The Tata group has hit upon an interesting way to manage talent within the group
Since December last year, managers in the Tata group have been a bundle of nerves. In that months, the group rolled out an ambitious project to change the way it manages talent. The possible ramifications have got the managers in a tizzy.

In the past, managers were groomed within individual companies. The group restricted its role to grooming elite cadre Tata Administrative Services (TAS) and the Tata management Training Centre (TMTC). But now, instead of just grooming a few high-fliers, it will cast its net wider, says R. Gopalakrishnan, executive director, Tata Sons: "Just as we manage assets, cash, trademarks and brands across the whole group, we must learn to manage talent across the whole group."

As he sees it, managers develop when they are exposed to a lot of job experiences – across geographical regions, industries and functions. Now, while the Tata group could offer a range of jobs, given the number of industries it has interests in, the earlier talent management system simply didn’t allow it. A management trainee who showed promise at Tata Engineering (Telco) would be put on the fast track, but his career was restricted to Telco alone. In other words, he could rise only within Telco. And moving managers from one company to another was easier said than done. Moving employees even within the engineering industry, from Telco to Tata Steel, for example, would be difficult, given the glaring disparities in either salaries or work content for the same designation.

Enter work levels.
In 2000, when the group was trying to figure out how employees could be moved from one company to another, Gopalakrishnan had a brainwave. He remembered a book by Professor Billis that he had read way back in 1981. It had come to the startling conclusion that regardless of size, no organisation had over six points where decisions have to be made. Recalls Gopalakrishnan: "If we could get to that level of precision, we could really flatten the whole organisation." In July that year, he made a presentation to group chairman Ratan Tata and other senior colleagues, and suggested that work levels be implemented across all group companies.

To fit into the new framework, all the management jobs in the group would have to be studied. As the book had recommended, no group company would have over six Tata Work Levels (TWL), though many would have less than six. Says Gopalakrishnan: "We have around 80 companies in the group. But, can we say that the MDs of all these companies are on a par with each other?" That would be like saying the US president has the same powers as the president of Tonga. To get around that problem, all group companies were classified into three ‘scopes’. Scope 1 companies are large and/or complex (like Telco and Indian Hotels), Scope 2 companies are large but not too complex (Rallis, Voltas), while Scope 3 companies are medium-sized (Tata Infomedia).

Next, all managerial jobs in the group were categorised into one of the six levels. This was based on the level of managerial work that managers did, irrespective of the size or complexity of their company. The work levels were graded from F to A – F being the lowest level of management. Rising up the ladder, the management scope rose to encompass leadership, performance and accountability. At the very top was the CEO, who was responsible for running the enterprise, and delivering results and shareholder returns. So Ravi Kant, executive director, Telco, and R.K. Krishna Kumar of Indian hotels, both of which are Scope 1 companies, would belong to A.