Without doubting the credentials of the next Chairman of Tata Sons, he/she would need to begin by heeding the concerns of the two principal Trusts - the Sir Dorabji Tata Trust and Sir Ratan Tata Trust, with regard to the conglomerate as a whole, and more specifically, the new businesses launched under the present Chairman's watch - such as e-commerce, aviation, and semiconductors.
Mr. Chandrasekaran's credentials were indeed impeccable - especially where his contribution to the "cash cow" of Tata Group - Tata Consultancy Services was concerned. Furthermore, no one can doubt his concerns with regard to the businesses launched under his watch, and perhaps his attempts to address the same.
His successor needs to align the independent boards of all the 26 listed Tata group companies, with the Tata Sons board, without in any way attempting to dilute their respective autonomies. Specifically, Tata Sons board would need to shepherd the boards of those group companies, which are falling short of expectations of the Tata Sons board, and lend all possible support to enable them be a force to reckon with, in their respective industries.
Here, TCS can be entrusted with the responsibility to create an IT infrastructure for the corporate governance of conglomerate as a whole. The objective should be to record each constituent company's board structure, the credentials of all the board members, the various committees and their composition, agenda of each board meeting and deliberations thereafter, contributions of the respective board members during board meetings, and finally the contributions of the various committees of those boards. These need to be correlated with the challenges being faced by the respective companies, and the effectiveness of those boards to address the same in a time bound manner.
Such IT infrastructure could then summarize the same for each group company, and present the same to the Tata Sons board. Such feedbacks could form the key inputs for deliberations at Tata Sons board level. Subsequently, direct communications with the boards of such lagging companies could be established to identify the key support required to effect the expected turnarounds at those companies. Important learnings from the board level deliberations of well performing companies, can also enable cross-learnings within the conglomerate as a whole.
Finally, the conventional wisdom - "human resources are the most important assets of any organization", will hold true irrespective of advances in the field of Artificial Intelligence and allied technologies. Hence, CHROs at each of the group companies, need to be given the right importance at the board level, to ensure that more than one million headcounts of the Tata group, are indeed their most important assets who have the required dedication and loyalty to make this conglomerate an ideal employer, besides a well respected market-leader, wherever it's present. 😊
Mr. Chandrasekaran's credentials were indeed impeccable - especially where his contribution to the "cash cow" of Tata Group - Tata Consultancy Services was concerned. Furthermore, no one can doubt his concerns with regard to the businesses launched under his watch, and perhaps his attempts to address the same.
His successor needs to align the independent boards of all the 26 listed Tata group companies, with the Tata Sons board, without in any way attempting to dilute their respective autonomies. Specifically, Tata Sons board would need to shepherd the boards of those group companies, which are falling short of expectations of the Tata Sons board, and lend all possible support to enable them be a force to reckon with, in their respective industries.
Here, TCS can be entrusted with the responsibility to create an IT infrastructure for the corporate governance of conglomerate as a whole. The objective should be to record each constituent company's board structure, the credentials of all the board members, the various committees and their composition, agenda of each board meeting and deliberations thereafter, contributions of the respective board members during board meetings, and finally the contributions of the various committees of those boards. These need to be correlated with the challenges being faced by the respective companies, and the effectiveness of those boards to address the same in a time bound manner.
Such IT infrastructure could then summarize the same for each group company, and present the same to the Tata Sons board. Such feedbacks could form the key inputs for deliberations at Tata Sons board level. Subsequently, direct communications with the boards of such lagging companies could be established to identify the key support required to effect the expected turnarounds at those companies. Important learnings from the board level deliberations of well performing companies, can also enable cross-learnings within the conglomerate as a whole.
Finally, the conventional wisdom - "human resources are the most important assets of any organization", will hold true irrespective of advances in the field of Artificial Intelligence and allied technologies. Hence, CHROs at each of the group companies, need to be given the right importance at the board level, to ensure that more than one million headcounts of the Tata group, are indeed their most important assets who have the required dedication and loyalty to make this conglomerate an ideal employer, besides a well respected market-leader, wherever it's present. 😊
