I Want To Simplify Tata Group

Natarajan Chandrasekaran has been at the helm of Indias largest business group for more than a year now.

- Riyad Mathew And Rachna Tyagi

In an exclusive interview with THE WEEK, he speaks on a variety of topics—from the efforts of consolidation in the group and its history and heritage to his growing-up years in his village and his fitness regimen. Excerpts:

It has been more than a year since you became chairman of Tata Sons. How would you describe your journey?

It is a very overwhelming experience and it is a mammoth responsibility. And I don’t mean it in terms of the business, but in terms of the heritage of the group, the people who have been chairmen before and what they have done. Expectations are high. People have a huge amount of trust in the brand. Also people expect that we will always do more and more. That is a positive sign. And that gives enormous amount of power in a way because people are behind you, people want you to succeed. People feel [they are] part of the brand, part of the organisation, whether they work for you or don’t work for you. Actually everyone thinks that it is their company. It is a positive thinking.

In any role, you will have things you like, and things you don’t like. Things which will pleasantly surprise you, and things which will [make you] say ‘Oh my God!’ It is true in any new experience. Even if you visit a place, you say ‘I never realised this was so beautiful’. But I knew when I came here that there were a few things which I needed to address, a few things which I needed to leverage and a few things I just did not have to look at. I kind of quickly compartmentalised. I felt that I needed to put a strong team at Tata Sons. So I focused on that. And, wherever in the operating companies I needed talent, I needed leadership talent, I needed to make changes, I went ahead with that. So talent is one big thing.