With improved programmes, faculty and facilities, the Tata Management Training Centre in Pune is better equipped than ever to meet its objective: making leaders of managers. Director V. J. Rao explains how

Densely wooded and artistically landscaped, the Tata Management Training Centre (TMTC) rests on a 15-acre island of tranquillity in the hustle and bustle of Pune. Housed in what was once a private bungalow, the Centre has managed to retain an old-world charm while changing itself to meet the challenges of the new millennium.

Facilitating the transformation is V. J. Rao, the Tata Group’s vice-president (learning) and the Centre’s director. In this interview with Shobha Ramswamy, he shares his vision for the organisation.

Could you tell us something about TMTC’s history?
Mr J. R. D. Tata, the then chairman of the Tata Group, inaugurated this institution in January 1966. The Centre was established with the objective of focusing on leadership development within the group. Since then TMTC has devoted its efforts to promoting leadership development in the group, through the design and delivery of world-class training programmes. This continues to be our mission.

The Centre has been responsible for a lot of creative work. TMTC’s activities include teaching, research, seminars, consultancy and the publications of journals. We have a faculty of 11 people and an extensive infrastructure framework that supports and enriches our endeavours.

As the organisation grew, so did our capacities. To completely utilise our spare rooms, we started doing programmes for non-Tata companies. Soon we had an extremely good client roster, which included Morgan Stanley, Cummins, the Indian Administrative Service, the Indian Police Service and the Indian Foreign Service. Now we also host delegations sponsored by international bodies such as the European Union.

The increasing popularity of our programmes has resulted in our non-Tata clientele accounting for almost 50 per cent of the total utilisation. This has helped the Centre considerably in adding revenues and in making a marginal profit.

It was then decided, two years back, to reverse the earlier directive. Now TMTC could have non-Tata clients. Since then we have been trying to get our earlier customers back into our fold. This does not mean that we have shifted our primary focus, which remains leadership development within the Tata Group. While continuing to hold programmes for the group, we will be filling up the spare capacity with non-Tata clients.

Sometime back we commissioned a survey on the Centre. The feedback from our customers has helped us tremendously in understanding them, their requirements and demands. The survey made us realise that TMTC needed to move up the value chain. The need was to impart more relevant and contemporary learning to participants from the corporate as well as non-corporate world.

Our internal customers wanted us to provide programmes that were not available in house. For example, Tata Steel and Tata Engineering wanted TMTC to avoid programmes that were available with, or were being conducted by, them. Secondly, it was clear that we needed to improve our faculty, which rated as only average (we had lost most of our faculty over the years). Thirdly, we needed to better some of our infrastructure, especially the classrooms.

What are the strategies being adopted by TMTC to get back on track?
The strategies that we have formulated address all these issues. TMTC now draws on a host of faculty and facilitators from academia and industry, from India and abroad. Also, we have moved away from normal communication programmes to a higher level. The focus is on areas like corporate governance and customer strategy.

These programmes are especially directed at professionals, and they address issues such as functional excellence, general management skills and individual capabilities, with the goal being an enhancement of leadership effectiveness. The Centre holds programmes on all the functional areas of management, with special emphasis on new and emerging themes.

The ultimate aim of all these programmes is to drive performance parameters: increase in revenue, productivity and improved quality and customer service. All our courses are interactive, experiential and they help participants exploit opportunities in their areas of work.

Additionally, we have recently upgraded our classrooms. Takshashila, our classroom-cum-auditorium, has been renovated in the Harvard style (it is one of the best auditoriums in Pune). Gurukul, another of our classrooms, can now accommodate about 25 participants and has a flexible seating arrangement. The campus also has new rooms and an all-new computer lab.

What initiatives are you pursuing to popularise your programmes?
We are slowly stepping up our marketing efforts. We have started sending out mailers to our database of 1,800 companies to announce our programmes, and we have tied up with Tata Infomedia to market our programmes. Our brochures are more comprehensive and better designed than before. Moreover, we have started giving out certificates to every person attending our programmes. Merchandising, in the form of TMTC mugs and T-shirts, has been another one of our initiatives.

Besides, we are increasing awareness about the Centre through our website. In the pipeline are co-branding seminars with premier management institutes and industry organisations such as the Confederation of Indian Industry. We are looking at taking our seminars out of Pune to cities like Mumbai or Delhi. This way we can reach a much wider audience.

To encourage Tata managers to teach and share their experiences and best practices, we have started a ‘learning-point’ scheme. Students rate these managers after every session they conduct. The rating system is based on points, which can be exchanged for Tata products.

What are your future goals?
TMTC is concentrating on training programmes that deal with contemporary issues, as experienced by organisations and participants. Our future aims include looking at leadership development in the Tata Group, developing functional excellence, research and case studies on Tata Companies, greater integration with the Tata Business Excellence Model, change-management consulting to Tata companies, the development of individual and organisational diagnostic tools, and executive MBA programme for Tata managers.

Uploaded in August 2003