The ghost of the Radia tapes hasn’t vanished from public memory yet, and Bombay House – the beacon of corporate governance – is in the news again. This time for the un-ceremonious exit of its first ever “non-Tata” chairman Cyrus Mistry.
Ratan Tata, the patriarch of Tata Sons, was once heard listening to the story of a black gown that Nira Radia wanted to wear at an event. As it turns out, Tata now finds himself in the situation of wearing the proverbial emperor’s new clothes.
The famous ‘salt-to-software’ $105 billion conglomerate that employs more people in United Kingdom than any other private enterprise needs to act swiftly to restore its public image. The damage has been done and there is little evidence to suggest that the iconoclastic Bombay House can recoup what it has lost over the past five years since the Radia tapes burst onto the national imagination. And the blame squarely lies with Tata.
In India, where businesses are second to politics when it comes to dynastic discounts, Bombay House has been probably one of the few empires that could marvel at and be proud of its own professionalism.
In an environment where when the patriarch of an expansive business house in the country looks within to carry forward their legacy, Bombay House and Tata Sons looked outwards. In a place where succession planning is at best a footnote, Tata Sons, in 2012, weaved together a selection committee to find Ratan Tata’s successor. Names of people who earned their names running vast global businesses were thrown into the hat but Tata Sons, in the end, chose the son of its largest shareholder.
Yes, the story of how Shapoorji Pallonji Group found a spot at the table is fascinating but what is more intriguing is the story of how Tata could not give up the control of his empire even after hanging his boots.
In the process, the Bombay House patriarch has caused much harm to the identity of his legacy that he tried to protect by showing its chairman of four years to the door, a period that is but a blip in the storied history of the group.
Bombay House is the Taj Mahal of corporate India and just like the latter, the former is now yellowing itself with an air of poison. As it turns out, the group has lost at least 15 per cent of its monetary value in less than a month with no resolution in sight, let alone the process of building what is lost.
The reasons for Tata Sons to throw its present into such jeopardy remain unknown
More importantly, can Tata, who took pride in being an oasis of righteousness, find his way back to being the elixir of hope from this feral desert he finds himself in, and for which he himself is to blame?
To begin with, one month is nearly over and Tata has three more to go to find the next person who would be willing to take a chair above which now hangs a perennial Damocles’ sword and the four legs of which, at the moment, are dwindling legacy, overzealous efforts, patriarchal overreach, and regrettable decisions.
