Mumbai, April 13: Tata group chief Ratan Tata has said that his only regret was not being 20 years younger in age, but he does not crave to stay on at the top of the country’s biggest corporate empire.
“I just feel it’s been an exciting time. My only regret is that I am not 20 years younger, because I think India is going through a very exciting period in its history,” Tata said in an interview to media.
Asked whether he would like to stay on, the 73-year-old Tata immediately replied in negative and clarified: “No, No, I said I wish to be 20 years younger, not that I would stay on for 20 years.”
Tata is scheduled to retire as Tata group chief in December 2012, when he turns 75, and a search panel was formed in August last year to find his successor. Tata’s comments come within days of R K Krishna Kumar, the panel member and a senior group executive, saying that the panel was finding it difficult to find the right person. Besides, the group also announced last week lowering of retirement age of non-executive directors from 75 to 70 years.
“Our committee has come to the conclusion that we cannot find a replacement for Mr Tata! We may have to change and rearrange the model in terms of what we are looking for,” Krishna Kumar said in an internal interview published on the group’s website last week.
“We are now considering people from within the group and outside, including expatriates who can fill the role we have in mind. There are challenges but we will soon come to a conclusion,” he added. Another Tata Sons director R Gopalakrishnan recently said that the group was looking for a long-term successor and not for few years.
The panel, constituted about eight months ago, was expected to name the successor by February-March. Tata has been heading the group as chairman of its promoter company Tata Sons since 1991 and had joined the group in 1962.
Asked about the biggest misconceptions that he would like to change about him, Tata said he wished to be more outgoing and be more public.
“I would say that one of the things I wish I could do differently would be to be more outgoing. I’m a very introverted person, and pretty shy. And the job I am in, I sometimes have to be more public, like sitting here (in an interview).”
–Agencies–