Aiming to find a successor to 72-year-old chairman Ratan Tata by March 2011, Tata Group on Friday named five members of a search panel that includes Tata Sons vice chairman N A Soonawala.
The panel includes two other senior group directors R K Krishnakumar and Cyrus Mistry, and group adviser and lawyer Shirin Bharucha and influential British businessman Lord Bhattacharya.
Tatas had announced on August 4 that a search panel would be set up to find the next leader for the $71 billion group, whose incumbent chairman would retire at the age of 75 in December 2012.
Barely days ahead of the announcement, 53-year-old Noel Tata, Ratan Tata's half-brother, was named head of Tata International, a trading arm of the group.
"The panel will look at suitable candidates from within the group and professionals from India and overseas to find a replacement for Ratan Tata, who retires at the end of 2012," a group statement said.
Lord Bhattacharya is the founder of Warwick Manufacturing Group, an industrial consultancy and part of Warwick University. He has been a close friend of Ratan Tata for years and instrumental for the group's expansion into the UK.
Shirin Bharucha's association with the group goes back to the 1960s and she has advised almost 80 companies of the group.
While Soonwala is the former vice chairman of Tata Sons, the group's holding company, Krishnakumar and Mistry also serve as directors.
Earlier, the group had said that the candidate should have experience and exposure to direct the growth amid the challenges of the global economy.
Around two-thirds of the group's revenue, which has grown 25 times since Tata took over in 1991, now comes from abroad.The succession issue at the group has been much followed and speculated for a long time. But sources within the Group say: "The group has thought through this entire process. Ratan Tata has more than two years to go and he has lot of things to do including identification of a successor and ensuring a smooth transition.
"If you look at it from the current perspective, he has his hands full. He has to integrate the global acquisitions, guide the businesses, provide strategic direction to the group and look at talent management across the group."
Ratan Tata, 72, a Cornell University-trained architect, took over the reins of the group in 1991 and has steered business expansion through internal restructuring and acquisitions of overseas companies including steelmaker Corus Group Plc and Jaguar Land Rover.
Another group source said: "It (succession) is part of a institutionalised process of the Group. Succession processes and plans across the Group for various positions in different companies have been in place for a long time.
"It was part of the internal process of the Group. This is interesting given the fact that much speculation has happened with various names."
The source said the speculation was fueled more by the fact that many business houses in the country are largely family run and do not have a formal institutionalised process for succession. "Tatas are perhaps the only Indian Group where a formal process exists across levels for succession."
Apart from being from Tata family, Noel, 53, is also the son-in-law of Pallonji Mistry, who according to the US business magazine Forbes, has over 18 per cent stake in Tata Sons and is widely believed to have the value system of the group, a must for being the successor.
Pallonji's son Cyrus Pallonji Mistry is on Tata Sons Board. Besides Noel, other names in the realm of speculation include former Vodafone CEO Arun Sarin, PepsiCo CEO Indra Nooyi and Citigroup's Vikram Pandit, besides Renault chief Carlos Ghosn.
