[AZT]

Tata Motors says Marc not joining as MD & CEO

Guenter Butschek will continue as the CEO & managing director till 30 June, 2021, Tata Motors said

https://www.livemint.com/companies/n...160794127.html

[Desi Dybuk]

This is quite a perplexing news & I believe there is more here than that meets the eye.

Hires of executives at such a high level would have gone through a multitude of background checks, negotiations with the candidates, their peers etc. From announcement of the new CEO on 12th February to the news of him not joining on 19th March is hardly a month!

What happened? Marc Llistosella claims he doesn't want to relocate to India at this time. I don't buy this. Wasn't he aware that he will have to move to India to head India's 3rd largest automaker? And it's not like he's unaware of India; he set-up the Bharat Benz factory in India & spent almost a decade in India.

It begs the questions:

1. Were compensation items not acceptable to either party? This can't be a reason because at CEO level, all these negotiations are done & dusted before they are announced publicly.

2. Did they find out some deal-breaker about each other & didn't want to end up holding the bag? (Could be candidate's past performance, personal issues or something else or in the case of the employer something about the company such as cooked books etc. We can only speculate.)

3. Was hiring him not a majority decision of the the Tata Sons board & even after he was announced as the pick, internal machinations prevailed?

This news reflects poorly on Marc Llistosella & Tata Motors as well as parent company Tata Sons.

Tatas just seem to be very bad at picking outside talent for top management positions who are not from the promoter families. Earlier it was the saga of Cyrus Mistry or suicide of Karl Slym & now this. This is not a behaviour expected of listed public companies, let along a vaunted brand like the Tatas

Something is not right here.

[balmeter]

Could it be that Llistosella not joining Tata Motors might have to do with the company finding a partner for its PV business and the new partner having a say as who gets the top job?

[GTO]

Originally Posted by AZT

Tata Motors says Marc not joining as MD & CEO

Have never heard of such a u-turn anywhere. Somehow, Tata's top posts have always had a string of bad luck. This lack of stability is concerning, especially when the company's product range & marketing are better than ever. Karl Slym met an extremely unfortunate death, Carl-Peter Forster (a celebrity hire) had shockingly quit in less than 2 years, genius Mayank Pareek was said to have resigned prematurely (then reworded as retirement), Mistry was unceremoniously shown the door, Ranjit Yadav (president of passenger vehicles) had quit within just 3 years, Vinod's leaving (Tata Motors commercial vehicles marketing head resigns) was a big blow to its CV division, as was Pisharody's exit.

Lest we forget, the chair of Tata Motor's CEO has been empty for a long time during searches for a new leader.

Originally Posted by Desi Dybuk

This is quite a perplexing news & I believe there is more here than that meets the eye.

Most definitely. Agreed.

Originally Posted by balmeter

Could it be that Llistosella not joining Tata Motors might have to do with the company finding a partner for its PV business and the new partner having a say as who gets the top job?

Could be. Very good point, if there has indeed been a last minute development. That said, even if Tata PV finds a new partner, Tata will most definitely maintain majority control (thus the CEO of the new entity wouldn't change).

[locusjag]

Amid all of this, I wonder why Tata even had to look outwards when they have an in-house cadre in the Tata Administrative Services (TAS), who get groomed to man leadership roles across the conglomerate? The TAS is supposed to be an elite and much sought after group within Tata enterprises, not unlike IAS or other prestigious UPSC roles in the Government.

Tata seems to be functioning incongruously to me.

[apachelongbow]

Originally Posted by locusjag

Amid all of this, I wonder why Tata even had to look outwards when they have an in-house cadre in the Tata Administrative Services (TAS), who get groomed to man leadership roles across the conglomerate? The TAS is supposed to be an elite and much sought after group within Tata enterprises, not unlike IAS or other prestigious UPSC roles in the Government.

Tata seems to be functioning incongruously to me.

The same reason why an IAS never becomes the PM. The TAS cadre folks are big time paper pushers. They only know Excel sheets, cost benefit analysis and ROI. Most don't have the life experience, knowledge or the passion to work in technical fields like aviation or automobiles. To head a large automobile company one can't think like a delivery head of say Infosys and only plan man, material and returns.

[balmeter]

Originally Posted by GTO

Could be. Very good point, if there has indeed been a last minute development. That said, even if Tata PV finds a new partner, Tata will most definitely maintain majority control (thus the CEO of the new entity wouldn't change).

It doesn't have to be that way that the one owing majority stake gets to appoint the CEO, Is it? Case in point being the AirAsia India, the Tatas had the majority stake by mid 2016 -2017 but the CEO post was offered to Amar Abrol, a key aide of Air Asia founder Tony Fernades. However, other key management posts in AirAsia India were taken up by Tata Group.

So, I guess, a similar thing is being done here with the new partner of Tata PV having a say in the CEO post while other key positions in the management is being retained by Tata Group.

[heydj]

Can we apply for the role? As it is whoever they hired in past has not been able to make Tata Motors a name to reckon with so what have they to loose.

Compared to pencil pushers of TAS we have following advantages:
- Passion for cars
-Passion to see tata succeed
-Passion to finally get our say in designing a car from ground up and deciding the feature set.

Coming to the topic of CEO not joining - why not get someone from Maruti or Hyundai with 10 year goal.

[Kols]

Did Marc pull of a classic here by using the tactic to negotiate a fatter compensation back with Daimler?

On a serious note, I believe the possibilities and speculations around such a move could be endless, but the one which mentions about the possible PV partnership as a reason doesn't seem to be logical. Marc's background indicated company's clear focus on CV business so how can hiving-off PV business change that decision (not to mention that the PV news was older than Marc's appointment news).

TATA cars are important discussion topic for us BHPians and I love them too, but they contribute very little to the group top line and make a loss while doing that. IMO, the trajectory for PV looks similar to what Volvo-Truck/cars-Geely episode.

Wishing TATA Motors all the Best they deserve.

[speedguy]

Originally Posted by GTO

Have never heard of such a u-turn anywhere. Somehow, Tata's top posts have always had a string of bad luck.

Let's not forget Mr. Timothy Liverton also. He was CTO when Mr. Karl Slym was driving company out of the woods & had done great work at the engineering front. Tim Liverton left the company in a hurry without caring much about anything.

[400notout]

https://news.google.com/articles/CAI...N&ceid=IN%3Aen

Tata Motors has compensated German national Marc Llistosella, whom it had hired to lead the company but withdrew the offer before he could take charge, it is learned.

[shortbread]

Originally Posted by 400notout

https://news.google.com/articles/CAI...N&ceid=IN%3Aen

Does this mean TML found a better replacement, otherwise why go through all this trouble?

Is Guenter staying on, which would be great news. OR does this have something to do with a recent resignation from another Indian auto major?

[drive_factor]

Yes they have found a better replacement. Promoted from within the ranks. Will be heading the PV, EV and Alternative Fuels vehicles.

TML PV business recent successes and gains are largely due to him and a bunch of other low profile leaders.

Expect an announcement soon in media.