Natarajan Chandrasekaran, CEO of Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), has been appointed as the Executive Chairman of Tata Sons, the holding company of Tata group. Chandrasekaran’s appointment is expected to stabilise things in the group that was rocked by the unceremonious removal of former chairman Cyrus Mistry in October last.

Here we take a look at five reasons that makes Chandrasekaran the best choice for the coveted post.

To hold the corporate giant together after a tumultuous last few months, Tata Sons needed to appoint someone who is an insider. Natarajan Chandrasekaran, or Chandra as he is popularly called, has been leading TCS, the most profitable company under Tata banner, since 2009. He was appointed a director on the board of Tata Sons on October 25, 2016. The same board had ousted Mistry.

N Chandrasekaran has a legacy of successes behind him. An MCA from the Regional Engineering College, Trichy in 1987, Chandra has received multiple awards by the business community. The most recent award was “Business Leader award” for Corporate Excellence at ET Awards 2016.

TCS is a perennial cash cow for Tata group, apart from Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) led by Ralf Speth, who is a German. TCS revenue jumped three-fold from Rs 30,000 crore in 2010 to Rs 1.09 lakh crore in 2016. In the third quarter of 2016, TCS earned a net profit of Rs 6,778 crore, which was 2.9 per cent up quarter on quarter (Q-o-Q) basis and 10.9 per cent year on year (Y-o-Y) in the third quarter.

Chandra’s international exposure is incomparable in the Tata group. TCS caters to some of the largest international companies in the world including GE, JP Morgan, Wal Mart, Quantas, Cisco and Vodafone.

Chandrasekaran, 53, comes with a proud history of leading one of the biggest tech companies for several years. His presence at the top of Tata Sons may help provide a digital makeover to the entire group, which also happens to be a necessity in present times. Chandra’s experience in digital businesses would come handy, not just for the company but employees also.

Chandrasekaran is known to take risks and tough business decisions. Many times he has disrupted the established norms of business. For instance, he had broken TCS into 23 units for smooth service delivery and operations. This strategy was even adopted by Infosys later.

The biggest risk a company as big as Tata always faces is the loss of face value. The ensuing acrimony after Mistry’s removal has dented Tata’s image as a reliable brand and shaken investors’ confidence. With Chandrasekaran at the helm of affairs, all of this would expectedly change for the good in no time.

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