Jaguar World Magazine E-TYPE vs F-TYPE Zurück Ausgabe

He might have left Jaguar 23 years ago but when Sir John Egan, the company's chairman between 1980 and 1990, gave his speech at this year’s Andrew Whyte Lecture you could have heard a pin drop. Captivating us all with tales of his time at Jaguar during the 1980s, hearing how close we came to losing the company was shocking.
Yet for me the defining moment of his career at Jaguar came when a Ford
executive made an unexpected appointment to see Sir John at his Browns Lane office. With little in the way of an introduction, the executive began by saying Ford wanted to buy Jaguar. "When I replied it wasn't for sale," remembered John, "I was told simply, 'we have seven billion dollars in the bank. Everything is for sale.'" After almost a decade of hard work, Jaguar was beginning to look attractive to a larger organisation.
But while Sir John acknowledged the buyout helped to secure
Jaguar's future, he also said Ford doesn't understand what it takes to
run individual companies, wanting instead to homogenise everything.
When asked what Sir John thought of current owner Tata,
he made an interesting point. Since the Indian-based giant has financial interests in companies as diverse as steel works and hotels, it
understands the importance of autonomy. As a result Jaguar has become very successful over the last few years. It was reported in November 2013 that Jaguar Land Rover's half-year profi ts were over one billion pounds for first time in its history. Cars such as the Range Rover Evoque, XF Sportbrake and F-TYPE are part of the reason why. Another is a newly found confi dence in everything the company does that's attracting attention beyond publications such as this. The excitement surrounding the F-TYPE Coupe launch in Los Angeles via all media forms was clear evidence of this.