Chandrasekaran: From TCS intern to Tata group boss for another 5 years

Salt-to-software conglomerate Tata Sons Pvt Ltd has extended the tenure of its Chairman N Chandrasekaran for another five years, a move which was recommended by the group patriarch Ratan Tata at the board meeting held today.

Ratan Tata, who was a special invitee to the board meeting expressed his satisfaction on the progress and performance of the Tata Group under the leadership of N Chandrasekaran. He recommended his term be renewed for a further five-year period.

The continuity in leadership comes as the 154-year-old conglomerate that makes salt to luxury sedans, is working on an all-in-one ecommerce superapp -- one of Chandrasekaran’s key projects -- to market its swathe of consumer products and services as part of a digital makeover. The group is also reinventing its aviation businesses after successfully acquiring Air India Ltd. from the federal government last year.

Natarajan Chandrasekaran rose from a humble background in Tamil Nadu, where he had to walk three kilometers to his Tamil medium school. He attended the Regional Engineering College, Trichy, where he completed a Masters degree in computer applications before joining TCS in 1987.

Chandrasekaran joined TCS as an intern software programmer who rose through the ranks to become, at 46, one of the youngest CEOs of the Tata group.

Under his leadership, TCS generated total revenues of $16.5 billion in 2015-16 and consolidated its position as the largest private sector employer in India and the country’s most valuable company. TCS has also been placed among the “Big 4” most valuable IT services brands worldwide, ranked as one of the world’s most innovative companies by Forbes and recognized as a global top employer by the top employers Institute across 24 countries.

Apart from being a workaholic, Chandrasekaran is an avid photographer, and a passionate long-distance marathon runner. After taking charge at TCS, he organised boot trainings camps for teams directly reporting to him to try and make them prepare of a marathon while bonding with each other

Sharing his lessons from marathon and how to implement the learnings in business, Chandrasekaran at a recent event said, one needs to be fit first in order to grow.

Keeping in mind the learning of not trying to grow if not fit, he said the Tata group while strengthening the core is also transforming its companies towards the new future in terms of sustainability and digital.

"I am the one who believes that growth is the source of one's energy. I go for growth but obviously, you can grow only if you're fit. How do you bring the learning from a marathon into the business to drive growth is to first become fit. Wherever you are not fit, don't try to grow. It's kind of a very interesting paradigm," Chandrasekaran said..

"While one can prepare for six months for running a good race but on the race day, he said things could go bad and the weather could be bad, it may be raining or maybe too hot. Things can happen. So, how do you work in your context is something that I've learned from running marathons because you have to run your race. You cannot get distracted by someone else's race... We all compete but your strategy and execution is based on your context, not in someone else's context," he said.

Also, contrary to the common belief that a marathon is an individual sport, he said it actually is not. "When you run a marathon, you get the lift from all the people who run in the race. That's how you do the race better, you complete without hitting the wall," Chandrasekaran said adding that "the last 10 kilometres you run because everybody runs".

The 58-year-old first joined the board of $103 billion Tata group in 2016 and took over as Chairman in 2017 at a time when the group was mired in crisis after the ouster of his predecessor Cyrus Mistry in a shock boardroom coup led by Ratan Tata, who heads Tata Trusts - a bunch of philanthropic organizations that hold 66% stake in Tata Sons.

The ouster triggered a years-long legal battle between the two sides and was finally put to bed after Supreme Court ruled in March 2021 that Mistry’s dismissal was legal.

Chandrasekaran also chairs the Boards of several group operating companies, including Tata Steel, Tata Motors, Tata Power, and Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) – of which he was Chief Executive Officer from 2009-17.

In his year-end communication to Tata employees, Chandrasekaran identified digital, new energy, supply chain resilience and health as the themes group would focus on in the future. “Our new pilots and businesses, from 5G to TataNeu and Tata Electronics, are poised to benefit from these four themes going forward,” he said.

"Our new pilots and businesses, from 5G to TataNeu and Tata Electronics, are poised to benefit from these four themes going forward," he added.

Looking back on the year, the Tata Sons chief said the group's bid to win Air India is an important milestone this year and is an historic moment.

I am optimistic about what we can do next in the years ahead. Recent success has given our Group a great platform to build on. I am excited by the heights I know we can reach, not just financially, but also in terms of the difference we can make to communities. We can set new standards in technology, sustainability, and skills development, Chandrasekaran further added.

Chandrasekaran lives in Mumbai, with his wife Lalitha. They have a son, Pranav, who is currently pursuing undergraduate studies.

The next big question for the group is who will succeed Ratan Tata as the head of Tata Trusts -- a position that exerts immense control over how Tata Sons and by implication, how the broader group is run. There has been no official announcement on that front.