These days with the global economy looking promising again and pre-placement offers from multinationals raining at IIMs, it was indeed inspiring to see an Indian Manufacturing Major like Tata Steel taking time out to educate the students of IIM C on the corporate policies and business practices that makes the Tata Steel group of companies a global leader in its field today.
With this aim, some senior managers from Tata Steel, most of them IIM Calcutta alumni, visited the institute campus on Wednesday evening and organized a seminar for the students . As Mr.Jasbir S Kochar, head of Human Resources (Flat Products) at Tata Steel puts it, “We need to demonstrate the challenging and dynamic nature of assignments a Tata manager deals with. The immense opportunity to learn and harness one’s skills can allure the budding managers.” The talk featured a couple of presentations by Tata Steel to familiarize the students with the current brand management and acquisition strategies being practised by the company with a view to establish itself as a global leader in steel industry by 2010.
Mr. Anand Sen, Vice President (Flat Products division) talked about the company Retail Value Management (RVM). He described how Tata has carved a niche by branding its Cold Rolled Steel products and how branding coupled with an organized retail network have enabled them to come closer to customer and maintain an edge over competition.
Mr. N. K. Mishra, Chief Strategic Planning and Finance, and Mr. Sankalp Pratap, Senior manager of the division discussed their future strategy in the wake of recent acquisition of Singapore’s NatSteel Corporation and company’s aggressive growth plans in Iran.
Thus there is no dearth of challenging and high profile assignments in Tata Steel. “The best part is you can even switch between functions like strategy, marketing, finance etc. or even between group companies. The limit to career growth for a top performer is set only by his initiatives”, remarked Sankalp Pratap, a 2003 batch alumni who had earlier left a high paying merchant navy job.
The company plans to initiate joint projects with faculty and students of IIM Calcutta. This will be mutually beneficial as the company can tap the fresh talent and add an independent dimension to its strategic decisions while the students get a flavour of working with the Tatas.
The event received an enthusiastic response from the student community. The institute authorities and Tata Steel plan to hold similar events in every quarter. However the true success of this initiative will be gauged by the students’ response towards placement in Tata Steel.
Senior alumni from Tata Steel who attended the talk –
Mr. Anand Sen, Vice President, Flat Products, Tata Steel
Mr. Abraham, Head, Marketing & Sales, Tata Ryerson (TS Associate Co.)
Mr. Dibyendu Bose, Head, TMILL (TS Associate Co.)
Mr. Sankalp Pratap, Senior Manager, Strategic Planning & Finance, Tata Steel
Mr. Sumit Ray, Retail Initiative
Mr. Vikas Malhotra, Institutional Sales