Tata Group will invest in research and development of new technologies that will help its companies chart out their strategies to deal with the challenges in an evolving market. In a letter to group employees, Chairman Cyrus P Mistry said emerging technologies in the digital and physical space are transforming businesses at a pace never seen before.

“We must deepen our understanding in several areas such as digitisation and big data analytics, and develop an innovation and technology roadmap to effectively serve evolving customer needs,” Mistry wrote in a three-page note seen by Business Line .

Broad strategy

In July, 18 months after taking charge as Chairman of the Tata Group, Mistry had spelt out a broad strategy for the conglomerate. This included special focus on four new clusters — Defence and aerospace, retail, infrastructure and finance. Mistry had then talked about the Group’s Vision 2025, under which the Tatas will invest about $35 billion across various businesses over the next three years.

Referring to the Vision 2025, Mistry on Wednesday told his staff that there was a need to build a customer-centric, innovative and profitable organisation.

“Twenty-five per cent of the world’s population will experience the Tata commitment to improving the quality of life of customers and communities. As a result, Tata will be among the 25 most admired corporate and employer brands globally, with a market capitalisation comparable to the 25 most valuable companies in the world,” he added.

Mistry said the ‘Make In India’ initiative launched by the Modi Government is promising.

“Recent policy measures and the strategic direction defined by the new Government, especially its ambitious ‘Make in India’ campaign, hold the promise to reignite growth in future,” said the Chairman of the $100-billion Group in his annual message to employees.

Global markets

Highlighting the opportunities and challenges ahead, he wrote: “Globally, major markets seem to be on two different growth tracks. Some countries such as the US and the UK continue to show signs of recovery and growth.”

“On the other hand, the large economies of China and Europe fell short of growth expectations. This has led to a fall in global commodity markets, which offers both challenges and opportunities.”

Compared to a sombre message last year, Mistry’s letter is more upbeat about the future game plan for the Group.

At the end of 2013, he had asked the employees to re-look at some of the strategies, recalibrate the business models and fine-tune execution.

“To succeed in an uncertain and volatile environment, it is critical that our businesses evaluate alternative scenarios of the future while crafting our strategies,” he had written in 2013.

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