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(From left) Mr David McVeigh, Partner, McKinsey & Co, Mr Sudhir Jalan, Vice-Chairman, SICPA India Ltd, and Mr R. Gopalakrishnan, Executive Director, Tata Sons, in discussion during the 29th National Management Convention in Kolkata on Saturday.

KOLKATA, Sept. 14

AS a step towards consolidation of their shareholding in the group companies, the Tatas will continue to increase their stake in these organisations from the present average level of 30 per cent.

Mr R. Gopalakrishnan, Executive Director of Tata Sons, stated this while talking to newspersons after addressing the 29th National Management Convention organised by the All-India Management Association. Earlier, he spoke on the transformation of the Tatas at a technical session marked `creative destruction'.

According to him, the Tatas have silently made a huge transformation in the last 20 years. Earlier, it used to be a loose confederation with too many businesses, personality-driven, and there was not much of an opening to attract talent.

Moreover, the Tatas did not enjoy the security of shareholding as their stakes were as low as seven to eight per cent in the group companies. So, one of the major decisions taken by the group was to increase their stake. At present, their average stake is around 30 per cent.

"This is not the end as we will continue to increase our stake in group companies. This will be done by Tata Sons. It will all depend on the different market and business scenario," he told newspersons.

In the last two decades, the Tatas have entered 32 new businesses and invested Rs 10,691 crore. At the same time, they exited from 16 businesses at a price of Rs 2,435 crore.

When asked whether the Tatas were contemplating any fresh entry into a business or an exit from one, Mr Gopalakrishnan quipped with a smile: "Yes, we keep on doing it everyday, but we will not tell reporters."

Mr David McVeigh, partner of McKinsey & Co, was the other panellist participating in the session. He urged industrialists present to move at a faster pace than that of the market, be it in the field of research and development, planning or mergers and acquisitions.

He felt that even successful companies had to do a rethink about their control of the market or the risks they were taking in view of the fact that peripheral companies were waiting to cannibalise their business.

He said managers must decentralise their operation and instead try to manage the talent within the organisation so that the talent available could be organised to drive changes.

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