Movin’ on up III
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The Ritz is now the Taj. How you like them Tatas? (courtesy of bunkosquad) |
This month, ailing luxury brands turned up their noses at a wealthy Indian buyer:
‘I don’t believe the public is ready for Jaguar ownership out of India’[Ken Gorin, chairman of the Jaguar Business Operations Council:] “I don’t believe the U.S. public is ready for [Jaguar] ownership out of India… I believe it would severely throw a tremendous cast of doubt over the viability of the brand… There are a number of subjective items that create the luster of a brand… I don’t think we could have a Chinese-owned Jaguar…” [Link]
[Orient-Express Hotels to Taj Hotels:] “We believe any association of our luxury brands… with your brands… would result in a reduction in the value of our brands… and… erosion in the… premiums… achieved by our properties.” [Link]
A year ago, the same thing happened in steel:
Dollé, the Arcelor chief… [described] Mittal Steel… as a “group of less- than-average” businesses that would pay for Arcelor “in monkey money,” a French colloquial expression that denotes worthlessness but that left itself open to more racially charged interpretations. [Link]
But Tatas and ‘Taj’ are hardly associated with penury:
If Jaguar could retain an upscale image after 18 years of being associated with… the Ford Taurus, it’s pretty well impervious to debasement. And if Indian brands are such poison to luxury properties, how does the Trump Taj Mahal manage to survive? … Dependent on… foreign central banks to buy our government debt, we have become imperial beggars. [Link]
Indian papers lashed back: A century later, the Tatas bought the successor to British Steel
Maharajas ruled long before Viceroys did… This is close to racism, barely camouflaged in the language of branding… Last year, Vijay Mallya’s bid for the French champagne company, Tattinger, was turned down on the ground that the French cachet of the brand would be hurt… When Arab financiers are needed to rescue Citigroup, notions of white cachet seem ludicrous. [Link]
When Jamsetji Tata… proposed making steel for the… Indian railways… a colonial administrator, scoffed… “Do you mean to say that Tatas propose to make steel rails to British specifications? … I will undertake to eat every pound of steel rail they succeed in making.” A century later, the Tatas [bought]… the successor to British Steel. [Link]
The movies said it best, expressing the inexorable economic progress of a nation unchained:
Doc: No wonder this circuit failed. It says ‘Made in Japan.’
Marty: What do you mean, Doc? All the best stuff is made in Japan.
Doc: Unbelievable.
on Tuesday, December 18th, 2007, 11:49 pm in Business, Economics, Issues › 
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I, for one, welcome our new desi Maharajas.
(clue : http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/000399.html)
Fergie did weight loss commercials in the U.S., Prince Charles considered the advantages of being reincarnated as a tampon. I am pretty sure that snuffed out the majesty and mystery of the British brand. “Jagoowah” must submit to Tipu’s tiger
Lost in the hubbub, are some big questions no one’s asking.
Why are folks at Tata ruining their reputation by associating w/ one of the worst luxury cars in the market?
Should Judas Priest re-remaster their album and release it as Tata Steel?
This may be beside the point, but: in 2006-7 I had the extreme good fortune to stay in a handful of Taj hotels in India and three Hiltons in the UK (including the former Conrad in London), and I’d take a Taj any day. I even started using “taj” as an adjective to mean posh or decadent. It’s a damn fine product, and one hopes the various forces market will note that.
Speaking of treating one’s servants badly, one should look no further than the Taj. All the
worst characteristics of the British Raj period are celebrated :
- The darker your skin the worse your position.
- Only the fair and lovely to interact with hotel guests please.
- The overlord treatment of menial workers.
- Unsafe and unsanitary conditions for sewage handling.
- Foul and waste the water resources with impunity (see the recent charges in Bangalore).
This is probably par for the course in India, especially those catering to the Gori crowd.
VV Varaiya: There is something to what you say, but I am not sure if it is due to Taj’s hiring policy or an unavoidable outcome in a country where caste=class=background= facility with English. I will say that the way high end properties in India treats Indian guests has improved significantly. over the past 15 years Before I felt that they would go to sickening levels to ingratiate themselves with white guests while treating people of Indian ethnicity second class. But now that business is booming and the status of the Indian business elite is on the rise that has changed. But I hear you, I am much darker than any of the customer facing staff at the Taj (in Mumbai or Delhi at least) and would like to see more Indians who look like me (i.e. and by extension the vast majority of desis) so I can know that luxury doesn’t come with a side order of internalized racism
Eep. Now I’m feeling really ignorant. Those are good points that I have to admit I thought very little about. I thought about them at other times during my travels around India, and I had moments of being pretty sure I was being treated a certain way based on my skin color, but they never occurred to me in the hotels. I was on the shabby end of the guest list, for sure, and I just assumed the other guests were in fact business or otherwise luxury-style travelers and not just pretending like I was - and that they were receiving the same treatment I was.
Louiecypher: See below about the advantages of light skin in India. Because of socialist laws making evictions near-impossible, this is still true in Bombay– they want foreigners, or want to write 11-month-only leases, because Indian and 12 months means you damn near own the flat.
On the other hand, if you’re shopping or touring, better to pass as a native.
Manish: But is the example above more about nationality than skin color ? I can understand why a landlord would not want to lease to an Indian citizen, whether he is Kashmiri white or black like me, because of these stupid tenant’s rights laws. As an Indian-American would I have trouble if I started the conversation with “I am American and here is my passport” ? I’m referring to skin color advantages for guests and potential employees due to irrational behavior (i.e. internalized racism/colorism) in the hospitality sector
Beyond the eviction advantage, I’m not sure– maybe they assumed light skin = wealthier = better credit risk.
