Ratan Tata, chairman of the steel-to-software conglomerate, is planning a five-fold increase in its sales target over the next nine years with key focus on acquisitions, without which the group would have only been a $65 billion company.
According to a report in the Business Standard, Tata Group is targeting revenues of $500 billion by the financial year ending in March 2021. The plan was unveiled at a meeting with around 500 senior group executives last month, the newspaper said.
Chairman Tata will step down in December this year, and will hand over the baton to Cyrus Mistry. Getty Images
Chairman Tata will step down in December this year, and will hand over the baton to Cyrus Mistry, deputy chairman and a former member of the board of holding company Tata Sons. Unlike Ratan Tata who is an alumnus of the HBS Advanced Management Program, Mistry is a BE from Imperial College, London and a masters from London Business School. Even though big bang reforms are unlikely to place in the next eight months, the direction seems to have been set, said an Economic Times report. “Mistry and Tata are finalising a plan for consolidation of various businesses with the focus on profitability and scalability,” it said.
The 74-year-old Tata has led the conglomerate since 1991 and has embarked on a global shopping spree that has brought companies such as UK tea brand Tetley, European steelmaker Corus and luxury car manufacturer Jaguar Land Rover into the Tata stable.The scale of Tata’s ambition is evident from the fact that in the 2011 Fortune 500 global list, the largest company was Walmart, with a turnover of Rs 21.05 lakh crore, said the Business Standard report.
Around two-thirds of its revenue is generated overseas. The group posted revenues of $83 billion in the financial year ending in March 2011, and is expected to see revenues of $100 billion in the year that ended last month, the newspaper said.
With input from Reuters
