N Chandrasekaran has shown tenacity in navigating Tata Group: Ajay Piramal

As non-executive director of the Tata Sons board since 2016, industrialist Ajay Piramal has had a ringside view of the shakeup at the Tata Group, with the removal of Cyrus Mistry as chairman in October 2016 and arrival of N Chandrasekaran from TCS to lead the conglomerate in February 2017. In an interview with Suman Layak, the Piramal Group chairman speaks about his impressions of Chandra and how he has managed the group through troubled times in the last three years. Edited excerpts:
You must have worked closely with Chandrasekaran as part of the board and even otherwise. What are your impressions?
I have known Chandra to be a decisive leader with immense clarity of thought when it comes to vision and strategy to take the group ahead. What is commendable is his ability to straddle both vision and its seamless execution. The head of Tata Sons is probably the biggest corporate role in the country. What I have seen is that through all the crises, and there are many that are in the public domain and those that are not. Right through them all, he has been calm and composed.

How do you assess Chandrasekaran’s handling of the Tata group as it went through tricky times?
There are many challenges as you would expect in any business of such breadth and magnitude. In the short time that he has taken on the mantle, Chandra has demonstrated tenacity in navigating the group through headwinds that include the matter with Tata Teleservices-DoCoMo, Corus-Tata Steel and Tata Motors. He has been pragmatic in resolving many of these while also being open to perspectives and opinions, be it of board members or executive teams.

Chandra spearheaded the revitalisation of businesses through initiatives such as leveraging new technology areas including machine learning, AI, electric vehicles and new models. He has also built a strong leadership team and established the importance and rigour of financial discipline across the company. Chandra is also a Tata veteran. Having spent well over three decades across pivotal leadership roles at the group, he not just embodies the values and true spirit of the Tata Group but also demonstrates it through his inimitable leadership style.

Will he be able to carve out a legacy at the group?
Under his aegis, many businesses have been conceptualised and kick-started in new areas and domains. These things typically take time to mature and I am sure that some of these have the potential of becoming the TCS of the future.