When Ratan Tata, now-chairman emeritus of the Tata Group, mooted the idea of creating a company that would only focus on engineering design services in 1997, there was strong resistance. But Tata prevailed. And after slightly-over 25 years, it has bore rich dividends.
S D Pradhan, who was then heading the IT operations of TELCO, was asked to lead the new company – Tata Technologies (Tata Tech) – as the founder-CEO. A team was put together from the engineering research team of TELCO in Pune & Jamshedpur and management services people from Mumbai. Tata also incorporated the company in Singapore and appointed Patrick R McGoldrick as CEO in Singapore.
The vision was clear – design and engineering services would have to be separated from the manufacturing activity, said Pradhan.
The emphasis was also on nurturing different skill sets as it was not all about IT skills, added Pradhan – something no one else was doing at that time in India. It started with a team of 400-500 people and grew to 1,000.
While Pradhan left Tata Tech after three years and joined a start-up with his sons, he returned in 2010 advisor for CSR activities.
He is not surprised about where the company has reached today or its blockbuster listing on the stock exchange and the billion dollar valuations it is getting. After all, Tata and his design dream have been fulfilled.