The five-member panel appointed by Tata Sons to find a successor to Mr Ratan Tata has apparently come up against a blank wall, and may be compelled to change its search criteria itself.

“Our committee has come to the conclusion that we cannot find a replacement for Mr Tata! We may have to change and rearrange the model in terms of what we are looking for,” said Mr R.K. Krishna Kumar, Director at Tata Sons and a panel member himself, in an interview on the company's Web site.

“We are now considering people — from within the group and outside, including expatriates — who can fill the role we have in mind. There are challenges but we will soon come to a conclusion,” he said.

Global person

Mr Ratan Tata is a much revered and respected person globally, said Mr Kumar in the interview:

“He has made seminal contributions, not only to the Tata group, but business and industry as a whole. His focus and knowledge of technology and technological development are amazing.”

As a person too, Mr Tata is one of the most humble and decent human beings that he had met, said Mr Kumar: “He is a born leader and you can see this wherever he goes.

“Be it at an airport or on the street, people come up to him all the time; the manner in which he greets and speaks to them makes it seem like he has known them for years. He has a place in the history of post-Independence India.”

It was in August last year that a five-member panel had been established to find a successor to Mr Tata to head the Tata group. Mr Tata retires when he turns 75 in December next year. The other panellists are Mr Cyrus Mistry (a Tata group Director), Ms Shirin Bharucha (a lawyer), Mr N.A. Soonawala (former Vice-Chairman at Tata Sons), and Lord Bhatttacharya.

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