to move into – it made his appointment in September 2020 a perfect fit.
Although he’ll no doubt be replaced (chief financial officer, Adrian Mardell, is already the interim CEO) running a company as large as JLR is similar to steering an oil tanker and decisions from the top can often take a long time to filter down.
Take Bolloré’s ‘Reimagine’ strategy, a bold but much-needed plan that proposes to make JLR more profitable, sustainable and transform Jaguar into an ‘all-electric luxury brand’ by 2025. Although announced in February 2021, other than production of the F-Type coming to end later this year, we’ve yet to see any tangible results of this.
All CEOs like to stamp their authority on a business so will the next CEO stick with Bolloré’s original plan or reimagine Reimagine? Cited by many as the last roll of the dice for Jaguar, the new way of thinking introduced by Reimagine is much needed if the brand is to survive beyond the next decade.
With its already old range becoming less and less relevant, Jaguar doesn’t have the time for a new CEO to work on their own plan. It needs change and it needs it now.
JAGUAR DOESN’T HAVE THE TIME FOR A NEW CEO TO WORK ON THEIR OWN PLAN
I’m sure Reimagine wasn’t all Bolloré’s work, though, and that it was a board decision meaning the company will stay the course set by its former captain. As Mr Chandrasekaran, chairman of Jaguar Land Rover, said as
