HIS YEARS AS TATA GROUP CHAIRMAN
I was wearing the boots of a person who a legend, and I asked myself, what should I do? And, I decided, the worst thing I could do was to copy him or be him, because I could never be J.R.D Tata. So what I should do is just be myself, operate on the values that I had in me anyway, and do whatever I though was right for the someone who is my carbon copy. That would be wrong.
From 1962 onwards, my life has been about living in different tata organizations in different positions. Each of these experiences has had its attributes, its pulls and pressures.
It hasn’t felt like a job; it’s been more like a personal issue. It hasn’t been for money and it hasn’t been for money and it hasn’t been for visibility. It’s just been the challenge and, to a great extent, the passion…
I kept saying, please question the unquestionable. I tried to tell our younger mangers, ‘Don’t just accept something that was done in the past, don’t accept something as a holy cow. Go question it.’ That was less of a problem than getting our senior managers not to tell the younger managers, ‘look, young man, don’t question me.’
Without being critical, it is true that many of our companies had their heads in the sand and were resting on past glories. In the course of time, the view gained ground that we were less nimble than others, more resistant to change and more set in our ways. What we needed to do, of course, was benchmark ourselves against the best, get away from doing things the way we were, and put certain processes in place.
There was a need to refocus and look at how your customer sees you, and to pay more attention to what the customer wants, rather than what you think she wants. Are you really the most- effective producer? Are you aggressive enough to grab market share? Will you endeavour to dip your toe in the water and do something that you haven’t done before?
We haven’t been successful or innovative enough.
Sacrifices, loyalty and individual acts of heroism will always remain in my memory in my memory to reinforce the great sense of pride I have in having been a member of this team.
THE TATA WAY
All companies need to keep looking at their business definition and possibly from time to time, see if that needs to be redefined. For example, at Tata steel they could say they are a steel company and find themselves in a shrinking market where steel is under threat of being replaced by some other material. The question is: what do we call ourselves? One view was that steel is a material, so can we be a materials company? We don’t have to be in all materials, but can we be in composites, can we be in plastics, laminates, etc? The automotive business needs to think similarly. We have to keep looking at ourselves and asking: what is our business?
Today the world does not afford you the luxury of being a slow mover. We have to be aggressive and farsighted enough to look in into the future, and we also have to be pragmatic enough to say that if we really are not in a leadership position in a particular business, we should look at exiting that business.
We at the tata group have to be creative on the basis of our strengths: low costs, technological richness, innovation.
The kind of company one would want to emulate is one where products and technology are at the leading edge, dealings with customers are very fair, services are of a high order, and business ethics are transparent and straightforward. A less tangible issue involves the work environment, which should not be one where you are stressed and driven to the point of being drugged.
The way to retain employees today is to make their work and their day-to-day activities in the company exciting enough for them to stay. Not everyone will stay, but I think we can empower more people if we are willing to pass on the responsibility for that. If people are satisfied and motivated, there’s less chance of them wanting to leave and go to a competitor.
The Tatas have to be less risk-averse. We have been a very conservative house and we have been applauded for our conservatism, but today we need to take more risk. We don’t need to be flamboyant or cavalier, but we need to be less conservative than we have been.
The Tata group must lead India in what it does, not only in business but also as a participant in the country’s growth. This is a holistic view. We want our mangers and companies to drive their businesses using every means they can to achieve their ends, but they must do it in a way which stands out and continues the traditions that the group has established over the years.
We should be treating the customer in the same way that we would want to be treated as customers.
Where we have direct dealings with our customers, it is important that they are shown courtesy, dealt with fairly, and made to feel that they are receiving the attention they deserve. The interface with the customer should be a seamless one.
It should not be, cannot be, that low-cost products come to mean inferior or substandard products and services; definitely not. The aim is to create products for that larger segment, good and robust products that we are able to produce innovatively and get to the marketplace at a lower cost.
We did everything in small increments, so we always lagged behind. But the crucial question is: can we venture putting a man on the moon or risk billions in say, superconductors? Do you restrict your risk to something close to your heart?
My outlook on RD is that is an absolutely necessary thing for us to do. And I don’t think we doing enough. The point is not just spending money; It’s how many patents you file your innovation rate and your product development… if today you were to give everybody a mandate that they can spend 3 per cent of their revenue on RD, assuming they can spare the money, I don’t think many companies would knows the what where and how of spending that kind of money, other than to put up some infrastructure and buy lots of equipment.
We have to clamp down on deviations from commitments. To ensure greater commitment to performance, we also need to have a system which rewards performers and punishes those who don’t perform.
What we do when somebody breaks the code, how we deal with that person, I think that is that is the true index of our behaviour. When we have had a rogue officer or director, we have actually prosecuted that person and the person has gone to jail.
One big challenge is being globally competitive. This may be a function of scale or product design but the critical question is: can we be globally competitive in giving the customer a produce equal to or better than what he or she already has access to? The other is: can we be technologically advanced enough?
What we do before we acquire a company is spend a lot of time looking at the human chemistry its management and work ethics, and the manner of working of that company.
leadership with trust
We are probably not doing enough to build the Tata brand globally, but we are one of the most recognisable corporate names coming out of India. Apart from size, market capitalisation and the rest, we are seen as a poster boy for ethical business, trustworthy and fair. That’s a model western companies feel comfortable with.
It would be great if we were considered abroad as a globally operating company with a local touch touch, one that just happens to be owned by a group of Indians.
One hundred year from now, I expect the tatas to be much bigger than are now. More importantly, I hope the group come to be regarded as being the best in India; best in the manner in which we operate, best in the products we deliver and best in our value systems and ethics.
I expect that we will spread our wings far beyond India, that we will become a global, operating in many countries, an India business conglomerate that is at home in the world, carrying the same sense of trust that we do today.
It is easy to become a number one player but it is difficult to remain number one. So we will have to fight with a view to remain number one.
