Under the proposed plan, the CEO will guide the huge businesses of the 153-year-old Tata EmpireWhile the chairman will oversee the chief executive on behalf of the shareholders, the public asked not to be identified when discussing personal information.
acceptance of Ratan Tata The eighty-year-old chairman, which controls Tata Trusts, is seen as the key to implementing change, he said.
People said Natarajan Chandrasekaran, the current chairman of Tata Sons, is being considered for an extension after the term ends in February, while the heads of various Tata group companies, including Tata Steel Ltd, are being evaluated.
People said no final decision has been made, and plans and details could still change.
A Tata Sons spokesperson declined to comment. Emails to Tata Trusts and Ratan Tata did not go through.
The proposal comes months after Ratan Tata, 83, former chairman of Tata Sons, won a year-long legal battle with his successor Cyrus P Mistry, who accused the group of mismanagement and sued the vice-chancellor in 2016 to oust him. was filed.
The proposed change could help chart the future of the group, which is at a crossroads after more than two decades of expansion under Ratan Tata.
There is no clarity on who will succeed him as chairman of Tata Trusts, which owns 66% of the holding company that runs the empire, which has its roots dating back to 1868.
A new group CEO will have to deal with many challenges. Tata Steel is racing to cut its net debt load by $10 billion, while Tata Motors – owner of iconic British marque Jaguar Land Rover – has suffered three consecutive years of losses till March 2021.
The group’s plans to foray into the digital space and tap into India’s growing base of online shoppers are yet to materialise.
Plans to launch an all-in-one e-commerce superapp to market its consumer products and services have been delayed, despite Asia’s largest software services provider Tata Consultancy Services Ltd.
With 100-odd businesses and over two dozen listed firms, the Tata Group had a combined annual revenue of $106 billion in 2020. Its 750,000 workers make cars and trucks, make tea, make steel, sell insurance, write software, operate phone networks. and package salt, and much more.
The proposed leadership overhaul is also in line with India’s market regulator’s recommendation that the country’s top 500 listed companies have a separate chairman and CEO by April 2022 for better governance, people said. Though Tata Sons is not listed, the changes would help in compliance with the rule, the people said.
The addition of a professional manager at the helm of the holding company also highlights how Ratan Tata – who continues to shape the group – can envision his own transformation from his current role of semi-retired chairman-meritus. Is.
Although Ratan Tata says he is no longer actively involved in business decisions, he has considerable influence over the management of the group through his leadership of the Tata Trusts.
Following a news report in July, which said that Chandrasekaran’s extension as chairman had been “informally confirmed”, Ratan Tata issued a statement saying that the board had not taken any decision and that any also did not approach him on this subject, which strengthened his clout.
Despite family ties, Ratan Tata’s dominance over the group also stems from his record as chairman of Tata Sons between 1991 and 2012.
A great man of Indian business, he has put the Tata Group on the global map with lucrative deals over the past two decades, from the $2.3 billion purchase of automaker JLR to the $13 billion acquisition of British steel company Corus Group Plc. .
.