Comprehensive Analysis of Tata Group's Global Corporate Strategy

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of the Tata Group's global corporate strategy. It begins with an introduction to corporate strategy and an overview of the Tata Group, a multinational conglomerate with diverse subsidiaries. The main body of the report delves into the portfolio and integrated organization perspectives, examining their merits and demerits within the context of the Tata Group. It then explores business model innovation and technological advancements through strategic alliances, mergers, and acquisitions, specifically focusing on the e-commerce venture TATA CliQ and the steel door product 'Pravesh.' The report further discusses corporate governance, CSR, sustainability, and leadership within the Tata Group, highlighting the importance of these factors in the company's success. The report concludes with a reflection on the learning gained from the analysis and provides a list of references. The report uses the annual report of 2017-18 formulated using the Integrated reporting framework which is prescribed by the International Integrated reporting council.

Global Corporate
Strategy

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................1
Portfolio, Integrated Organisation Perspective and Competitiveness.........................................1
Business Model Innovation and Technological Innovation through Strategic Alliances, M&As
.....................................................................................................................................................3
Corporate governance, CSR, sustainability and leadership........................................................5
Personal Reflection on Learning.................................................................................................7
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................8
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................9

INTRODUCTION
Corporate strategy is refers to a kind of strategical plan which defines the overall
objectives of an organisation along with the direction in which work must be performed to
accomplish the goals. It is a long term plan which clearly defines the vision on which company
works (Rugman and Verbeke, 2017). This report is about Tata Group which is a privately owned
conglomerate of large number of subsidiaries such as Titan Voltas, Tata Coffee, Tata
Communication, Tata global Beverages, Tata power, Tata Teleservices and many more. This
report includes a detail discussion about critical review of portfolio and integration organisation
perspective. In addition to this it also includes brief about business model and technological
innovation through M&A, strategic alliance performed by Tata steel. Apart from this description
regarding the role of corporate governance and CSR in business sustainability and at last
reflection over learning is mentioned.
MAIN BODY
Portfolio, Integrated Organisation Perspective and Competitiveness
Tata Group is a multinational conglomerate holding company which is headquartered in
Mumbai, Maharashtra in India. The companies conglomerate within this group includes Tata
Steel, Tata Consultancy Services, Tata Coffee, Titan Voltas, Tata Communication, Tata
Teleservices, Tata global Beverages, Tata power and many more. The Annual report 2017-18 of
Tata Group was formulated using the Integrated reporting framework which is prescribed by the
International Integrated reporting council (Thompson, Strickland and Gamble, 2015). The main
reason behind adopting this structure to represent annual report of companies is that it help in
provide stakeholders an all-inclusive depiction of company's value creation with the help of both
financial as well as non-financial resources. In addition to this, report also provide an insight to
number of strategies, operating risk & opportunity, operating environment, governance structure
and organisation's approach to long term sustainability. These all get affected by the performance
that an organisation's product exert in market and for this it is very essential for the Tata Group
to manage its product or services effectively in order to gain competitive edge at marketplace.
In today's competitive world and fast changing global business environment it become
very difficult to maintain products or services accordingly as the choice of customer changes
much frequently as number of options available in market. Hence, there are basically two type of
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perspective that can be consider by Tata group in order to manage its product or services which
in turn affect the growth as well as success of companies or subsidiaries involve with the Group.
These are explained below along with the merits and demerits:
Portfolio organisation perspective:- Portfolio is refers to the collection of product or
services that are being offered by a company which provide a view over stock type, profit margin
driver, company growth prospects, market leadership, income contribution and operational risk
(Park, 2014). Portfolio organisation perspective is one which is used by large companies where
its subsidiaries create their own corporate culture within its parent company's overall structure
where one subsidiary manage its operations which is totally different from another subsidiary of
similar parent company. Following are the merits and demerits of portfolio organisation
perspective:
Merits Risk management:- By adopting portfolio organisational perspective the brands involve
under the umbrella of Tata group can manage its operations separately. In addition to this
the risk faced by one company would not be able to affect the operations of product that
are offered by another brand under the name of Tata.
 Quick decision making:- The implication of portfolio organisational perspective provide
a benefit where each Tata company become able to operate independently under the
supervision and guidance of its own shareholder as well as board of directors.
Demerits No downside protection:- Though it help Tata companies in not getting affected by the
performance of other companies but at the time of loss doesn't get much support from
other brands under same umbrella for recovering as each of them follow separate
operational structure (Herrera, 2015).
