To be, or not to be, that is the question:
Whether ’tis Nobler in the mind to suffer
The Slings and Arrows of outrageous Fortune,
Or to take Arms against a Sea of troubles,
And by opposing end them
- Hamlet, William Shakespeare
“It was a bad start,” says Leahy. And he blames Kirby Adams. (Adams, once MD of BlueScope Steel, was chosen by B Muthuraman, then MD of Tata Steel, to replace Philippe Varin, who was exiting Corus after seeing off the acquisition.) “We had a fraught relationship with Adams,” says Leahy. “He didn’t understand how to deal with unions. It was an unmitigated disaster.” Not surprisingly, Adams left in 2010. Even as all of this was happening, a slowdown started to loom and job cuts were rising.
Cyrus Mistry knows this. He fears that delays and cost overruns might rob Tata Steel of its advantages. Late last year, Mistry was in Jamshedpur addressing senior executives of the company. He was blunt: “You guys have won all the top awards in the steel sector. But how is it that you can’t execute your project on time?” Inside Bombay House, Mistry is said to have asked probing questions in meetings on the progress of the project. Often, the level of detail that he has sought has left most of the existing leaders stumped. “It was a subtle way of telling the top team that they didn’t have enough of a pulse on the company’s most critical project,” says an insider.
Chatterjee believes operations are turning around in the continent. “Benefits from the improvement programme may not be visible right now due to adverse economic conditions. But in another two years, Tata Steel Europe would be in a much better condition,” he says.
The Russian Roulette
(This story appears in the 19 April, 2013 issue of Forbes India. To visit our Archives, click here.)
mention this magazine in any plant management intro , plant position , manufacturing
on Oct 24, 2013Capitalist shenanigans...eats up its own babies...notice how little has been written about the brutal killings at Kalingangar a decade ago...life of poor tribals is fluff-stuff for these Jamshedarites..fear and betrayal of those who trust them most is coded into their DNA
on Jul 22, 2013It is alleged that this article caused some officials at Tata Steel to intimidate Tata Steel\'s Head of Corporate Communications to the point that he recently committed suicide. I fail to understand what was such in this article that caused those fellows to fall so down?
on Jul 6, 2013Brilliantly written piece. Very well researched and analysed. Good job!
on Jul 5, 2013Brilliantly researched and very well written - gives a thorough picture of the current condition of Tata steel
on Jul 4, 2013Excellent eye opening article -soft take over was indeed a mistake.However,there seem to be no choice as Tata Steel did not have Indian managers with international experience to take over key positions in Corus. Corus acquisition was not a mistake -it was a right fit with Corus having wealth of R
on Jul 4, 2013Insider story. It will be very interesting to see how a CFO (Kaushik Chatterjee) transforms into a CEO. In manufacturing ( particularly Steel), CEO challenges are very unique. May be Cyrus Mistry can follow the process used by Rata Tata, which resulted in Cyrus getting the top job!
on Jul 4, 2013Excellent article .. thoroughly researched .. looks like an insider wrote it.
on Jun 10, 2013With Europe still slow, China slowing with a real estate bubble bursting and India dragging along at a slow pace, the macro picture over the next 3-4 years is gloomy. Add to that the supply glut with Chinese mills , JSW and Essar in India and Tata Steel will continue to remain flat. The question is can a new financial CEO improve return on capital by integrating the operations in Europe and controlling costs in India remains to be seen. The trigger for the Tata Steel stock will therefore come from internal improvements rather than external factors. Ratan Tata\'s biggest mistake was making a very big acquisition. As a thumb rule if an acquired company is more than 1/3 the acquirer, it\'s asking for trouble. So Tata succeeded with Nat Steel and flopped with Corus
on May 27, 2013Superb aritcle!
on Apr 23, 2013Tata should try taking leafs from other European Steel magnets (Arcelor-Mittal) of ending the diverse cross-cultural leadership issues.
on Apr 15, 2013