[Sawyer]

Hmm...maybe this was an anecdotal example that wasn't completely accurate, maybe they later found a way of doing this without bribing, maybe they bribed their way into these; the observations about Tata are the relevant ones and remain accurate however, because they are from personal knowledge.

Other than the report of JRD of course; I haven't seen him rebuffing any politician, but he was reported widely to have, and it was characteristic of the man.
PS: an amusing memory from the past, in dealings with Tata Steel. The sales folk of another Tata company seeking an order from Tata Steel were on the back foot because it was felt that a non group competitor would find it easier to "deal" with purchase people in JSR, who it was thought would be shy in making demands on another group company and therefore not place an order on it. But no such thing; there wasn't any hesitation in making all terms known to the group company as well.

[Sawyer]

"Nusli Wadia, JRD's godson, serves a defamation notice on Tata Sons".

Now even the justifiably reputed amity in the Parsi community is going down. And those who remember his battles with Reliance in the 1980's will recall how experienced he is at corporate street fighting.

From bad to worse, this affair.

[volkman10]

Cyrus Mistry denies being hands-off chairman at TCS, says Ratan Tata was once open to selling firm.

- Cyrus Mistry says blaming him for not contributing to TCS and JLR success is an 'illusion'.

- Mistry's office said Ratan Tata had pitched for selling TCS to IBM.

- Mistry said Ratan Tata's 'ego' led to Corus deal at a high price.

Source

[Sawyer]

Oh dear, RNT is spiralling down in respect in my eyes. For this TCS selling report now which is almost certainly true. I can say that because I spent a lot of time in Bombay House in those days; and this is in line with the overall thinking there at the time. And I have had enough interactions with FC Kohli to know that he would have reacted to the proposal in the exact words used; he knew his mind, he knew TCS, and he always used the least possible words needed to express his strong views. A true great.

People who live in glass houses really should not throw stones. And Mistry's house, even if only because of less time in charge, has a lot less glass.

The Ratan Tata visit to the FM last week, almost certainly to get institutional support in EGMs and his reported tweet of today supporting demonetisation: Quid pro quo at work?

Could anyone have even dreamt of asking this question two months ago?

[heydj]

In this saga the loser is professional image of Indian corporate. It was not great to begin with but now its even worse.

Ratan Tata and Tata group is not a normal company, they like to make big ticket purchases that make 80% business sense and 20% satisfy egos and nationalistic ideals. E.g. Buying crown jewels of British Car industry or owning Air India or Corus steel or owning erstwhile palaces as hotels. If Buckingham palace is ever for sale I have a feeling Tata group would be first in line to buy.

Tata Chairman is supposed to be pragmatic and be able to see things in shades of grey. For complete accountant mentality he has army of consultants, tax guys etc.

Whereas Cyrus Mistry in my view is a man who only sees things in black and white and for him it should make 100% business sense. He is first a accountant and then maybe a leader, whereas in chairman role a bit of pragmatic view is also important.

This is what let Cyrus to offload things such as Steel ops in England etc. But that would lead Tata to loose their crown jewels and this is not how the company has grown.

Cyrus with business acumen and accountant mentality is perfect candidate for lead positions in other companies but within Tata not as Chairman.

This mismatch everyone should have known to begin with so either the board felt they wanted to go in accountant direction or felt he might end up being more.

[volkman10]

Tata Steel removes Cyrus Mistry as chairman.

• O P Bhatt, independent director on the board, has been elected as interim chairman
• Mistry was unceremoniously removed as the chairman of Tata Sons last month and replaced by his predecessor Ratan Tata

The board has also decided to convene an extraordinary general meeting (EGM) to remove Mistry and independent director Nusli Wadia as directors on the board of the company.The EGM will be held on December 21.

Source

[Mortis]

I have a feeling that Cyrus Mistry was initially in line to 'inherit' the Tata empire after Ratan Tata is no more and was trying to restructure the company in a fashion that he preferred from now itself so that he would inherit a company on the right track and this method of working did not go down too well with the higher ups like Ratan Tata.

Anyways I feel that this could have been handled privately and as such it is none of our business what struggles take place inside a company

[Sawyer]

Originally Posted by Mortis

Anyways I feel that this could have been handled privately and as such it is none of our business what struggles take place inside a company

I agree with the first; as a Tata company shareholder, I disagree with the second.

[rkg]

http://www.firstpost.com/business/ta...s-3133854.html


http://www.firstpost.com/business/ta...t-3131754.html

[volkman10]

Ratan Tata prevented key reforms in Tata Motors,Ratan Tata insecure about his legacy : Cyrus Mistry. in a letter to the shareholders of group firms.

Tata Motors was close to finalising for the first time, a productivity-based agreement with labour unions. Ratan Tata called the labour unions and asked the union leaders for their public support and in return undermined the introduction of the incentive linked to productivity

The union leaders were paraded before the waiting media and Tata Motors did not get the benefit of a key work reform measure

Even after being removed as chairman of Tata Sons - the holding company of the Tata Group, Mistry continues to head the group's several listed firms including Tata Motors, Tata Power, Tata Steel and Tata Chemicals.

ET

[manson]

Taking the battle to the social media, interesting advertising on our forum:
http://www.cyrusforgovernance.com/?u...tm_campaign=ad

[pganapathy]

The longer this whole "hungama" goes on, the more convinced I am Ratan Tata is wrong. He chose a direction for the Tata's by selecting Cyrus and then did not allow him to go in that direction because he did not like the outcome of the business being run by a hard nosed accountant whose philosophy was "profit and income decide which business to cut or keep". If he did not want this route, he should have selected somebody else who would either be a figurehead and let RNT rule from behind the scenes or would have run the company with RNT's philosophy. Today it leads us to question some of the decisions made by the Tata's. Was Corus really a worthwhile acquisition. What direction are they taking regarding the Nano. Is the group as a whole actually profitable. Are internal controls good enough to prevent fraud, as seems to be the case in Air Asia. I really wish this issue gets resolved quickly and for me the best actual outcome would be if Cyrus actually wins the battle because I feel he is a better Chairman to take Tata's forward into the 21st century. The old tried and tested way of doing business will not help the company thrive in the future. If they do not adapt I can see them dying

[RavenAvi]

Cyrus Mistry details what went wrong with Tata Motors in the past, in an open letter to the company's shareholders.

"During the last four years, the market has become significantly competitive, with over 5 MNCs launching over 50 new products. In this time, TML has launched only 2 new products, the Bolt and Zest, which were an evolution of the past design language. Other models such as the Manza, Vista and Safari Storme were seen as only facelifts.

The existing product pipeline needed a great deal of work to ensure the company had aspirational products going into the future. Lastly we had had some legacy passenger car product lines which had a large negative contribution and suffered from large discounts in the market place further eroding market share and brand perception.

Apart from the product portfolio issues, TML suffered from issues relating to quality and service responsiveness, all having an adverse impact on the Brand."

On JLR:

"The decisions taken today will decide its future resilience. The company faces many challenges, but also many opportunities. The strategy at JLR has been to achieve scale as well as minimise currency and supply chain risks by investing in new facilities."

ET Auto

[RSR]

It's very clear that Cyrus Mistry & his allies are not going to give up without a fight.

Mr. Mistry takes his case directly to netizens. As a subset of this much broader category, BHPians haven't been left out:

[ajmat]

The is was pretty compelling article

http://www.thehindu.com/business/Tru...e16790592.ece1