New Delhi/Nagpur: The Tata Sons move to mandate a selection panel to find a new chairman for the group in the relatively short period of four months, has led to speculation that the $103 billion, Mumbai-based conglomerate may have already decided on the next chairman.
In 2010, in its move to find a successor for then chairman Ratan Tata, who was scheduled to retire in 2012, Tata Sons had formed a selection committee to hunt for the possible successor.
It took the group more than two years to come up with a list that reportedly included Ratan Tata’s half-brother Noel Tata and Pepsico chair Indra Nooyi, before Tata Sons, in a surprise announcement named, Cyrus Mistry.
“If it took them more than two years to hunt, then going by precedence, the announcement of a short period of four months, by when Tata Sons says a new chairman would be announced, shows that the group probably already has someone in mind,” said a person who has in the past collaborated on strategy decisions.
Speculation is rife in Bombay House that the future head would be an insider, probably from the Tata family or a Ratan Tata loyalist.
