The Chairman Who Kept A Low Profile

As Tatas’ chief Cyrus Mistry was careful and cautious, more a manager than a visionary

- TK Arun

When Cyrus Mistry was announced as the chosen successor to Ratan Tata to lead the Tata Group, after prolonged speculation over the beneficiary of that inevitable leadership change, the Economic Times ran a headline that said, ‘Mystery Ends, Mistry Begins’. However, Mistry never really got going and the goings-on at the highest levels of the Tata Group took on a character that defied public understanding, despite vigorous, if selective, leaks from diverse quarters of their collective dysfunction, within a couple of years of Mistry’s takeover in 2012.

Ratan Tata’s big deals

It would be fairly easy to brand many of the grand gestures the Tata Group took under Ratan Tata’s leadership that made the Tatas a globally respected brand as grandiose in essence, rather than the hardnosed business decisions that acquisitions of big ventures abroad are supposed to be. Tata Steel’s acquisition of Corus, for example, never enthused domestic investors in Tata Steel. However, there is no gainsaying the basis points shaved off the cost of debt the Tatas could raise globally, in the wake of Ratan Tata’s bold steps into global contention. The Tata sheen rubbed off on India Inc in general, too.

Crossing the ‘t’s, dotting the ‘i’s