Stellar Leadership, Long-Term Focus Key to Building Corporations
Greater Noida January 22, 2015 Leaders with a long-term business focus and a values-driven management style build stronger businesses. Add to this a culture of caring, nurturing and developing a second-line of strong leaders and you have a ready mix of ingredients for building a corporation that can compete with and beat the best in the world.
These mantras were shared by, Dr Sunil Mithas, the Indian-American author of a recently released book on the Tatas,'Dancing Elephants and Leaping Jaguars - How to Excel, Innovate and Transform your Organization the Tata Way' with nearly 70 faculty members from the Birla Institute of Management Technology, BIMTECH.
Prof Mithas, Professor of Information Systems at University of Maryland's Robert H Smith School of Business, USA who has authored the book was the lead speaker at a panel discussion with two long tenure Tata group executives --Prof R J Masilamani and Prof Akhil Pandey--who now serve on the faculty of BIMTECH, India's leading business school as Professors of Strategic Management and Information Technology respectively.
The book documents Tata Group's leadership and management interventions that made the company emerge as a global force. Tatas, a dominant business group in steel, power, chemicals, hotels and IT services, among others, caught attention of the western world when it decided to go global aggressively, at the turn of the century.
Professor Sunil Sangra, Professor of Strategic Management, BIMTECH moderated the discussion.
Prof Mithas outlined several strategic interventions by the Tata group that drove its growth. He drew special attention to the Tata Business Excellence Model (TBEM) that helped the group to rediscover itself while continuing to focus on all stakeholders -- shareholders, employees, customers, suppliers, regulators and the community.
On people front, the panelists--Prof Masilamani and Prof Pandey--corroborated several examples in Prof Mithas' book based on their long stints with the group, adding that leadership and succession planning played a significant role in Tata group's transformation. Leaders of Tata group companies personally drove TBEM to report better than industry growth over a period of time, they added. I In addition to overseeing operations, these leaders, were responsible for identifying passionate employees and preparing them key strategic roles.
The salt-to-steel maker, Tata Group, founded in 1868, was focused on the domestic market until end 1980s, when it took advantage of the liberalization of the Indian economy to go global by acquiring Tetley Tea in 2000, Corus Steel in 2007 and Jaguar and Land Rover brands from Ford in 2008.
The acquisitions and commitment to excellence helped the Tata group transform itself from a $5.8 billion Indian firm in 1992 to a $103 billion global powerhouse in 2014, with nearly two-thirds of the revenues from outside India.
The Tata group has played a responsible role by establishing townships for employees, conducting social audit of businesses and engaging with community through education, health and welfare services well before the Corporate Social Responsibility came into vogue.
TBEM enabled companies to evaluate themselves so as to pursue improvement cycle continuously. Tata culture encouraged companies to share their experiences and achievements to learn from other Tata companies.
Leadership, succession planning and commitment to business excellence and innovation made Tata the global giant setting up example for organizations to recognize their potential and go forward, Prof Mithas added.
Tata Group is now known for the autonomy it gives to individual companies to experiment, innovate and follow the Tata Business Excellence Model which the panelists termed as disciplined autonomy.
About BIMTECH PGDM Admissions
Birla Institute of Management Technology (BIMTECH), one of the premier B-Schools in the country, has invited applications for admission to its Post Graduate Diploma Programs in Management, for 2015-17 batch, from candidates with a Bachelor's degree in any discipline with minimum 50 per cent marks. Candidates appearing for the final year examination of their Bachelor's Degree are also eligible to apply.
About BIMTECH
Birla Institute of Management Technology (BIMTECH) was established in 1988 under the aegis of the Birla Academy of Art and Culture, and supported by Birla Group of companies. Dr. (Mrs) Sarala Birla, chairperson of Birla Academy and Mr B K Birla, chairperson of B K Birla Group of companies are the founders of the business school.
The Board of Governors comprising eminent people from industry is headed by Mrs Jayashree Mohta, Vice Chairperson, Birla Academy of Art and Culture, Kolkata.
BIMTECH's fully residential campus is a mini India with students from almost all states of India, and also from other countries. It is this mix of nationalities, cultural backgrounds, academic and professional experiences that make BIMTECH one of the most exciting and enriching business schools in the country. Bimtech's long held belief that global managers should have cross cultural training has become a practice across the globe today.
BIMTECH's highly conducive academic environment includes: learning from experienced academicians with rich industry experience, interaction with strategists from industry and professionals from manufacturing and services industry, exposure to the international universities and firms, and a strong, globally dispersed alumni network.
The institute ranks among the Top 10 Private B-Schools listings announced by CNBC-TV18, Business Today, MBAUniverse, National HRD Network and People Matters among others.
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