 Risk of over diversification:- The use of portfolio organisational perspective may
generate the risk of over diversification as companies started operating separately which
in turn increases the cost of company.
Integrated organisation perspective:- It refers to the way in which different subsidiaries
coordinate their operations by maintaining a strong connection between the product lines,
corporate structure and principles over which companies function. Following are the merits and
demerits that Tata group have to face with adoption of this perspective:
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Merits
 The adoption of integrated organisation perspective will support Tata group in meeting
all the standard by following one set of procedures and policies (Crane, Matten and
Spence, 2019).
 This perspective will help subsidiaries of Tata group in increasing efficiency and
effectiveness by getting access to expertise belongs to other brand of same group
Demerits
 This may creates delay in decision making process as the directors have to consider all
the subsidiaries and then take decision accordingly.
 It is become very difficult to manage all the subsidiaries of Tata group together as each
one is different in term of product it offers and customer it targets.
From the above analysis performed over the Annual report of 2017-18 it has been found
that Tata Group follows Portfolio organisational perspective as its each subsidiaries work over
the supervision of board of direct and shareholders of particular company. But it can adopt both
integrated as well as portfolio organisational perspective simultaneously as with this Tata group
become able to deal with dynamic global business environment and achieve competitive
advantage. This is because Tata group can firstly formulate integrated objective regarding all the
subsidiary of group using integrated organisational perspective and then the directors of
particular company can formulate their strategic plan according to integrated approach using
portfolio organisation perspective.
Business Model Innovation and Technological Innovation through Strategic Alliances, M&As
Tata group is one of the best known conglomerate of brand which provides high quality
of product or services throughout the world (Benn, Edwards and Williams, 2014). It consists of
around 100 companies which encompasses various primary business sector that deals within
consumer products, chemical, engineering, information system, energy, material and services.
Tata group has performed several Strategic alliance, Merger & Acquisitions etc. in order to
build up its innovation capabilities for offering high quality product or services.
But in today's world E-commerce is consider as one of the most essential medium
through which an organisation capture larger market share and deal with competition much
effectively. This is because the Tata group has entered into a new segment i.e. of e-commerce
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under the brand name of TATA CliQ in order to provide an interface where customers can
purchase product and services online. But the major issue with this is that the major operation of
Tata group is in India where the e-commerce market is very much competitive as larger number
of players are already acquiring the majority of market share. These players include Amazon,
Flip-kart, Snap deal, Jabong etc. Hence in order to achieve market success it is very essential for
Tata group to deal with such competition in order to mark its presence within E-commerce
industry (Mermod and Idowu, 2014). For this Tata group is required to mix up its resources as
well as capabilities so that it become able to bring digital and mobile technologies all together for
expanding its business operation and achieving organisational objectives.
In order to accomplish this, Tata group must work toward either going for strategic
alliance or merger & acquisition so that it become able to improve its market base by using the
skills and technology of other players. The most appropriate option recommended to Tata group
is the merging its operations with Snap-deal which is one of its competitor brand and having
higher market reach then TATA CliQ. But the major issues with Snap-deal is the negative
humour regarding its product i.e. it offers second or third copy of original brand affected the
profitability of company. Following are the benefits that TATA CliQ will get merge with Snap-
deal:
 By getting merged with Snap-deal, TATA CliQ become able to achieve higher market
reach as it can approach the existing customers of snap-deal and the trust of customers
toward Tata group will support this merger to approach larger number of customer and
get market acceptance.
 TATA CliQ become able to access the logistics, technical and supply chain expertise of
Snap-deal which saves cost and it will get pre-established network of serving products or
services.
Hence, it can be said that with the help of merge with Snap-deal, TATA CliQ be able to
achieve its objective of getting business expansion through e-commerce platform.
