CYRUS MISTRY: AN APPRECIATION
CYRUS MISTRY An Appreciation!
I met Cyrus for the first time at a Parsi Gambhar (community dinner) in Pune which his family firm – the SP Group had organised. This wasn’t a one-off but it continued a long standing tradition and at that time I only knew Cyrus and his brother Shapoor as automobile enthusiasts. There were no airs around him and he was that portly chubby Parsi bawaji with not a single crooked bone in his body. Yes there was that mischievous twinkle in his eyes when the topics being discussed focused on cars and car people and that evening I went away thinking I had more food for thought than the scrumptious feast that had been partaken.
When he was anointed the Chairman of the Tata Group and he played understudy to Tata Group patriarch Ratan Tata for a year or so, it seemed that it was truly a great decision made by the selection committee. Come to think of it, I still maintain after all that has happened and much water has flowed down the Surya (sadly ironic), Cyrus did a lot for the Tata Group but his greatest success had been his patronage and handling of Tata Motors to get to the position of commercial success we have been witnessing and experiencing since the last few years.
I caught up with him at the 2016 Auto Expo, mere months away from what was to be a personal landmark for me and my team along with the Tata Motors team. At Auto Expo I saw him at close quarters, enquiring about the fare on display from other car makers but also engaging many show goers in knowing their views, especially on the Tata cars. This was an unbelievable show of getting down to earth and listening which was unheard of not just from within his company but also in the automotive sector in India. When I say this, I do not mean to be dissing or disparaging any others in a similar position both within and outside the Tata Group but just to say that he was different and didn’t let his name or position prevent him from reaching out and listening, learning and making notes. Both he and his brother-in-law Noel Tata were in their element as they took in Auto Expo and in so doing delighted many with their approach and candid attitude. The auto industry needed that.
From Auto Expo we went on to a shift in venue and adrenaline where brawn and brains materialised to do the unthinkable. I had conceptualised a program to put two Tata Motors cars to the ultimate endurance test because from mid-2014 onwards the Tata Bolt and the Tata Zest were just ready and they were better than any other car from the Tata Motors stable. As such how to break the shackles in the mind among consumers but to prove their reliability over a prolonged test was conceived. This would entail these cars run 50,000km non-stop to set an Indian Endurance Record overseen by the Indian National Federation – the FMSCI (Federation of Motor Sports Clubs of India).
The process began but something or the other conspired to delay the event and I was on the verge of calling it off and offering this concept to another car maker when I got the call from Delna Avari to say the time was right to kick start the process. This was around August-September 2015 and it was at that time that Delna along with her trusted colleagues – Virat Khullar (who was in the team then before he left for another OEM) and Manek Anklesaria plus a couple of very senior executives at Tata Motors famed ERC (Engineering Research Centre) in Pune got together and we planned the mother of all endurance events in the country. There was a proviso though from Delna and Girish Wagh (the genius behind the design and engineering of the Nano among many other vehicles). They wanted to add not just the Bolt and the Zest but a new vehicle that was just months away from launch – the Tata Zika. Also the original intent was to put both diesel and petrol engined versions of the Bolt and the Zest but since the diesel engines for these vehicles were from the Fiat stable, they didn’t want to do anything but put their own engine to the test.
The new vehicle was shown to me in super secrecy (I am sure it had the approval right from the highest echelons) and after a few hours of driving it at the ERC track I said yes it was ready to go. What I found amazing then was Tata Motors absolute bravery to put a brand new model straight through on to the track and that confidence was brimming to say the least. While we would run one Bolt and one Zest apiece, we had to run two Zikas because Tata Motors had just come out with a new family of small petrol and diesel engines of their own.
Then disaster struck the project and just a month away from launch the world was stopped dead in its track by the advent of the Zika virus and the Tata Motors team took the decision to change the name of the car. The original launch was to be in January 2016 but then it got pushed over to a reveal at Auto Expo and by then we had a name – the Tata Tiago. By this time Cyrus had a great team working in unison (and not in silos as the company had floundered for years) and all across the board people were shoulder to shoulder in gearing up for a new vehicle onslaught that no all-Indian car maker had ever attempted. Within two weeks of Auto Expo we were at the speed bowl of the NCAT (National Centre for Automotive Testing) at Ahmednagar which was part of the VRDE (Vehicle Research & Development Establishment) of the Government of India where we would be hammering away non-stop for the project that the world now knows of by its moniker – #GearedForGreat.
We got cracking with the four cars at 9:16 a.m. on March 14 and the cars began to hammer around the 4.226km banked test track and the records started to tumble. I remember that this was uncharted territory even for me but somehow somewhere there was that nagging voice in my subconscious that we were out to do something right. As the days went by the milestones were dispatched in stunning order, 5000km, 10,0000km, 15,000km, 25,000km, etc and as we passed the 45,000km mark in the nether hours of March 28-29, I asked Delna if we could get Cyrus down to the finish. I explained that such an event was unlikely to be attempted again by any Indian or MNC car maker in India and what better than to have the chairman of the group to be there.
Delna told me to write to Cyrus directly putting the rationale that I had outlined to her. I remember I wrote to Cyrus at around 3:29 a.m.in the morning outlining everything that I had mentioned to Delna and Manek who were present all throughout at the VRDE during the record run. I don’t know who was more startled and elated – Delna, Manek or myself when Cyrus rang up Delna to tell her he was trying to get across but it would have to wait till the day break for him to see his appointments. Confirmation came later that evening and I reproduce his exact message informing us all:
Dear Adil, It’s great to hear that the cars are doing well, very proud of the Tata Motors team. Adil I am sure this would not have been possible without your help and guidance. Will try and see if we can make a very quick visit on the first from Poona. Not sure about the logistics. Many Thanks.
