Natarajan Chandrasekaran’s elevation to the top job at Tata Sons is being seen as major victory for the IT industry. Chandra, as the CEO of India’s largest software company, had always taken the leadership position when representing Indian IT industry.
Infosys co-founder Narayana Murthy said Chandrasekaran stands tall in the IT industry and has an extraordinary track record. “I wish him great success and I have no doubt that he will carry on the Tatas’ values and legacy,” Murthy said.
Others like R Chandrasekhar, president of Nasscom, also concurred and pointed out that the appointment is a right choice for the Tatas at the current juncture.
Some of the things that Chandrasekaran did within TCS — like setting up a design centre in the US much before some of its competitors, has impressed industry watchers who believe that he can steer the company towards a new direction.
Industry watchers opine that the Tatas need to make a stronger push in digitalising their business processes, at a time when all the world’s large corporations are seeing their businesses getting reshaped due to technology.
“Chandrasekaran would he would lead Tatas through digital transformation to re-ignite growth,” said Vineet Nayar, who set up Sampark Foundation after his stint as CEO at HCL Technologies.
Direction is the need of the hour. Krishnakumar Natarajan, Executive Chairman of Mindtree, said: “It is a complex task but as an aspirational leader he has the ability to motivate people and get them to give that extra bit more, which would help the Group going forward.”
Ganesh Natarajan, former Chairman of Nasscom and former CEO of Zensar Technologies, who is now Executive Chairman and Founder of skill development platform 5F World, feels that Chandrasekaran’s global outlook, handling of a diverse global workforce, and people-inclusive policies would help the group going forward,” he said.
To achieve the desired results, Chandrasekaran will do the simple but effective steps. S Sadagopan, Director or IIIT Bengaluru narrates an incident.
We invited him to be a chief guest a few years back. All it took was just one e-mail to get him to accept, which shows how organised he is and effective in his time management,” said Sadagopan.
Chandrasekaran is known to have a high emotional intelligence and is known to not drop shoulders. The Tatas would do well if he continues on that path going forward.