MANAGEMENT CASE describes a real-life situation faced, a decision or action taken by an individual manager or by an organization at the strategic, functional or operational levels

Reinventing a Giant Corporation: The Case of Tata Steel
D V R Seshadri and Arabinda Tripathy

A

KEY WORDS Reinvention Change Management Turnaround Tata Steel Liberalization Response to Globalization

t the meeting of the senior management of Tata Steel to celebrate the spectacular performance of the company, Mr. B Muthuraman, the Managing Director, recalled with satisfaction the remarkable strides that the company had made from the difficult days in the early nineties, when the company, used to a protected environment, was suddenly thrown open to global competition, consequent to the liberalization of the Indian economy. The company had closed the year with a record profit of Rs. 34.74 billion. A series of initiatives launched by the company over the last 15 years had culminated in these stellar results although there were many challenges at every step. At each stage in its journey, the company did what needed to be done. In retrospect, however, the various initiatives launched by the company over the years now appeared to fit into a coherent picture. The company had made steady progress over the years and had now achieved a pre-eminent status in the Indian steel industry. It had become one of the lowest cost steel producers in the world five years ago, a distinction that it had continued to maintain. All key performance indicators indicated that the company was in the pink of health (Table 1). Driven by a huge corporate ambition, the company was set to expand its footprint in the global arena seeking to ramp up its capacity from the current level of about 5 million tonnes per annum (tpa) to over 30 million tpa by the end of the decade. It now sought to become one of the top