Tata's Leadership Experiment: The Story of the Tata Administrative Service

The Untold Story of the Tata Group's Most Ambitious Leadership Development Programme

In the mid-1950s, JRD Tata envisioned the creation of an exclusive management cadre for the Tata Group, christened the Tata Administrative Service (TAS). His vision was to create future leaders who would perpetuate the Tata values such as integrity, excellence, unity and responsibility throughout the Group. At the core of all these values was the agenda of nation building. Understanding fully well that leadership development is a dynamic phenomenon and continues to change over time, JRD was looking at leaders who would be constantly groomed for roles across Tata companies.

What led to the TAS becoming a natural choice among aspirants over the Indian Administrative Service (IAS), which, at any point of time, would give them the assurance of a stable government job? How did the TAS fare with creating leaders? Who were some of the brightest leaders that it created? Where is the TAS today and how does the future look?

In Tata's Leadership Experiment, three former TAS officers, Bharat Wakhlu, Mukund Rajan and Sonu Bhasin, come together to find answers to these and many other pertinent questions. Based on extensive research and detailed interviews with former and current TAS officers, this book presents a fascinating account of an ambitious leadership experiment.