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

We can learn many things

I'm an admirer of Tatas and to that extent this review can be "biased". In my humble way, I have been promoting the idea of having an "Indian Financial Sector Service" for public and private sector financial institutions in India including statutory bodies like RBI and NABARD and the Finance Ministries of central and state governments modelled on the lines of TAS. Reading this book gave me an impression that my suggestion was right. The authors of this book have taken pains to share the well researched knowledge about the evolution of Tatas as an institution working as more or less a public trust from which Indian Public Sector has a lot to learn. The role employees can play in management is well articulated. I recommend this book to employers, employees and to the students who aspire to become future managers in public or private sector in India. For further understanding readers may study the evolution of TCS and Air India. Best Wishes to Tatas and congratulations to the authors for bringing out this book at this point of time in India's history.

The book is a very good read for a current or ex-TATA manager because context in which the stories and anecdotes would be familiar. The “inside” view of some of RNT’s bright ideas is riveting.Very honest and non judgemental portrait of RNT. The book also captures the changes in TATA culture and strategy under JRD, RNT, Cyrus and back to RNT. Gives a good understanding of how the TATA group has evolved.Each and every TAS officer has been an exceptional leader and innovator. Every one has integrity and good human values aligned to TATA core values. This is brought out very nicely in the book. But TAS did not live up to the hype and promise as an elite leadership cadre for the Group. I wish the suggestion about how to reform TAS were better fleshed out.Overall great read and congrats to the authors - Mukund, Bharat and Sonu. I am sure it will generate great interest, particularly among TATA followers.

The book tells the origins of TAS, anecdotes of its members experiences and indeed a brief history of Tata since inception of TAS as seen from its members' perspectives. After a slow start it picks pace and ends with suggestions on how it can adapt to the future. Must read of any management trainee or Tata enthusiast.

Not only talks about TAS but also gives you insight about the TATA group as a whole. Nicely written book.

Tata’s failures.....

Tried to return it again and again.. but amazon only replaced it as per their incredible service.

Being an ex-Tata employee and see TAS closely, I instantly ordered this book to satiate the juices of my 'pride.'This book, written by 3 TAS Officers, is high on verbose and falls completely short on what a discerning reader looks for - "Is there some learning for me from this book?" Tatas being class-leaders: this book is nowhere near that.The authors go everywhere than dealing focusedly on aspects of selection, deeper aspects of learning / capability building for TAS Officers. The only thing that is admirable in this book is about the origins of TAS as a cadre.Good for a single read. Not got for long life on our book shelves.