The chairman's address to Tata Motors employees on the first day of April is a 26-year-old tradition. Never before has the setting for it been so hopeful and yet so anxious. Hopeful because five years after the disappointing Nano launch, the company finally has two new carsBolt, a premium hatchback, and Zest, a compact sedanto go to the market with. <\/p>\n
Chairman Cyrus Mistry even went to the extent of calling the upcoming launches of these cars (and some trucks) an \"inflexion point\" for the Rs 1,89,000 crore ($34.7 billion) company. <\/p>\n
Anxious because Tata Motors has to navigate this inflexion point without a CEO. Seventy five days after former Tata Motors MD Karl Slym's sudden demise, no internal candidate is in contention, nor is an external candidate in sight. <\/p>\n
Chairman Mistry, though, is now playing a hands-on role. He has reorganised the Tata Motors' leadership unitpreviously, 12 managers reporting to Slyminto a five-member team reporting to him. The five are engineering and research president Tim Leverton, commercial vehicles ED R Pisharody, passenger vehicles president Ranjit Yadav, director-quality Satish Borwankar and CFO C Ramakrishnan. <\/p>\n
Mistry also pulled in Stefan Berger, earlier with Jaguar Land Rover and now Tata Sons, to be part of all meetings with the Tata Motors leadership. Berger, part of the chairman's office and in charge of strategy, is playing an executive role in the committee, even as the search for an MD intensifies, say company officials. <\/p>\n
Mistry has had two review meetings since February. <\/p>\n
\"Cyrus is very business driven, has sharper, shorter meetings, and has the appetite to think out of the box,\" says an executive who is part of the leadership team, on the condition of anonymity. In response to queries on the personnel reorganisation and succession planning, a company spokesperson said: \"Certain organisational alignments were made in terms of reporting hierarchy of those previously reporting in to the MD, to enable seamless continuity of operational processes.\" <\/p>\n
Implementer CEO <\/p>\n
Highly-placed sources say Egon Zehnder has been given the mandate to search for Slym's successor. \"Tata Motors' experience with two former expat CEOsCarl-Peter Forster and Slymdid not end well,\" says the CEO of another Mumbai-based search firm, not wanting to be named. \"The company has decided to look at experienced Indians, someone who fits the business and culture of Tata Motors.\" <\/p>\n
Much of the speculation has centred around two contenders: V Sumantran, the former vice-chairman of Ashok Leyland, and Wilfried Aulbur, the former MD of Mercedes India and current managing partner of Roland Berger Consultancy. Sumantran, 54, resigned from Ashok Leyland last month, triggering speculation that he may be headed towards Tata Motors, though more likely as an advisor than as a CEO candidate. \"I do not want to respond to speculation,\" Sumantran told ET. <\/p>\n
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After death of Tata Motors' MD Karl Slym, Cyrus Mistry looks to turn around Indian operations<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The chairman's address to Tata Motors employees on the first day of April is a 26-year-old tradition. Never before has the setting for it been so hopeful and yet so anxious. Continue reading