Many years ago, there was a time that Rajeev Dubey cherished the idea of being an academic. But a year into Delhi School of Economics, he realised that he wasn't going to win a Nobel Prize. A career with the government? He'd already missed out. How best, then, to combine his twin objectives of creating economic wealth and being of public service? Tata Administrative Services (TAS), set up originally by J.R.D. Tata as a senior-level talent nurturing project to fulfil his vision, was the best option. And Dubey never regretted joining it.

At the moment, Dubey is the Managing Director of Rallis India, having spent the last 25 years in jobs ranging from the steel and metals sector to chemicals, and it has meant developing skills in marketing, sales, research, team building and every other aspect of business that comes to mind. Much of the credit for his career growth and performance goes to TAS.

"TAS is unique," says Satish Pradhan, Head of hr practices with Tata Sons, "It identifies leaders of the future, marks them out, and gives them vast experience across industry functions. It recruits for lifelong mobility across company and industry functions."

Paradrop Force

Lifelong mobility. That's the key phrase. For TAS is a group resource, and its officers are the management equivalent of a sort of a commando force, trained as top-league strategy formulators on the one hand, and as sleeves-rolled-up strategy executioners on the other. Above all, these officers are mobile. Airborne, in a manner of speaking-ready to be para-dropped through the roof of any Tata company to get the job done... often right into the corner office too.

"TAS gives us a captive pool of talent that is completely steeped in the culture and value system so dear to the Tatas," says Pradhan. And that, in itself, is seen as something to be proud of, especially in a country where 'corporate governance' has meant power centralisation more than anything else.

Does it work for the Tatas? Oh yes, say the group's admirers. Anand Nayak, Executive Vice President (Corporate HR), ITC Limited, points out the competitive edge that it gives the group. "At a time when human resources are the true cutting edge of competitiveness in any company," he says, "the fact that a system like TAS exists is a huge asset to a diversified group like the Tatas." Nayak is, however, also of the opinion that while set-ups like TAS work for such groups, "in cases like ITC, we need to take a different approach, and that has to be in-house executive development programmes primarily, because the functions are not as diverse."

Diversity Appeal

The TAS system has always thrived on attracting the country's finest minds. The attraction?

An opportunity to peg one's career to India's largest business house, and that too, one with the widest range of business interests. A classic example is Jamshed Daboo, Chief Operating Officer (Leisure Division), Indian Hotels. Daboo joined TAS in 1986, and started off with Titan Industries, before moving on to Tata Sons as CEO of Tata Quality Management Services. His mandate? Taking the Tata Business Excellence Model to other Tata companies, which was a challenge more for the demands of the model than the companies' acceptance of it. After all, cultural conflict was never an issue, the values being common across the group.

What differs, is the field of interest. Thankfully for TAS officers, the group has a wide range to pick from. "When I finished my MBA in 1986," says N. Srinath, Director (Operations), VSNL, "I was not entirely sure what industry or function I wanted to work in. Though I specialised in marketing and systems, I wanted to have something to do with technology. TAS offered me that option." Srinath joined TAS when the Tata Group was diversifying into telecom equipment, oilfields, financial services and it-related areas. Now, 15 years later, he is still fascinated by technology, and is working on an internet project.

As mentioned earlier, attracting the best had always been part of the story. But that was something that even TAS couldn't take for granted, as it discovered in the late 1990s, towards the end of a decade of tumultuous change in India. What had started off more than four decades ago as J.R.D. Tata's initiative in generating 'cadres' of talent with a shared vision, had undoubtedly become a critical resource for the group, but was no longer necessarily the first preference of the youngsters it sought to attract.

The Indian economy had opened up, market forces had been given more leeway, and dozens of high-profile multinationals had trooped in. The bright young Indian, fresh from B-school, had options galore. And TAS was beginning to sound more like something a batchmate's uncle had joined some decades ago-and less like something that could propel one to global corporate stardom.

Rejuvenation

Outsiders may not have noticed. But TAS has changed. For one, it's no longer Tata Administrative Services, which sounds more like a private sector version of the Indian civil services. It is simply TAS, a corporate brand with a distinct new identity of its own. Besides, the 'officers' are more likely to be called 'executives' now. And in terms of ambition, these folk are less likely to talk about 'public service' as their older counterparts did.

That corporate success and economic growth play the lead role in enabling Indians to better their condition, is now taken for granted, by and large.

And the group's core values? Steady, as ever. And that's the marvel that TAS is in the midst of pulling off. The tools of success may have changed, the pressures and demands of business may have changed, but not the original Tata vision.

So, what sort of people is TAS looking for? R. Gopalakrishnan, Executive Director, Tata Sons, puts it pretty succinctly: "Young managers with drive, enterprise and high technical skills, middle managers who can inspire and nurture, and senior managers who lead with character and vision. This is the best of the Tata tradition that has been built up already."

Over the past few years, TAS has taken to wooing India's premier B-schools with renewed vigour, and has stepped up its involvement with business academia by providing case studies and the like. The idea is to get youngsters interested in a Tata career right at the start. And now with corporate governance becoming a sought-after attribute all over again, this is the best time to spotlight TAS as a brand, and the unique set of values it stands for.

Yet, for all the new dynamism, critics wonder if TAS has outlived its glory, and whether the very idea of mobile super-executives creates an elite of arrogant super-bosses. "Confident yes, but arrogant no," says Firdose Vandrevala, Managing Director, Tata Power, pointing out that team play is the essence of the TAS training, and the mobility would not be possible without such skills. Vandrevala himself went through Telco and Tisco before taking over at Tata Power. "The industries that I have worked in are completely diverse," he says, "and yet I have never had a problem fitting in-simply because of the common thread that binds the Tata group." No doubt there.