News of the abrupt departure of JLR chief creative officer Gerry McGovern elicits feelings of both shock and long expectation, depending which group of commentators you consult.
Reasons for the shock are clear enough: McGovern was given a huge amount of control over the “reimagination” of Jaguar when former CEO Thierry Bollore arrived to give shape to a rescue plan at the back end of 2020. What’s shocking is that McGovern’s close connection with the first reimagined model should be summarily severed merely months from its much-heralded public debut.
The expectation faction’s arguments are also easy to follow: Apparently unbidden, McGovern assumed a remarkable degree of autocratic control over not only the new Jaguars’ designs but over many aspects of car creation that designers don’t usually control: publicity, advertising, brand development, timing, public statements and much more. No-one inside the business seemed to have the intestinal fortitude to take him on, but many of those involved began to assume that such a situation was bound to cause festering resentments – and to end with a bang.
When PB Balaji, a new and deeply financially literate new CEO recently arrived at JLR from the very core of the parent company, Tata Group, many (not least the outspoken Indian financial press) believed his first mission would be to bring JLR (and McGovern) to heel.
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The conservative managers of the parent company hadn’t much enjoyed the adventurous, bizarre and often disastrously adverse publicity that had surrounded the reveal of the original Concept 00, and the re-shaping of a fine old brand that went with that.