Insights From Global Leaders: T.V Narendran

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Insights From Global Leaders: T.V Narendran, CEO and MD of Tata Steel

1 Jul 2020
- admin
The 2nd Global Leader session that we had as our SOIL journey began, was amidst great degree of worry & preplexity regarding the COVID crisis, and more importantly us having to attend our classes on the online space. However, SOIL gave us the opportunity to interact with business leaders across domains, helping us to become the best versions of ourselves and this time it was none other than Mr. T.V. Narendran, CEO and MD of Tata Steel, one of the most important leaders of the Indian Steel industry.

An old comrade of Mr. Anil Sachdev, described aptly by him as someone who was highly respected and at the same time genuinely liked by all, a very rare combination for a leader to possess. He further lauded Mr. Narendran for his adroitness in understanding global business scenarios and for the perspicacity to comprehend complex problems. This session unfolded into a series of questions which Mr. Narendran answered with immense candour.

For his answer to a question as to when can a person be at the happiest best, Mr. Narendran stressed on the fact that success and happiness are intertwined. He believes that success comes only when a person works hard, and one can truly work hard if the person is doing what they like doing, meaning there shouldn’t be any ‘Monday blues’ going to work. He also shared why he loves working for Tata Steel, the bellwethers of the steel industry backed by robust operations. He explained how Tata Steel were amongst one of the few companies which successfully came out on top and even proliferated in the difficult years of 1990 and 2014, something that Mr. Narendran refers to as the crisis for the Steel industry. And as rightly said – “You can tell the tree by the fruit it bears” – the great leader that Mr. Narendran is today is largely because of the wind that he has beneath his wings.

Mr. Narendran further lauded Tata steel on different aspects – the camaraderie among the leadership teams, how Tata steel leveraged their strengths to blaze the trail when the chips were down in 2014, the well-established norms they have for the welfare of the blue collared job workers and their families, like the Suraksha scheme, so that the families don’t have to bear the brunt in case a worker dies on duty. Citing the strengths of Tata Steel, Mr. Narendran also showed awarenedd of the fact that a company which talks only of its glorious past has no future. He addressed the shortcomings he believes Tata Steel has at this point of time, and how they are working towards resolving them with measures such as striving to excel in technology, providing best in class customer experience, more breakthrough thinking, and most importantly: Displaying Agility.

Talking about the highs and lows in his life, we got to learn that Mr. Narendran is a maverick who gains satisfaction in doing something which goes against normal thinking. Branding a commodity like steel at TISCON brought him to the zenith of his professional career. However, he is also self-aware and honest to be critical of himself for not achieving the zero-fatality rate at his factories, something he yearned throughout his career.

He also answered everyone’s favourite question these days, his views on the current COVID crisis. Mr. Narendran believes that there’s no point feeling desolate about this whole situation and that a rough patch is always followed by a purple one. Although he admits that there is going to be a paradigm shift in the way things were before COVID, eg local supply chains will replace the old ones, a reduced brain-drain from India, etc. He preached that the need of the hour is to reflect upon what is most important to an organisation & focus on the same.

To conclude the session, he exhorted young leaders at SOIL to persevere and to have the never-say-die attitude. He reiterated the fact that success does not come easy and requires persistence. With these words he left everyone in awe till the next leadership session with another distinguished business leader.

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Mr T.V. Narendran is the global CEO and Managing Director of Tata Steel, one of the largest steel producers in the world. He is also on the Boards of Tata Steel Limited and Tata Steel Europe.
As an active member of the National Council of CII, Indian member in BRICS Business Council, member of the Indo-French CEO council & a Board member of the World Steel Association, his experience and insight in the world of business and metals industry is invaluable.
Mr. Narendran studied at NIT, Trichy and a Chevening Scholar. He followed up his engineering degree with an MBA from IIM Calcutta.

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About the Webinar Series: SOIL Founder & Chairman, Sh. Anil Sachdev gets into insightful conversations with Global Leaders every Thursday, 6:30 PM – 7:30 PM (IST). Every session will focus on:

-Insights from global leaders on how to become the best version of yourself

-How to leverage your unique talents and strengths to contribute your best to society & your work

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Key Takeaways & Learning by:

Udit Bhalla

PGPM – Business Leadership, Batch of 2021

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