THE SOFT SPOKEN GIANT

Much of the robustness and structural changes needed by the Tata Group’s businesses to be relevant and financially strong, were begun during Cyrus Mistry’s tenure as chairman

- Srinath Sridharan

NOT MUCH HAS BEEN WRITTEN about Cyrus Mistry’s leadership style. For a young 43-year-old, well- educated professional (from a wealthy family that held a significant, if minority stake in the Tata Group) to take charge as the Group Chairman, was no mean feat. And Mistry certainly was not a push over. He had studied civil engineering at Imperial College, London and acquired an MBA degree from the London Business School. He had been participating in his family’s business enterprise, which was largely concentrated on construction and infrastructure development.

Cyrus Mistry had entered his family business in 1991 as a director of Shapoorji Pallonji & Co. Ltd. In 1994, he assumed charge as the managing director of the group. Under his stewardship, the turnover of Shapoorji Pallonji’s construction business grew from $20 million to nearly $1.5 billion. He led the diversification of the group from construction to design and large- scale and difficult projects across oil and gas, railways and the marine sector.

It was around this time that the Shapoorji Pallonji’s group acquired many large construction projects in Hyderabad, which were then the dream city development project of the then Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh, Chandrababu Naidu. Many industry watchers attribute Mistry’s leadership style to have been “hands-on, fold-the-sleeves and getto-business”. For Mistry had seen the downturn during the realty slowdown, and worked with his team to hold on to the sustainability of business and to scale it further.

In the limelight