Tata Sons Ropes in Academic Gurus

Image: Alok Brahmbhatt for Forbes India

Nitin Nohria

Industry-academia collaboration seems to be the new mantra for the Tata group.
 
Its chairman Cyrus Mistry is reaching out to academic gurus of global repute to beef up the Tata Sons board and senior management. Only last month, Mistry hired marketing guru and London Business School professor Nirmalya Kumar to head strategy for the group. The newest entrant is Harvard Business School dean Nitin Nohria.

Nohria joins five other directors, Cyrus Mistry, Farrokh K Kavarana, R Gopalakrishnan, Ishaat Hussain and former defence secretary Vijay Singh, on the Tata Sons board. He brings in a wealth of experience, having been advisor and consultant to several companies across the world.

Nohria’s pedigree is established: He has a doctorate in management from the Sloan School of Management, Massachusetts Institute of Technology; he also holds a BTech degree in chemical engineering from IIT-Bombay (which honoured him as a distinguished alumnus in 2007).

Mistry has also been inducting fresh blood into the Group Executive Council (GEC) with NS Rajan, head of human resources, Mukund Govind Rajan, head of brands, communication, ethics and corporate responsibility, and Madhu Kannan, head of business development and public affairs.