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Vinod Mathew

Mumbai , Oct. 23

MENTION leadership training and global managers at Bombay House and more likely than not one gets to see the adrenalin pumping at the Tata Sons headquarters. Almost all the brass there have considered views on the topic. Thus you have Mr Ratan Tata who says that the group is in the process of acquiring a competitive position and global coordination capabilities, both at the individual company as well as at the group level.

The Tata Motors listing on the NYSE was a step in this direction, and one could see a TCS listing on the American bourses next year.

At a micro-level, Mr J.J. Irani is of the view that currently, among the Tata companies, only TCS is truly global in its reach and application.

A company that has global reach, is recognised in global markets, has access to global finance and is staffed by people from across the globe alone can claim to be a global corporation, says he.

Mr Kishor Chaukar feels that Tata Consultancy Services, Tata Motors and Indian Hotels Company are definitely potentially global while Titan can become one.

And the attempt of the Tata group is towards inculcating a mindset that is connected with the emerging realities of the world in its economic, business, social and cultural coordinates.

Towards this, the group has already travelled a fair distance as it is only a few months short of claiming 1,000 such global managers in 17 of its companies.

Aiding this exercise to make this army of Tata World Inc future-ready, with knowledge that will help them stay competitive in a global business environment, are some of the best management gurus from across the world. These gurus have been asked to address some of the critical business challenges facing the group.

The dream team that is helping the Tatas make the cut globally include Mr Krishna Palepu from Harvard Business School, Prof. C.K. Prahalad, Prof. Neil Sendelbach and Dr Wayne Brockbank from Michigan Business School. .

Some of the other dons are Mr Andrew White from Cranfield University, Mr Jagdish Sheth from Emory University, Mr Philip Parker, Akzo Nobel Fellow in Strategic Management, and Mr Charles Hampden-Turner from University of Cambridge.

They all are stopping by at the Tata Management Training Centre in Pune to help the company achieve its global objective.

The avowed goal for the year — to help some 300 hand-picked managers of some 17 Tata group companies make the grade globally.

This being the third year and the Tata Sons deadline to have a resource pool of 1,000 world-class managers equipped with a mindset that looks at the globe as their market has only two months to go.

True, none of this happens at the drop of a hat. The plan is to get these star performers in the Tata companies together on the same platform and get them to share the same language and syntax of global business.

These shortlisted global ambassadors have been called upon to imbibe a common ethos that would put them on par with any other blue chip company anywhere in the world.

"The desire to become globally competitive in all our businesses is key to our approach. The effort is to prepare for the emerging challenges and changes. We hope to touch and catalyse a thousand minds within the group this year. These are carefully conceived programmes aimed at addressing the felt needs of colleagues with best-in-class tools and approaches brought by global thought leaders and practice specialists," says Mr Satish Pradhan, Executive Vice-President, Group HR, Tata Sons Ltd.

Clearly, the Tata group is going global with a vengeance. Even as the senior and middle-rung managers imbibe global skills from the management gurus, some of the members of the Group Corporate Centre at

Tata Sons would also get together for a week in January next to decide how best to utilise the resource pool of these 1,000 managers in the group's march towards becoming a truly trans-national company.

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