'Voice of customers' fuels Jaguar Land Rover China

Jaguar Land Rover Ltd signed a memorandum of understanding with Jaguar Land Rover Automobile Trading (Shanghai) Co on vehicle sales in December 2013 during British Prime Minister David Cameron's visit to China. [Photos provided to China Daily]

Value for employees

Such initiatives have also won the support of Jaguar Land Rover employees, who take pride in participating and promoting such events. This is thanks to the company's efforts to increase employee ownership by showing staff that they are greatly valued assets.

A loving father of five children, Grace shared that he feels a similar sense of responsibility towards his employees. He takes it upon himself to ensure that the company offers various programs that cultivate talent and advance the career paths of each member of the Jaguar Land Rover China family.

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The company thus espouses a "Perfect Balance" philosophy for its employees, making use of career development tools like MBA and overseas assignment programs, as well as an employee development committee.

Sustainable growth

Looking forward, Grace continues to assert the importance of aiming for sustainable growth in China, emphasizing a customer-centric approach in doing so.

"My goal is to make sure that we have such a business model for Jaguar Land Rover and our dealer partners, which allows us to give our customers the best possible experience when they buy the car, and more importantly, when they own the car," said Grace.

A vital part of its long-term development strategy in China, the joint venture between Jaguar Land Rover and Chery is making good progress and is set for completion this year.

Grace said the joint venture will empower the company to "build vehicles in China, for China" and become its first ever, all-new manufacturing facility outside the UK.

"I think by the middle of this year, we should start to see the first stages of the prototype production happening in our Changshu facility," Grace revealed.