Cyrus We informed the VRDE team who were elated to have the head of one of the biggest automotive firms in the world coming down to their facility and they immediately went into a quandry. Cyrus was an Irish national and no foreign nationals were permitted at any defence facilities of the Government of India. A lot of time was spent in getting the permissions so much so that the 50,000km mark was breached first by the Zest in a shade over 17 days and 50 minutes followed by the two Tiagos over the course of day 18 and then the hapless Bolt (actually the fastest car in the stable), which was struck with windscreen failures not once but twice during the course of the event.
However, G R M Rao, Additional Director of the VRDE pulled out all the strings and he finally got the go ahead from Delhi to allow Cyrus to come down. By this time it so happened that we got our entire team – over 60 drivers from Team JK Tyres and my own bunch of hardchargers from ZEEgnition plus the support staffers from JK Tyres, IndianOil Corporation and of course Tata Motors , almost a small commune of 200 plus people to stay put for a celebratory event on April 1. The logistics were in place and permission was even granted for Cyrus and his team to fly in and land at the VRDE itself using helicopters and Cyrus didn’t disappoint. He was there shaking hands with everyone of the team members, even the fire brigade and the medical staffers, had a word with the VRDE officials who were pleased as punch to rub shoulders with him and then he introduced me to Gunter Butschek, a man he had selected to spearhead overall operations as the CEO and MD of Tata Motors. Gunter had joined the company just days after we had begun the record run and so I could not go for his introductory sessions with selected automotive media but here he was and and along with the likes of Tim Leverton, head of Tata Motors R&D, Pratap Bose, head of Tata Motors Design, Mayank Pareek, President of the PVBU, Shailesh Chandra, Minari Shah, head of Tata Motors Corporate Communications among others.
He then asked whether he could be taken for a few “hot laps” around the banked circuit and we did lay it out for him. He joined me in the Tata Zest and we put in over 7-8 laps at speeds in excess of 150km/h and he was cool as a cucumber and asking as many questions that came to mind and never once did he flinch or was uncomfortable as the Zest thundered around the circuit even when buffeted by the most serious of bumpy stretches on the steepest parts of the banking
This was the way Cyrus touched us all, in his own inimitable manner without displaying any pride or such but just happy at the landmark his cars had set. It is significant that I use the term “his cars” because the amount of time and effort he had put in with the engineers, product planners, service, sales and marketing teams plus empowering the ablest of them all while also being unhesitant to cut off deadweight meant that finally Tata Motors was meaning business. The success of the Tiago was massive but an even greater success but sadly which didn’t go the whole hog was the Tata Hexa, his own baby so to speak. This vehicle was more than equal to and in many aspects superior to the Toyota Innova Crysta and it has become a cult vehicle amongst aficionados in the country. The Nexon and the Harrier were dreamt and conceptualised from his fertile thought process while the further portfolio offerings were signed off in the form of the Altroz, Punch and the Safari plus a few others. He gave a lot of heed to great design & styling
and as can be seen the Tata Motors portfolio today has the best designed cars in their segments in the country today. Sadly just a week after the event and a couple of days before the commercial launch of the Tiago, the biggest breakdown in human capital in the corridors of Bombay House took place and Cyrus was history as the chairman of the Tata Group. I am not privy to what were the reasons and there could have been many but the fact remained that every decision which Cyrus triggered was executed to the successful outcome for the Tata Group even to this day. Nuff said then on this sad aspect. I don’t know if what I say is fact given that I was not privy to his movements post April 1, 2016 but it was within a matter of days post the successful completion of this mega exercise and this could very well have been his last ever public commitment as the chairman of the Tata Group which makes it even more painful to mention.
I mentioned that Cyrus was a car guy and he loved cars. He could have had the choicest of cars in his stable but getting a Jaguar E-Type marked him out as special, even after his unceremonious exit from Tata Motors who own Jaguar-Land-Rover. Sadly my interactions with him thereafter were limited to a handful of social events but he remembered and always reminded me of the time we had those hot laps around the VRDE circuit. He was a simple man with a lovely way of life and as such the news of his demise in such a horrible manner shook me no end. I couldn’t get to grips with the fact that he and his friend Jehangir Pundole hadn’t belted up at the rear. Call it an oversight or just the fact that he had taken the blessings of Ahura Mazda at the Iranshah Atash Behram in Udvada – the holiest of holy places for us Parsi Zoroastrians, it was a cruel aberration that cost him and his family plus all his friends dearly. There wasn’t a dry eye or a lump in many throats that day when news came through of the tragic accident, both within the Parsi community (for whom he and his family had done a lot) and the business world plus not unsurprisingly a lot of his many admirers within the Tata Group.
Cyrus Mistry touched me in a small way not because of his position or his lineage but because he was a fun loving guy who had the ability to take it on the chin and move ahead. The high profile breakup and resultant legal battle with the Tata Group could have broken another man but Cyrus never let that happen to him. Purely because he was clear and also accepted that he put up a strong defence of his and his family’s position. The outpouring of messages from all walks of life on his untimely demise was pure vindication of the esteem he was held in.
Rest in peace Cyrus till we meet again on the other side where I am sure you will have a car ready for me to take to the limit and back!
ADIL JAL DARUKHANAWALA
Source: Parsi Junction
image courtesy: Twitter
