Tata Group to launch mentorship program for handpicked ‘future leaders’

The Tata Group has now created a list of its future leaders who will be mentored by various senior executives. As per an Economic Times report, the company aims to build potential leaders so that they can handle the rapidly changing business environment.

As part of chairman Cyrus Mistry’s Vision 2015, the Tata Group is looking forward to double its market value to $350 billion in a decade.

NS Rajan, group chief human resources officer says, “Handholding for one year is not enough. When you are grooming future leaders you need to be involved for longer periods.”

Among these handpicked future leaders, a few will go back to school aiming to promote innovative thinking. Undergraduate professors are scheduled to take classes in organisational behavior, behavioural economics and industrial psychology, while painters, musicians, dancers and poets will help bring a new perspective.

"If you can start the process it will give you an opportunity to think differently. We normally look at any problem with a linear analytical lens; there is a need to exercise the right side of the brain. Today the customer is more informed and always has options and if you are not creative you will not put forward the best solutions," Rajan added.

The mentoring group will consist of the heads of more than one hundred Tata companies and core human resource team of Tata Sons. What more has been added to the training programme is that all potential front-runners will have one HR executive and a CEO/CXO assigned to guide them till they take over the reins at a group company.

The initiative comes along with Mistry’s plan to develop 25 companies similar to Tata Consultancy Services, which is country’s largest software exporter by market value.

If reports are to be believed, the Tata Administrative Service (TAS) will be the first to get be trained under the induction program. The programme won't be confined to TAS executives once it's rolled out, NS Rajan told the business daily.

"We have presented this model to a large number of TAS managers across (the) group and got (an) outstanding response from them. We have also discussed this with key stakeholders in our group companies," Rajan further said.

The company, however, didn’t conform on having Mistry in the mentoring team.

Mistry's Vision 2025, which was announced last year, is aimed at putting it in the same league as the top 25 most valuable companies in the world. The group will invest $35 billion (Rs 2.23 lakh crore) in the next three years across sectors with some of the focus areas being realty and infrastructure, defence and aerospace, consumer and retail, and financial services.

Image: indiatimes