By Brian Carvalho
Society has come to recognise the leaders of modern corporations, among many others, as heroes," wrote Jeffrey Sonnenfeld in The Hero's Farewell: What Happens when CEOs Retire (1988).
The premise of Sonnenfeld's work is that the leader's heroic "self-concept" leads up to four styles of departure. The Monarchs do not leave voluntarily; they will either die in office or are overthrown. The Generals leave reluctantly and then go on to spend much of their retirement plotting a comeback.
The Ambassadors leave office gracefully but maintain an active and close, albeit low-key, connect with the enterprise they once led. And there are the Governors, who willingly leave office to pursue new interests.
Heroes All
As Ratan Tata walked out of his last annual general meeting, of Tata Global Beverages in Kolkata on the last day of August — and is set to retire from the post of chairman of the Tata group at the year-end — two questions can be asked against the backdrop of Sonnenfeld's tome: How 'heroic' has Ratan Tata's 21-year tenure as chairman at the diversified conglomerate been; and how has that epic role in guiding the destinies of some 100 Tata companies determined his outlook to retirement and to succession.
It isn't uncommon for heads of businesses to be talked about in the same breath — and with the same reverence — as heads of state. Sonnenfeld refers to the work of management gurus Warren Bennis and Burt Nanus who reckon that if the leadership of the likes of Winston Churchill, Mahatma Gandhi and Franklin D Roosevelt built great nations, the leadership of Tom Watson ( IBM), Edwin Land (Polaroid) and Alfred P Sloan ( General Motors) built great organisations.
Back home, industrialists have displayed leadership traits based on the demands — as well as the opportunities — of the times. For instance, in pre-independence India the likes of GD Birla and, before him,Jamsetji Tata dovetailed industrialisation with nation-building. By setting up an iron and steel company, and a hydro-electric power generating unit, amongst other projects, Tata laid the foundation of modern industrial India.
And, yes, he also founded the group, in the late 1860s, whose reins will be picked up by Cyrus Mistry once Ratan Tata retires. Birla transformed what was essentially a money-lending family business that he inherited into a manufacturing-oriented one with a presence in jute, automobiles, cement and chemical, amongst other industries. At the same time, Birla was actively involved in the struggle for freedom.
Post-independence, the biggest success entrepreneurial success story is that of Dhirubhai Ambani who built an integrated petrochemical, refining and textiles empire from scratch. The founder of Reliance Industries is doubtless a hero and inspiration to millions of Indians, although his alleged ability to tweak government policy to suit his business needs during the licence raj era does mar the image of Ambani as everyman's hero.
Global Vision
Ratan Tata took over as chairman of the Tata group in 1991. He inherited an empire with significant pockets of inefficiency and controlled by fiefdoms that made it a loose assortment of companies rather than a tight-knit, single-vision enterprise. He tackled the former by getting rid of non-core businesses like textiles and sold companies like ACC and Tomco.
The second task — of quelling the larger-than-life satraps — was more challenging; and more critical. Tata did so by bringing the brand onto centre stage at the expense of personalities, and putting in place a systematic framework under which all companies had to operate.
A more efficient and cohesive group could now consider growth. A foray into passenger vehicles in the late '90s with the Indica was followed by, over the next decade, what many consider Tata's crowning glory: the internationalisation of the group. From acquiring assets — steel units, auto brands, hotels — in markets from South Korea and Russia to Europe and the US, to setting up outposts for IT services giant TCS in Latin American countries and at least 35 others, Tata blueprinted much of it.
Society has come to recognise the leaders of modern corporations, among many others, as heroes," wrote Jeffrey Sonnenfeld in The Hero's Farewell: What Happens when CEOs Retire (1988).
The premise of Sonnenfeld's work is that the leader's heroic "self-concept" leads up to four styles of departure. The Monarchs do not leave voluntarily; they will either die in office or are overthrown. The Generals leave reluctantly and then go on to spend much of their retirement plotting a comeback.
The Ambassadors leave office gracefully but maintain an active and close, albeit low-key, connect with the enterprise they once led. And there are the Governors, who willingly leave office to pursue new interests.
Heroes All
As Ratan Tata walked out of his last annual general meeting, of Tata Global Beverages in Kolkata on the last day of August — and is set to retire from the post of chairman of the Tata group at the year-end — two questions can be asked against the backdrop of Sonnenfeld's tome: How 'heroic' has Ratan Tata's 21-year tenure as chairman at the diversified conglomerate been; and how has that epic role in guiding the destinies of some 100 Tata companies determined his outlook to retirement and to succession.
It isn't uncommon for heads of businesses to be talked about in the same breath — and with the same reverence — as heads of state. Sonnenfeld refers to the work of management gurus Warren Bennis and Burt Nanus who reckon that if the leadership of the likes of Winston Churchill, Mahatma Gandhi and Franklin D Roosevelt built great nations, the leadership of Tom Watson ( IBM), Edwin Land (Polaroid) and Alfred P Sloan ( General Motors) built great organisations.
Back home, industrialists have displayed leadership traits based on the demands — as well as the opportunities — of the times. For instance, in pre-independence India the likes of GD Birla and, before him,Jamsetji Tata dovetailed industrialisation with nation-building. By setting up an iron and steel company, and a hydro-electric power generating unit, amongst other projects, Tata laid the foundation of modern industrial India.
And, yes, he also founded the group, in the late 1860s, whose reins will be picked up by Cyrus Mistry once Ratan Tata retires. Birla transformed what was essentially a money-lending family business that he inherited into a manufacturing-oriented one with a presence in jute, automobiles, cement and chemical, amongst other industries. At the same time, Birla was actively involved in the struggle for freedom.
Post-independence, the biggest success entrepreneurial success story is that of Dhirubhai Ambani who built an integrated petrochemical, refining and textiles empire from scratch. The founder of Reliance Industries is doubtless a hero and inspiration to millions of Indians, although his alleged ability to tweak government policy to suit his business needs during the licence raj era does mar the image of Ambani as everyman's hero.
Global Vision
Ratan Tata took over as chairman of the Tata group in 1991. He inherited an empire with significant pockets of inefficiency and controlled by fiefdoms that made it a loose assortment of companies rather than a tight-knit, single-vision enterprise. He tackled the former by getting rid of non-core businesses like textiles and sold companies like ACC and Tomco.
The second task — of quelling the larger-than-life satraps — was more challenging; and more critical. Tata did so by bringing the brand onto centre stage at the expense of personalities, and putting in place a systematic framework under which all companies had to operate.
A more efficient and cohesive group could now consider growth. A foray into passenger vehicles in the late '90s with the Indica was followed by, over the next decade, what many consider Tata's crowning glory: the internationalisation of the group. From acquiring assets — steel units, auto brands, hotels — in markets from South Korea and Russia to Europe and the US, to setting up outposts for IT services giant TCS in Latin American countries and at least 35 others, Tata blueprinted much of it.
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