Anyway, back on topic. Read any American lit from the 50s & 60s and Japanese radios are a sign of indigence, very different from today. The Koreans are going up the prestige chain rapidly.. India and China are taking a different approach, pbly because they did not have a significant domestic market to cut their teeth with until recently, why build a brand when you can buy it? Anyone who has been to India knows that locally developed brands like Jet Air & Taj have sterling reps, but abroad I’m sure it comes as a bit of a surprise
Yup, I think Japan is very analogous. My dad’s ‘77 Toyota Corolla was low-end, though it lasted for ages. Now they’ve backed Cadillac into a corner with Lexus.
As a middle-class ABD the celebration of servility by Taj was uncomfortable for me. I don’t need 4 people to help get into a taxi when I’m carrying a laptop to go to work.
The food is certainly amazing in these places.
VV: I hear you as another ABD. I guess it’s because most middle class Indians in India are used to having some domestic help. Here in the US, the upper middle may have nannys for short amounts of time but cooks/drivers/maids are the just for the very rich. As a result we ABDs find it too intrusive.
Louie: It is true I’m not used to servants, maids. linen-managers, drivers, valets, doormen, chambermaids, hostesses or butlers — all of whom fawned over me in my 4 week stay at the Taj chain. It made my skin crawl. I felt like an overwhelmed ticket dispenser at a country fair giving out rupee notes.
I have a different question — what does India manufacture really well? I’m speaking of a complex physical device requiring precision manufacturing and design. A valid criticism is that Indian manufacturing isn’t mature. Theory, math & software India does well, but the stuff you can kick — it’s not at the same level.
Had the criticism been couched in these terms, I think it would be more palatable.
Why does Malaysia have a circuit fab and not India?
India has not been able to attract “in house” fabs from Intel etc because they have not been able to provide competitive responses to bids. More autocratic or homogeneous nations like Malaysia are able to readily respond to requests for tax holidays, power supply etc. The wonderful democracy that we have allows for 5th columns like CPI to monkeywrench our bid responses in parliament with ridiculous statements to the effect “Intel is an evil American monopolist that we must resist, our super duper commie youth will build a better CPU”. Then the next question is why not a contract fab….I think the answer here is that India has missed the window of opportunity and there is enough capacity in Taiwan, Singapore etc.
In terms of more complex mfg, we don’t have anything innovative. But I hope that we will learn from Nokia, Ford and other mfg ops that have setup shop in Chennai.
VV,
What may have annoyed your sensibilities at the Taj hotels is employment for many people that pay much better than other jobs in India. I actually saw similar things in the new grocery stores in India, where there was staff to bag your groceries and carry it to your car, I am not sure if I will term it intrusive but definitely saw it as increased employment.
I have had that done to me at Ukrops too (in the US).
OVerall that kind of thing makes me uncomfortable as well (though I am a DBD), but it is ultimately a cultural thing. Indians are much more used to domestic help. A parallel example might be the American dependence on cars. My first roommate in the US was an ABD. I remember his car broke down, and he’d rather eat out all the time than walk with groceries from the store (around a mile away), which I had no problem doing. At that time I charted up to American ’softness’, but I am wiser now.
I could never get used to the maid/driver/cook routine in Bombay. ‘How do you keep your place clean?’ people asked. ‘With a mop,’ I replied. They gave me the stinkeye.
I disagree. I think the pharma industry has a fair bt of manufacturing innovation. also, Isnt there a fair bit of local engineering at work in the likes of C-DOT, ISRO, BEL, BHEL, Tata motors, etc? It isnt a rhetorical question. I do not have a firm handle on how much of it is local versus imported.
btw - this isnt necessarily a bad thing that the country prefers to import goods rather than try and do everything from soup to nuts. heck, look down at your crotch yaar and check out the ubiquitous YKK - the Japanese really have everyone by the nuts. the more important question to me is, are there any design shops in India.
what do you think?
khoofia: I was thinking about mfg, not pharma. There is some process innovation in the production of generics from what I hear, I’m not in this sector. C-DOT sells kits at the board level that can be assembled by hand by the licensee, we aren’t talking about a significant amount of jobs. ISRO is launch vehicles & satellites, does not contribute to large scale`civilian job growth. Manufacturing is critical to creating the job base India needs to advance, otherwise we should be content to having a tiny 1st world in a massive 3rd world. This is not directed at you, but it boggles the mind when Indians brag about having skipped the industrial age and gone straight to the knowlege economy.
Tata group asks for apology, files complaint with the SEC
Generic pharmaceutical manufacturing has a decent reputation — many Indian-manufactured generics are widely distributed in South America. The article in SepiaMutiny a week ago by Scott M commented on India’s illegal manufacturing of high-quality human skeletons which China couldn’t match — doesn’t sound plausible that China couldn’t match Indian manufacturing. China is a world leader in soft tissue transplantation, and they can’t assemble skeletons?
Military equipment manufacturing in India supposedly has much better standards. They basically monitor the production line until it meets the specs… is there a blogger with some insight?
Driving in India is hazardous, drivers are experienced professionals. Plus the public have a lynch mob mentality, if you hit some thing you might get beaten up badly before you can even see the damage. Compared to the west where you call up cops and exchange insurance information. Having a driver helps because the passengers never get beaten up. You have people sleeping on the roads at night in parts of Bombay, you don’t want to run over anyone and get in trouble. That’s why you hire people.