The Rs 40,000-crore Tata Group is in for a transformation which will see its human resource (HR) function being aligned to increased financial performance. Towards this, the Tata Group has roped in Dr Wayne Brockbank, clinical professor of business at the University of Michigan Business School, an HR guru who has been instrumental at bringing about similar transformations at Unilever, GE, Motorola, Citicorp, General Motors, Ford, Hewlett Packard, among others.

In an exclusive interview to FE, Dr Brockbank said: “The Tata group is in the middle of a very important transformation in the last few years. It has redefined much of its portfolio and now is in the process of redefining the capabilities it needs to have on the part of its people to compete on a whole variety of different businesses. They’ve invited me to come and work with them on this transformation, based on the empirical research we’ve done on best practices.”

The transformation is expected to be completed in six months, said Dr Brockbank.

“The most important challenge that any company faces is that of aspiration and desire to perform better. Based on the meetings I’ve had with the Tata group, the aspirations are there and now I’m hoping that the process will give them the mechanisms and logic that will help them achieve those aspirations through their people more strongly,” said Dr Brockbank.

This logic will be applied to Tata businesses individually to see how the businesses inter-relate to each other. “We’ve been in discussions with the Tatas at different levels of intensity for about a year and a half. Now we are in the middle of making it happen and within a month and a half, we should have the full line of strategies and plans in place. We are at the stage of still identifying the numbers that will be impacted by this - that step will be completed in two-and-half weeks,” he added.

He said the entire process was to enable the group to achieve better financials and market shares than it had in the past.

“At this stage, we have identified what is it that we want to be able to have HR practices that impact financial performance to a greater degree in the future than they have in the past. We believe that the best way to do that is to make sure that the HR practices are specifically driving the cultural and technical capabilities that different Tata group companies need to have to get better financial results,” Dr Brockbank explained.

One of the key aspects of the research is - there is a linkage between four factors that come together to provide the foundation for the modified model that Dr Brockbank is using. “It represents an integration of culture management with fast change, strategic direction setting and linking the organisation with its external environment on an ongoing basis,” he said.

However, Dr Brockbank said there will not be a single HR strategy for the group - “a central HR strategy for the group will emerge based upon the overlap that exists over different businesses.”

The company is looking to retain its sensitivity, in the face of dramatic changes in HR policies. The Tatas, while adopting Dr Brockbank’s ideas, plan to maintain the soft-hard balance in dealing with HR despite making leap-frog changes.

According to Dr Brockbank, what makes the transformation at the Tata group more exciting is that, outside of GE, and maybe a few Japanese companies, there is no more complex portfolio of companies that make up a group in the world. “To develop a systematically customised comprehensive HR strategy that is at the same time very customised to local businesses and will at the same time leverage the strengths throughout the group, is something that has seldom been undertaken anywhere in the world,” he said, adding that GE had been doing it for several years but there have been very few companies that are undertaking it as aggressively as the Tatas are in their HR practices.