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Shubha Madhukar
Every year TAS picks the best and brightest
from the top management schools in India and grooms
them to become leaders through structured development
programmes. As TAS enters its 51st year, we take a look
at this unique programme
Twenty young boys and girls attired
in their corporate best stand around — a bit excited,
a bit impatient, and a little more than nervous. After
all it’s not everyday that you get a chance to
have an interaction with the chairman of the $60 billion
Tata Group.
There is an expectant hush as
Mr Ratan Tata enters. As he greets them warmly and welcomes
them to the Tata Group, the stiffness melts away and
soon the boardroom is buzzing with young voices animatedly
sharing and expressing their views and opinions. The
hour long discussion ends all too soon for the youngsters
but the promise of another meeting hangs in the air.
“The interaction with Mr
Tata was really the high point of our induction programme,”
says a delighted Archana Ram, who joined TAS from Mumbai’s
SP Jain Institute of Management. “His sheer presence
elevated the discussion to a different level. When you
engage him in a discussion you realise that behind the
humble exterior is a tough mind willing to go to any
length to uphold his conviction. His humility and integrity
make me feel proud to be a part of the Group.”
These are the youngsters who
joined the TAS leadership development programme, in
March 2006, through an exhaustive and challenging process.
The programmes build upon the dream envisioned by JRD
Tata who believed in education and training and wanted
to nurture young talent, who would imbibe the Tata culture
and grow up with the values of the Group to become accomplished
and responsible managers.
“TAS is a unique leadership
development programme that grooms young talent for challenging
positions across Tata Group companies,” says Rajesh
Dahiya, head — TAS and Sourcing.
Reinvention and revival
The journey over 50 years has not been an easy one.
To its credit, the programme has evolved with the changing
times. When it started in 1956, (it was then called
Tata Administrative Services) the objective was to groom
young people to be future leaders for the Tata Group.
In the 70s and 80s, the Tata
Group, considered a laidback Group, was not seen as
an attractive career destination in an era in which
marketing companies and MNCs ruled the campuses. The
1990s was a period of economic resurgence in India.
Liberalisation led to sweeping changes. The Group entered
new business areas and set up a new vision for itself.
It was more important than ever to have the right talent
to drive the Group’s vision forward. Companies
like TCS
and Titan,
in addition to Tata
Steel, Tata
Motors and Indian
Hotels provided opportunities that excited young
people.
It was a time when the TAS also
re-looked at its strategy and undertook several measures
to re-invent itself. It did a comprehensive makeover
exercise — structured approach, concentrated communication,
consistent engagement and competitive compensation packages
— which helped TAS regain its position as an attractive
employment destination.
It focused on recruiting from
the top business schools and concentrated on what it’s
best at — grooming the best and the brightest.
Dahiya explains, “The best Bschools have stringent
admission tests and provide us with an excellent catchment
pool of competent people. From the very first year they
are able to contribute in terms of productivity, output,
efficiency; the full worth of what the Group invests
in their training.”
Another important decision was
to be present at all campuses on Day 1. As Dahiya points
out, “Our presence on the Day 1 slot and the stringent
4-stage TAS selection process brings the best of the
talent into the Group.” TAS also worked on improving
its programme, salary, and added training outside India
— parameters which greatly influence a student’s
decision to join or not to join a company. This was
the
outcome of an on-campus survey.
On an average 85 per cent students
apply for TAS from the premiere MBA campuses. The Group
recruits about 20-25, depending on the requirement that
year. Interestingly, the number of women recruited is
increasing every year. In the last six years, TAS has
recruited 119 people from campuses, of which 36 have
been women.
GOAL-getters
The selection process is gruelling, starting from the
eight-page handwritten application in which students
have to write an essay on their aspirations and why
they wish to join the Tata Group.
The selected students then go
through a one year development programme. Says Dahiya,
“While life on a campus is tough, it doesn’t
compare to what TAS has in store for them. After all,
which other group or company can offer students the
exposure and experience of so many industries and business
areas? A TAS manager may do a stint at the Tata Motors
plant at Pune, then move to Mithapur to study the operations
at the chemical plant, and travel to New York to work
at TCS.”
