Mistry to meet Tata group CEOs on July 29

Tata group chairman Cyrus Mistry would be meeting the chief executive officers of all Tata group companies on July 29 -- the birthday of its former chairman J R D Tata -- in Mumbai to prepare a blue print for the road ahead.

The meeting -- called the Annual Group Leadership Conference -- would be held against the backdrop of increased challenges for the group including, asset sales by group companies, a billion-dollar award by London arbitration court in Docomo dispute, and a failed sale by Tata Steel of its loss-making business in the UK.

Although the agenda of this year’s meeting is under the wraps, the focus would be on work culture and identifying steps to attract talent.

“The idea is to align the HR policies and work culture with changing times,” said an insider.

"The group has 600,000 employees in 100-odd companies across the world.

In his previous meetings with CEOs in 2014, Mistry had identified four clusters -- financial services, defence/aerospace, retail and infrastructure for investment.

The group also promised to invest $35 billion in three years starting 2014.

In the 2015 meeting, Mistry stressed on the need to build profitable and agile businesses even as it invested $10 billion worldwide in 2015.

In FY16, the financial metrics of the group improved as revenues of Tata group companies went up by 1.5 per cent to Rs 6,17,185 crore (Rs 6,171.85 billion) compared to the previous financial year, while profits were up 11 per cent to Rs 35,300 crore (Rs 353 billion).

Corporate analysts say Mistry has been facing far bigger challenges since last July.

For instance, the group is yet to come out with a plan to tackle the debt of Tata Teleservices, which would need an additional dose of Rs 3,000 crore (Rs 30 billion) from Tata Sons to repay its loans.

Besides, the group is staring at the prospects of paying $1.17 billion to buy back Docomo’s stake in the telecom company after a London arbitration court ruled against it.

Another big worry for the 48-year-old chairman is to stop bleeding at Tata Steel’s UK operations that is losing one million pounds a day.

The vote by British nationals to exit the European Union has made things worse for Tata Steel and it had to abandon the sale of the British businesses after inviting bids.

The impact of Brexit vote on its cash-churning Jaguar Land Rover sales in Europe is also going to be negative, say analysts.

The good news for group is the successful exits from loss-making investments by Indian Hotels in the US, sale of Neotel stake by Tata Telecommunications in South Africa and consistent good performance by software exporter Tata Consultancy Services and JLR.

With a market value of Rs 4,79,500 crore (Rs 4,795 billion) as on Monday, TCS is breaking all records of profitability and revenue growth.

And, it is because of TCS’ dividend booster that group holding company Tata Sons could make successful investments in new businesses including in two airlines.

Image: Tata Group chairman Cyrus Mistry. Photograph: Amit Dave/Reuters