‘The first thing a business leader should do after taking over is look for a successor

The tallest leader from the Tata Group for him is Jamsetji Tata. “JRD Tata is a legend, but the one who fascinates me is Jamsetji. His combination of influences, ideas and philosophies that he brought together and then made them work in practical terms, coupled with sheer single-minded commitment to India, at a time when the idea of India itself was emerging, is indeed special.” In his recent work, TATA The Evolution of a Corporate brand, Morgen Witzel, senior consultant with the Winthrop Group of Business Historians, unfolds the story of the Tata brand in 200-plus pages. Witzel tells Sarika Malhotra, as the group is expanding its global footprint, it is the very high level of self awareness in the group that is making all the difference. 

The group is aware of the challenges it faces very strongly. Throughout its history it believed in actions rather than words.” From a branding perspective, even as the Nano has done the Tata brand a whole deal of good in terms of exposing it to the world and making them aware of it, however, the key challenge Witzel points out is to get the Tata brand in the open and make the transition form an Indian brand to a global brand, “that purely in branding terms is a task of the next ten years”. Excerpts:

What makes for Tata’s success as a brand?
Every big successful business chooses its own way to success. What made the Tata brand so successful is that the fact that they started off with a very strong set of values which were embedded in the group from the very beginning right from the time when Empress Mills was founded by Jamsetji Tata. And which the group stayed very much true to, down to the decade that followed. Strong brands are always built on strong values, principles and ethos and then communicating and sharing them with stakeholders. The Tata group has been really successful in doing that over a long period of time, consistently well. And that also has to do with consistency of leadership—only five chairmen over a period of 140 years.

Full interview here Financial Express