A lot of effort goes into identifying
projects and opportunities that can excite young TAS
managers and add value to their skills, while continuing
to expose them to different functions and challenges.
Says
Dahiya, “Last year we ensured that at least one
of the four stints is an international assignment.”
TAS’s one-year development
module, called ‘group orientation and learning’
(GOAL), emphasises structured orientation through classroom
inputs at the Tata Management Training Centre (TMTC)
in Pune, and ‘field’ postings. It introduces
TAS trainees to the seven core sectors the Tata Group
operates in, its current and future challenges, and
its drive to become a truly global organisation.
Of GOAL’s four cross-functional,
cross-business and cross-located assignments, three
include stints of 15 weeks in the business functions
in three Tata companies. The fourth, a seven-week rural
assignment, exposes the trainees to the Tata corporate
social responsibility (CSR) programme and philosophy.
It introduces them to community work in rural India,
and enables them to understand the ethics of the Tata
Group — of giving back to the people what has come
from the people. Their education also continues regularly
at TMTC as part of the ‘continuous education and
learning programme’ (CELP).
Bonding with the best
Each TAS manager is assigned a mentor, and is placed
with different Group companies, through their five-year
development programme, following which they graduate
from being TAS managers to ‘Tata managers’.
Mentorship is both formal and
informal. TAS managers also interact with senior Group
executives, discussing business, professional or even
personal matters. It is not uncommon for R Gopalakrishnan,
executive director, Tata
Sons or Kishor Chaukar, MD, Tata
Industries to discuss business or individual professional
issues over a cup of coffee with a young TAS manager.
Many Tata leaders, including B Muthuraman, MD, Tata
Steel, Prasad Menon, MD, Tata
Power and Bhaskar Bhat, MD, Titan, invest considerable
time in engaging with them.
These interactions mean more
than passing on knowledge or insights. “The biggest
challenge is not making great general managers out of
greenhorn graduates; it is, in fact how to inculcate
the Tata culture into TAS managers,” says Dahiya.
TAS understands that what is expected of these recruits
is best learnt from senior Tata managers and arranges
regular interactions between them.
Dahiya and his team also hold
regular sessions with TAS trainees to review their training
and discuss any issues that they may have.
Building the brand
The Tata Business Leadership Awards was instituted in
2001 to build the TAS brand and awareness on campus.
It is one of the most eagerly anticipated competitions
in the Indian business school arena. The campus final
round of this national competition takes place across
the top seven business schools of the country. This
activity has raised the Tata profile considerably among
B-school students.
What has also helped is the interaction
with GCC members and managing directors of Tata companies
on the campus. “They speak the Tata language and
create an interest among the students to join the Tata
Group,” says Dahiya. The senior executives are
also part of the preliminary and final round selection
panel.
TAS is now ranked fifth —
and the only Indian company — among the top 10
most preferred recruiters at the premier Indian business
schools, according to the AC Nielsen Campustrack Survey
2006. TAS’s ranking improved from 29th in 2005
to fifth in 2006.
The campuses are no longer the
only route to joining TAS. TAS has started recruiting
two or three Tata employees each year through an in-house
process. This has generated a lot of positive feedback,
as employees see their own former colleagues move up
through the
TAS system. It has also increased the acceptability
of the TAS brand in Group companies. “This year
we received 550 applications from Tata employees,”
says Dahiya proudly.
“TAS is increasingly becoming
a key ingredient in the Group’s talent development
and deployment process. While Group HR’s leadership
development efforts have the potential to become a significant
source of competitive advantage — TAS promises
to be a key part of this edifice,” says Satish
Pradhan, executive VP — Group HR.
What started off five decades
ago as JRD Tata’s initiative to generate ‘cadres’
of talent with a shared vision has undoubtedly become
a critical talent resource for the Group.
In the words of Group Chairman
Ratan Tata: “We are in a competitive human capital
market and that young human capital is looking for quick
growth. The way to hold employees today is to make their
work and their day-to-day activities in the company
exciting and for them to profit from a reward-and-recognition
system that enables them to grow with the organisation.”
And TAS is aiming to do just that.
Uploaded on
July 12, 2007
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