<b>Letters:</b> The Tata ethos

N Chandrasekaran deserves everyone’s good wishes as he prepares to head the Tata Group, the reputation and market cap of which have been dented due to unsavoury incidents. It is a measure of the damage that people care to discuss immaterial topics such as non-family, non-Tata, non-Parsi in the context of a group that places so much value on corporate governance. 

The core question remains: What is the role of the Tata Sons chairman as the de-facto Tata Group chairman? That would define the degree of freedom and power the group companies’ chief executives and boards may expect, and the limits of the role and reach of the Tata trusts and a few trustees, who were earlier in senior-most executive roles in the group.

Any self-respecting chief executive would prefer to deal with one boss. Any self-respecting independent director would enjoy being a director if he or she can make a difference, not just be a number or a rubber stamp. Tata Group’s biggest failure — not being able to develop a series of outstanding new products or great managers, except at TCS may be — is something that indicates that all may not be well with the management style.

While no one can deny Tata Sons’ right to decide how to manage its cash flow from dividends, the question is how much influence or veto power it should have over the group companies’ financial, HR and growth decisions. Chandrasekaran is surely aware of these pulls and pushes. I hope Ratan Tata, too, knows how to let go, and realises that if the much vaunted Tata way or ethos can be maintained by only three or four old-timers, then the ethos’ vitality is waning.

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