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If you thought that the to-be-anointed Chairman of the Tata group, Mr Cyrus Mistry, at 43, is really young to be heading a multi-billion dollar group, it would come as a surprise to know that Mr J.R.D. Tata, who headed the group for 50 years, was just 34 years old when he took over as Chairman in 1938. He stepped down 50 years later in 1988.
Mr Ratan Tata was elected Chairman of Tata Sons in 1991 at the age of 54.
A few Tata group executives Business Line spoke to were quite surprised to note that their new Chairman to be is so young, in fact, younger than most of the CEOs of the Tata group. But it should really be no surprise to the corporate sector as Indian CEOs have been getting younger. Examples abound. Mr Nitin Paranjpe was appointed as the youngest-ever MD & CEO of Hindustan Unilever when he was 45; Ms Chanda Kochhar took over from Mr K.V. Kamath at ICICI Bank when she was 47, while Mr D. Shivakumar was appointed MD of Nokia India, the country's largest multinational firm, when he was under 45 years.
In April 2009, Business Line front-paged an article ‘Indian CEOs are from ‘youngistan' now'. It quoted Mr Harish Devarajan, former HR head, Hindustan Unilever, now CEO of People Unlimited, a leadership consulting firm, as saying that in today's context, what is required is the capability and willingness to understand the changing circumstances and learn/adapt to newer approaches. This is more often found in the younger managers than among the veterans.
“Experience can never be out of fashion. But the evolving view is that it is not necessary that you have to experience everything that matters – you can leverage on the relevant experience of those with whom you closely work,” he said. As Mr Harish explained, youngsters often are not shackled by the burden of past experiences, and in today's fast changing environment past experiences are not necessarily valid all the time. So, all eyes will be on Mr Mistry when he takes over as Chairman in December 2012, when Mr Ratan Tata steps down.
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