The Tata Group has always had a succession of Illustrious,
far-sighted leaders who have kept it ahead of the pack.
Right from the late Jamsetji Nusserwanji Tata in 1868 to
his great grandson Mr. Tatan Tata, the men who have led
the Tata Group have had extraordinary competencies. This
made it all the more difficult to select the next Tata
Titan, a befitting heir to succeed Mr. Ratan Tata, the man
during whose tenure the group's revenues have grown nearly
12-fold, totaling over $83 billion in 2010-11. The mystery
that shrouded the high-profile global search finally came
to an end on
November 23, 2011, when the five-member panel, formed by
the Tata Sons to name a successor to Mr. Tatan Tata,
announced Mr. Cyrus Pallonji Mistry as the next head of
the sprawling Tata Empire.
Considered a dark horse, the 43-year-old Mr. Cyrus Mistry
is the Managing Director of the $2.5 billion shapoorji
Pallonji (SP) Group, the largest individual shareholder in
Tata Sons, with 18 percent stake. He is the youngest son
of construction tycoon Mr.
Pallonji Mistry. After completing his schooling from The
Cathedral and John Connon School in Mumbai, Mr. Mistry
moved to London for higher studies. He graduated in Civil
Engineering from Imperial College, UK in 1990 and also
obtained an M.Sc. in Management from the London Business
School. In 1991, Mr. Mistry joined the board of shapoorji
Pallonji and Co.—a firm his grandfather founded—where he
looked after construction and infrastructure. His big
break came as Chairman of Afcons Infrastructure Ltd., the
construction company the SP Group acquired in 1994, Mr.
Mistry was appointed the Managing Director of the SP
Group. In a decade and a half he has been at the helm of
the Rs. 9,000 crore group, Mr. Mistry has helped it build
an impressive portfolio. The tallest residential building
in India, the longest rail bridge, the largest affordable
housing project, the largest mall and the largest cement
clinker plant in Asia—he claims all these and more as the
group's icons. According to the data on the Bombay Stock
Exchange, Mr. Mistry is on the board of 14 unlisted
companies and two listed ones—Forbes and Co. and Gokak
Textiles—within the group. Mr. Mistry was inducted into
the Board of Tata Sons in 2006, after his father's
retirement. In him, there is a continuity of thought
process, one that gells well with Mr. Ratan Tata himself.
Besides, he is also known to be a humble person, very much
like his predecessor. It is because of this similarity in
nature and attitude to Mr. Ratan Tata that he gets along
famously with the present Tata Group Chairman and is also
supposed to be one of his favourites.
Thus, even though a non-Tata, Mr. Mistry is perhaps the
best choice to take charge of the Tata Group. He was
appointed the Deputy Chairman of Tata Sons, the group s
holding company, w.e.f. November 23, 2011. Soon after
this, he stepped down as the Managing
Director from the shapoorji Pallonji Group to avoid
conflict of interest. A day after Mr. Mistry was named Mr.
Tatan Tata's successor as the Tata Group chief, the stocks
of a number of companies from the salt-to-software
conglomerate soared higher on the bourses, adding more
than one billion dollars to the combined market value of
the business house. Mr. Ratan Tata will work with Mr.
Mistry for the rest of his term, to ensure a smooth
transition, and then hand over the reins in December 2012,
when he retires.
The Tata Group has always had a succession of Illustrious,
far-sighted leaders who have kept it ahead of the pack.
Right from the late Jamsetji Nusserwanji Tata in 1868 to
his great grandson Mr. Tatan Tata, the men who have led
the Tata Group have had extraordinary competencies. This
made it all the more difficult to select the next Tata
