The 153-year-old, $106-billion Tata empire may get a historic leadership makeover. India’s largest conglomerate is considering creating a CEO’s role to streamline “corporate governance,” according to a report by Bloomberg.

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The role of a CEO will be separate from that of the chairperson. While the CEO will help in guiding the various businesses of the Tata empire, the chairperson will supervise the CEO on behalf of the shareholders, the report quoted unnamed sources as saying.

Who will be the CEO?

Natarajan Chandrasekaran, the current chairman of Tata Sons, may get an extension after his term ends in February. Several names from within Tata firms, including Tata Steel Ltd, are being considered for the position of the CEO. A final decision on the proposal has not been reached yet.

All eyes are now on whether the proposal will get the green signal from Ratan Tata, the chairman of the controlling owner Tata Trusts, which owns 66 percent of the holding company.

Work cut out for CEO

Tata Steel is struggling to cut its net debt of $10 billion, while Tata Motors has been making losses for the last three years. And the company’s plans to launch its proposed ‘superapp’ have been getting delayed despite the strength of Asia’s largest software services provider -- Tata Consultancy Services -- at its disposal, which was meant to provide a great range of consumer products and services online.

Bloomberg added that though Tata Sons is not listed yet, the proposed overhaul of the Tata empire’s leadership is in line with a recommendation made by India’s market regulator that the nation’s top 500 listed companies have a separate chairman and CEO by April 2022 for better governance.

The proposal comes months after the bitter ownership battle between Ratan Tata with Cyrus Mistry, which the former won.

The Tata Group, which has nearly 7.5 lakh employees, and posted a combined annual revenue of $106 billion last year, sells everything from insurance to packaged salt.

(Edited by : Shoma Bhattacharjee)

First Published:Sept 14, 2021 9:13 PM IST