By Professor David Bailey
2nd December 2025

Too bold for Jaguar?
The designer who dared to reinvent a legend.

 JLR’s abrupt removal of its long-serving chief designer Gerry McGovern, reportedly escorting him out with immediate effect, has sent shockwaves through the automotive world. McGovern wasn’t a background executive. For over two decades, he had been the most influential and visionary creative force inside JLR. He shaped everything from the rebirth of the Defender to the modern Range Rover line-up and, most recently, Jaguar’s radical reinvention as a fully electric luxury brand.

His sudden departure was thus much more than a routine management reshuffle. It was the symbolic end of an era and a clear signal that JLR’s bold experiment in transformation is wobbling under commercial and cultural pressure, with owner Tata looking to exert more control.

McGovern joined JLR in 2004 and steadily rose to become Chief Creative Officer, a role rare in its reach and power. He helped elevate Land Rover from a respected off-road brand into an international symbol of modern luxury. Vehicles like the Evoque, Velar, the refined Range Rover refreshes, and the widely acclaimed new Defender all carry his design stamp. Think muscular proportions, minimalist elegance, and meticulously crafted interiors. For Land Rover, his vision delivered commercial success and brand reinvention.

Jaguar, however, was a far harder case. By the start of the 2020s the marque was struggling. Sales were falling, its model range looked dated, and the brand itself felt confused, caught awkwardly between sporty heritage, executive luxury, and mid-market competition. McGovern decided that the problem wasn’t superficial but rather existential. He set about nothing less than a total reinvention for Jaguar.

His plan was breathtaking in its scope. Jaguar would abandon combustion engines entirely and relaunch as an all-electric luxury brand. Its future cars would be repositioned not as rivals to BMW and Mercedes but as alternatives to the likes of Bentley, echoing the halcyon days of the e-type and XJ of old. Prices would rise, production volumes would shrink, and brand identity would be rebuilt from scratch. Jaguar would no longer sell traditional cars so much as sell a new vision of modern luxury.

This strategy reached the public in the 2024–25 rebrand, an overhaul that replaced the familiar leaping cat imagery and understated British cues with playful logos, vibrant colours, fashion-style advertising and slogans like “Copy Nothing” and “Live Vivid.” The transformation aimed to disconnect Jaguar from nostalgia and reposition it as bold, avant-garde and culturally forward-looking.

The public response was immediate and fiercely divided. Some praised the bravery, seeing Jaguar as finally breaking free from safe design and bland marketing. But for many loyal customers and enthusiasts the reaction was hostile.

Critics accused the brand of turning its back on decades of heritage and emotional identity in favour of something vague, corporate and trend-chasing. Online reactions were often scathing. Even President Trump weighed in. Where Jaguar wanted a conversation, it found controversy. This was not a great foundation for a premium relaunch built on emotional aspiration.

 More concerning for JLR, though, was what happened internally. Reports surfaced that Jaguar’s own design team had not been fully on board with how the rebrand unfolded. Much of the identity work, such as logos, typography, and advertising direction, had allegedly been outsourced to external agencies rather than developed entirely in-house.  According to leaked accounts, dozens of designers objected, arguing that the new visual identity felt detached from the vehicles themselves, and was too playful, too shallow, and lacking the seriousness they associated with Jaguar’s DNA.

Design teams reportedly felt sidelined, morale weakened, and trust frayed. In a business where creative cohesion is essential, this internal disquiet was a dangerous development. No matter how compelling a design vision appears on paper, it collapses if those tasked with bringing it to life no longer believe in it.

Even with controversy swirling, McGovern’s position might have remained secure had leadership at the very top stayed constant. But late 2025 brought a crucial shift. A new CEO arrived, PB Balajifrom parent company Tata Motors, sent in to exert more control over JLR.

New CEOs often bring new priorities and tighter scrutiny, especially toward large, risky initiatives. Jaguar’s reboot was exactly that. It is an expensive long-term gamble at a moment when the company was already under commercial strain (and this was before the cyberattack). JLR’s investments in electrification were immense, while Jaguar’s existing model range was being wound down to prepare for the EV transition. Brand perception was uncertain, internal morale was unsettled, and the public response to the rebrand was more negative than had been hoped for.

From a business standpoint, the picture was troubling.  The brand narrative was controversial rather than inspiring unity. And the entire strategy rested on future products that had yet to prove themselves in the market. In this climate, corporate belief matters everything, and confidence appeared to be faltering.

Against that backdrop, McGovern became the focal point when the new boss arrived. He was the public and internal champion of Jaguar’s radical new direction. Whether or not his vision was correct no longer mattered if executive and shareholder trust began to wobble. Just days into the new CEO’s tenure, McGovern was abruptly removed.

The timing strongly suggests that this was about a strategic reset. New leadership wanted clarity, perhaps caution, and certainly greater control. Removing the architect of Jaguar’s most ambitious gamble gave management room to recalibrate without openly admitting doubts about the wider plan.

Behind closed doors, the decision likely rested on several overlapping pressures: rising backlash to the rebrand damaging public perception; internal dissent undermining confidence in the creative process; leadership change prompting strategic reassessment; and unease about the financial risk tied to an untested transformation. Let’s be clear: McGovern did not lose his job because he failed. Rather he lost it because belief in the scale of the gamble he represented weakened at the very top.

His departure does not mean Jaguar will abandon electrification. That path is set. But it likely signals a shift in tone. Future leadership may soften the extremes of Jaguar’s new image, reconnecting more clearly with brand heritage while still pushing toward a premium electric future. Greater creative power may be returned to in-house designers rather than external branding agencies, rebuilding morale and authenticity. Styling may become more conservative and less polarising, prioritising broad acceptance rather than provocative statement-making. Commercial practicality may weigh more heavily against conceptual boldness.

In hindsight, McGovern’s biggest mistake was not that he was wrong but in being early and too uncompromising. Jaguar very clearly needed change, and incremental evolution may not have been enough. On that he was spot on. But reinvention demands patience, unity, and tolerance for risk, qualities that are harder to summon in times of tightening budgets and leadership upheaval. McGovern pursued transformation at full throttle just as the corporate appetite for such risk began to fade.

Ultimately, this episode says less about one designer’s vision than it does about the fragile balance between creativity and corporate survival. Legacy brands must evolve, but evolution becomes revolution at the point where heritage is perceived to be discarded rather than reinterpreted. Jaguar crossed that line for too many people whether customers, staff, and perhaps executives alike.

The sacking of Gerry McGovern marks not just the end of a brilliant two-decade creative tour de force at JLR, but also huge pivot point for Jaguar itself. The brand will remain electric. But what’s less certain is how bold, how playful, and how detached from its heritage that vision will be. Rebellion appears to have given way to recalibration.

In business, visionaries are tolerated only as long as executives and shareholders believe in the risk. Once belief wobbles, even the most powerful visionaries can be swept aside.  

McGovern will be back in the industry. He is one of the most gifted designers of his generation.

But what’s next for Jaguar?

Professor David Bailey is Professor of Business Economics at the Birmingham Business School.