PROFESSIONAL ASSIGNMENT I

Prawar Budhathoki

Kings College

BUS-500 – Organizational Leadership

PROFESSOR: Dr.Rajib Subba

DATE: 20th January 2020

Introduction 

Leadership is the power to influence people. Leadership is a seemingly desirable compentency

that has not been elucidated in the literature. (Khoshhal & Guraya 2016). Leadership has always

been the difference between being average. It is all about the vision and mission of the person

that transcends the company to new heights as well as people who are around the leader.

According to James Kouzes and Barry Posner, The Leadership Challenge, leadership is the art

of mobilizing others to want to struggle for shared aspirations. There are many myths

surrounding leaders, such as them being charismatic, is a rare ability only given to a few and

such but in reality, a leader can be anyone with the drive and the desire. A genuine leader is

expected to have the desirable qualities like: (i) honesty, (ii) competency, (iii) forward-looking,

(iv) inspiration, (v) intelligence, (vi) fair-mindedness, (vii) broad-mindedness, (viii) courage, (ix)

straightforwardness, and (x) imagination (Khoshhal & Guraya ,2016).

Introduction of the Leader

The leader that I admire is Ratan Tata. He was the CEO/Chairman of Tata Group from 1992 until

2012 and then again from 2016 until 2017. As per their website, “Founded by Jamsetji Tata in

1868, the Tata group is a global enterprise, headquartered in India, comprising over 100

independent operating companies. The group operates in more than 100 countries across six

continents, with a mission 'To improve the quality of life of the communities we serve globally,

through long-term stakeholder value creation based on Leadership with Trust' (Tata Sons Ltd,
2018). Under his tutelage, the Tata Group rose to prominence through his leadership style and

his charisma and his vision.

From a humble beginning, Ratan Tata made Tata Group to a conglomerate that it is today. Born

in a poor family’s, Tata asserted his role by first having a vision. His vision was to see the

growth of the company and succeed in the global front. This was his calling. According to the

textbook, one of the five practices of leadership is having an inspired vision that could be shared.

He understood the perception and expectations of him as the leader. He was well aware of the

conflicts that may arise between other heads of departments and stakeholders. The need to

diversify his company would lead Tata Groups which would be synonymous of the vision and

his own footprint to the history and legacy of his company that had survived decades of growth

and success. Over the years, he experienced the growth of his family business but regardless of

such success he was not afraid to take risks and broaden his empire to newer areas of the market.

He led the way into newer markets which denotes the exemplary characteristic of modeling the

way. Ratan Tata was well aware of the consequences but he still chose to move ahead. He knew

it was going to be a very challenging task but felt the need to contribute to the success of the

group. He was optimistic about his vision and followed through with his mission.

Having worked past the normal retirement age of 65, Ratan Tata retired in 2011. After a lengthy

process, a new leader was chosen in 2012- Cyrus Mistry. Although Mistry was very much

chosen from within the group, his tenure was abruptly terminated in 2016, less than four years

after his appointment (Yadav & Shanker, 2017). This shows his energy as he challenged the

process and enabled others to act. Well over 65 years old, he still chose to come back into the

workforce because he was not afraid to break the stereotype of being too old to work. Tata knew
how he wanted to move forward and was not afraid.

There was a big uproar in the market when Tata terminated the tenure of Mistry. I think being a

leader, Ratan Tata saw where the company was headed under a new leader that he was afraid of

failure. I think this is an area where he could improve. In a case study conducted by Harvard

Business School, The Failure Tolerant Leader, Failure-tolerant leaders identify excusable mistakes

and approach them as outcomes to be examined, understood, and built upon (Keyes 2014). The

situation needed to be analyzed where Tata should have distinguished between inexcusable and

excusable failure.

In my opinion, Ratan Tata would be fit for any type of activity. The key is focusing on results

and performance rather than on self-interest and self-gratification (Kolzow, 2014). With years of

experience and his success, leaders are always leaders, regardless of the setting.

Conclusion

The Tata Group is built on core values which includes integrity, responsibility, unity, excellence

and pioneering, stands up to its purpose, which is the commitment to improving the quality of

lives in the communities they serve and striving for competitiveness in the companies. Ratan

Tata stood for all these values and more.

 Reference:

Keyes, R. F. R. (2014, August 1). The Failure-Tolerant Leader. Retrieved January 20, 2020, from
https://hbr.org/2002/08/the-failure-tolerant-leader
Khanna, S. (2017, October 24). Selection, not Cyrus Mistry, was the problem at Tata Sons.
Retrieved January 19, 2020, from
https://www.livemint.com/Opinion/HSkdlN275GHPY0QE2pVAyK/Selection-not-Cyrus-Mistry-
was-the-problem-at-Tata-Sons.html
Kolzow, D. R. (2014). LEADING FROM WITHIN: Building Organizational Leadership Capacity.
Retrieved January 20, 2020, from
https://www.iedconline.org/clientuploads/Downloads/edrp/Leading_from_Within.pdf
Peter Cappelli, Harbir Singh,Jitendra V. SinghMichael Useem. (2016, July 8). Leadership Lessons
from India. Retrieved January 19, 2020, from https://hbr.org/2010/03/leadership-lessons-from-
india
Khoshhal, K. I., & Guraya, S. Y. (2016). Leaders produce leaders and managers produce followers.
A systematic review of the desired competencies and standard settings for physicians'
leadership. Saudi medical journal, 37(10), 1061–1067. doi:10.15537/smj.2016.10.15620
Yadav, S. S., & Shanker, R. (2017). Succession planning: some lessons. Journal of Advances in
Management Research.