Tata's leadership programme reaches out to Corus
The Economic Times — January 7, 2008

TAS, the famous leadership development programme of the Tata Group, is being rolled out in Corus, the British steel company acquired early last year by the group.

TAS (Tata Administrative Service), conceived by late group chairman JRD Tata in the 1950s, was set up to groom select employees and provide managerial resources to all group companies. This initiative is now reaching out to the 30,000-odd employees at Corus.

Though TAS has been opened for all the Tata-owned companies, this is the first time that a formal presentation has been made because Corus has a large number of employees. "You need to have people from diverse parts of the group for integrative mechanism. This is taking management process to the next level," says Satish Pradhan, executive vice president, group HR, Tata Sons.

This move was initiated three months back when TAS requested Corus to participate in various activities. The activities include participating as panelists at campus recruitments and judging Tata Business Leadership Awards.

Also, the UK company's managers have been asked to participate in the group's student connect programmes for guest lectures, workshops and panel discussions at institutes as well as to mentor young TAS managers.

"The challenge of marketing TAS to a closed audience is far more formidable that what it was in 1990s when TAS had to compete with brands like Accenture, HLL etc at B-schools," said Rajesh Dahiya, head, TAS and Sourcing.

Until a few years back, TAS went only to campuses for recruitment. From 2004, entry to TAS has been open to all the employees of Tata group including the ones from acquired companies. Pradhan says that though the number of applications from these companies has been negligible, they are being encouraged so as to bring about diversity.

Mr Dahiya says that the demand for TAS mangers from the acquired companies is also popular. "Every year there is a demand for 3-5 TAS managers from Tetley," he adds. Tetley was acquired by Tata Tea in 2000.

TAS was conceived by J R D Tata, the late chairman of the Tata Group, in 1957. Under the programme, TAS managers work across companies, industries and functions for the first five years. This is essentially done to prepare managers for greater challenges and provide macro view of running businesses.