"Tata Sons capital will largely go towards new businesses"

N. CHANDRASEKARAN, WHO COMPLETES SIX YEARS AS THE CHAIRMAN OF TATA GROUP, AIMS TO BUILD SIZEABLE NEW ASSETS UNDER THE CONGLOMERATE, LEVERAGING THE GROUP'S TALENT, BRAND AND FINANCIAL POWER. ONCE THE BUSINESS MODEL IS PROVEN AND CASH FLOWS ARE IN SIGHT, NEW BUSINESSES ARE TO BE OPENED FOR STRATEGIC INVESTMENTS AND IPOS, HE TELLS FORTUNE INDIA IN AN EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW. EDITED EXCERPTS.

- NEVIN JOHN

During the initial phase as chairman, you were focused on simplification, synergy, and scale. What is your followup strategy?

You should see the group's efforts as three distinct strategies. The first was strengthening the core, which ensured that every company is financially fit. I used to say fitness first, and performance next. We are pretty much done here as we fixed balance sheets and set the growth strategy of all companies.

Secondly, we are focused on the transition of existing companies with the help of digital technologies. The transition will be strengthened with the idea of sustainability and wellness and safety. It is playing out across the board with investments in EVS, renewables, new materials and chemicals, among others.

The third leg is the creation of great businesses for the future. We created firms for precision electronics manufacturing, 5G technology stack and digital SuperApp. We are building a world-class airline and an EV battery manufacturing plant. These are the businesses of the future.

We're doing all these while continuing with simplification of existing businesses. Simplification is a journey and we have done a lot, but there is still more to do. Same with synergy. We combined the capabilities of group companies for businesses like FMCG, SuperApp, defence and electric mobility.

Every company, including Tier-II companies, is changing. Tata Chemicals, after transferring the consumer products business to Tata Consumer Products Ltd., is just focusing on their core strength and expanding the capacity of soda ash and sodium bicarbonate. They have also invested in a couple of other areas (prebiotic and specialty silica) and grew there. In the same way, next-tier companies Tata Elxsi Ltd. and Tata Communications Ltd. are focusing on their core strengths.