Apart from all this in its Innovent program the subsidiary of Tata Group named as Tata
steel Limited has also entered in new segment i.e. steel door under the brand name of Pravesh
(Tran, 2019). The Tata steel is an Indian multinational steel manufacturing company and a
subsidiary of Tata group. It operates in around 26 countries with its key operations within UK,
Netherlands and India. It is consider as second largest company within India which become
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possible with the help of its quality of operation as it work several different technologies as well
as innovation that in turn support it in achieving competitive edge. After getting momentum
within retail operations, Tata steel has begun lining up product that supported it in entering into
home-segment by offering steel doors, customised-wardrobes and windows. The main concept
behind this product range can be better understood with the help of strategy and model that Tata
steel has used in order to market its product and gain acceptance. These are explained below:
Blue ocean strategy:- It refers to the kind of strategy which simultaneously focuses on
differentiation and low cost for opening up new market space and creating new demand by
removing the competition for such kind of product. This means innovating a new product or
service whose substitute is not available in marketplace (Bereznoi, 2015). The same has been
adopted by Tata steel where hey offers steel door which presents a wooden finish that is a new
concept where it maintain the attractiveness of door and on other side also provide the security
also. This help in attracting larger number of customer on the basis of trust and quality of
company's product.
Business model innovation:- It refers to the process of changing or adopting such an
innovational business model which support an organisation to gain higher acceptance and profit
within the marketplace. For marketing its products manufactured under the brand name Pravesh
it uses Business to customer model. In this company directly sell its product from manufactures
to customer with the help of online platform or by setting up its stores. This help in reducing the
middle men which in turn support company to improve its brand image as per its choice in front
of customers and get a chance to directly serve them which improve the relationship.
Corporate governance, CSR, sustainability and leadership
Corporate governance is one of the most important topic in context of any of the
organisation because board of directors are required to take some of the important decision in it
which helps to achieve the target of an organisation. It mainly tells about the contract which have
been signed between organisation and their stakeholders. In context of TATA group, they are
well managed organisation where each and every single decisions are being taken by team of
directors (Filatotchev and Stahl, 2015). Their working ability is totally based upon the
documentation work. They mainly focus on reducing the cost of capital in addition to delivering
the services which are beneficial for the customer. Also, delegation of power has been given to
very limited hand so that it doesn't allow to raise any of the conflict within the organisation.
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Corporate Social Responsibility is defined as the role and responsibility which any of
the organisation have to fulfil whenever they earn the profit. It is said that organisation have the
role and responsibility towards the society and community from where they conduct there
business activity. It is not necessary that every organisation are required to fulfil the requirement
of corporate social responsibility every year. CSR should be always done for the society as it is
not allowed for the employees and their family. In context of TATA, they always fulfil the basic
required which need to be focus by the company (Madsen and Walker, 2015). The directors and
other member of the management all comes up with some of the extra ordinary idea when it
comes to delivering the CSR work. Directors focus on delivering the better health services to the
people who are unable to do that. They provide education at free of cost to most of the children's
who are not able to afford the money on education. Even they have been focusing on some of the
infrastructural where they installed street light which have been helpful for government and
general public. It is said that TATA steel is one of the pioneer in the field of CSR as they follow
it every year. Because of all this work life standard of people have been increasing day by day
due to which condition of nation is also improving day by day.
Sustainability: It is said that whenever company want to earn profit for the longer period
of time they must ensure that they will deliver the best services within the market place so that
targets can be achieved easily (Graysonand Hodges, 2017). It will be maintain the sustainability
of the company. TATA group has been performing really well in the market place as they try to
deliver the best services within the marketplace because of that they are able to maintain the trust
of customer who are connected with the company. Company have been enhancing their
technologies everyday through which better services can be provided to the customer. Top level
management team is the main reason for the achievement and sustainability of the company
within the market.
Leadership - TATA is a multinational firm which operates its functions across the world
as company operates its functions at global level. Due to which several leadership approaches are
used by the seniors in order to managing work and conflicts at workplace. Company is doing its
functions from last more than 50 years in marketplace because of which several leaders are
changed after a specific period of time (Klettner, Clarke and Boersma, 2014). As a result of it,
company have faced several changes in the leadership styles. Some of these styles are given as
below:
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Laissez faire – This style is mostly used by the managers of TATA because company's
operations are spread throughout the world (Aguilera and Crespi-Cladera, 2016). In it, Leaders
have delegated roles and responsibilities to their each divisional heads so that they can make
decisions according to the situations. As a result of it, company have framed its good brand
image in front of their customers.
Democratic style – Ratan Tata is a leader who is more focused towards democratic style
of leadership and always encourage their staff members to provide views and opinions for
changes so that any conflict will not occurred at the workplace (McNeill, 2015). This strategy is
proved very beneficial for organisation because with the help of this style, company have gained
good market presence and customer base in marketplace.
