Ratan Tata, chairman of India's Tata Group, spoke at his alma mater of Cornell in June, 2009, saying he would bring his Nano, billed as the world's cheapest car, to the U.S. in two years. That was one month before its introduction in India.

Bare bones don't begin to describe the Nano; there is no heater, and passengers are surrounded by painted metal. With its 35-horsepower engine and top speed of 65 miles per hour.




But fast forward to NOW, it's been a rough season for Tata Motors' much-publicized "people's car," the Nano. In November, while overall auto sales in India's booming economy rose more than 22%, Tata sold only 509 Nanos, down precipitously from the 9,000 it sold the previous July, news that's been trumpeted in disparaging headlines from New York to Sydney.

The origins of the Tata Nano famously trace to Tata Group Chairman Ratan Tata's observing a family crammed unsafely onto a scooter. He asked a question, "How do we make a modern automobile affordable to the scooter customer?"


A cheap car that's not really cheap. A safe car whose safety has been questioned. A poor people's car that poor people aren't buying. That sounds like a failure, certainly. Could it have ended differently if Ratan Tata had asked a different question? What about something along the lines of, "How do we create a safe, affordable scooter?

Adapted from Scott Antony, http://blogs.hbr.org/anthony/20...f_the_right_questio.html