Personal Reflection on Learning
The project taken into consideration is based on the analysis of Tata steel company and
manner in which it perform its operations. This supported me in enhancing my knowledge about
the number of operations performed by this company and strategies it adopt to deal with the
competition prevailing in industry. Apart from this I also become able to learn that in what
manner it achieve the position among top most companies and what are its merger & acquisitions
or strategic alliance that Tata steel has adopted in order to enhance its technological capability
base.
In addition to this I have performed an analysis over global steel manufacturing industry
which help me in enhancing my knowledge in this regard. From this investigation I have found
that for dealing with competition or challenges players of industry adopt strategic alliances in
order to share the technological expertise and capabilities for creating monopoly in industry. This
is because by using strategic alliance, company basically focuses toward bringing new
innovative product which minimise the risk of substitute for some time . In addition to this,
players of Steel industry also perform Merger or Acquisition with other players which are
operating at same level. This in turn provide the medium to organisation having access with
technology, expertise and other capabilities by working together. This support them in achieving
competitive edge at marketplace as with the alignment of two similar organisations it become
possible to achieve sustainability within the industry by sharing the expertise knowledge, skills
and capabilities.
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Despite of all these, I have found that in order to maintain the market position as well as
success within the competitive market, companies mainly focuses over leadership activities in
order to maintain the smooth and systematic flow of operations. Throughout this I have learned
that corporate leadership is one of the most crucial factor within the success of an organisation.
This is because corporate leadership help in guiding the actions of an organisation in right
direction toward the accomplishment of organisational goal by motivating the employees
working toward it. In addition to this I have determine that corporate leadership make an
organisation able to work over policies and principles which in turn support in achieving the
sustainability of business for longer period of time.
CONCLUSION
From the above given information it has been summarised that corporate strategy is one
of the most essential factor which support an organisation to achieve success in competitive
environment. This is because it support an organisation to formulate effective policies or
procedures on which operations can performed to attain standardisation in term of its practices.
Apart from this, the success of an organisation is also depends on technological innovation it
perform as well as Business model it adopt for performing its operations. For this there are
number of options that an organisation can adopt such as Merger & Acquisition, Strategic
Alliance etc. Despite of all this corporate governance as well as corporate social responsibilities
that an organisation performs, contribute a lot in enhancing its value in market place and
achieving sustainability for long term purpose.
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REFERENCES
Books & Journal
Aguilera, R. V. and Crespi-Cladera, R., 2016. Global corporate governance: On the relevance of
firms’ ownership structure. Journal of World Business, 51(1), pp.50-57.
Benn, S., Edwards, M. and Williams, T., 2014. Organizational change for corporate
sustainability. Routledge.
Bereznoi, A., 2015. Business model innovation in corporate competitive strategy. Problems of
Economic Transition, 57(8), pp.14-33.
Crane, A., Matten, D. and Spence, L. eds., 2019. Corporate social responsibility: Readings and
cases in a global context. Routledge.
Filatotchev, I. and Stahl, G. K., 2015. Towards transnational CSR. Corporate social
responsibility approaches and governance solutions for multinational
corporations. Organizational Dynamics, 44(2), pp.121-129.
Grayson, D. and Hodges, A., 2017. Corporate social opportunity!: Seven steps to make
corporate social responsibility work for your business. Routledge.
Herrera, M. E. B., 2015. Creating competitive advantage by institutionalizing corporate social
innovation. Journal of Business Research, 68(7), pp.1468-1474.
Klettner, A., Clarke, T. and Boersma, M., 2014. The governance of corporate sustainability:
Empirical insights into the development, leadership and implementation of responsible
business strategy. Journal of Business Ethics, 122(1), pp.145-165.
Madsen, T. L. and Walker, G., 2015. Modern competitive strategy. McGraw Hill.
McNeill, D., 2015. Global firms and smart technologies: IBM and the reduction of
cities. Transactions of the institute of British geographers, 40(4), pp.562-574.
Mermod, A. Y. and Idowu, S. O. eds., 2014. Corporate social responsibility in the global
business world. Heidelberg: Springer.
Park, S. K., 2014. Targeted social transparency as global corporate strategy. Nw. J. Int'l L. &
Bus., 35, p.87.
Rugman, A. and Verbeke, A., 2017. Global corporate strategy and trade policy. Routledge.
Thompson, A., Strickland, A. J. and Gamble, J., 2015. Crafting and executing strategy: Concepts
and readings. McGraw-Hill Education.
Tran, B., 2019. Corporate social responsibility. In Advanced Methodologies and Technologies in
Business Operations and Management (pp. 270-281). IGI Global.
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