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Dear Colleague
The coming together of Tata Steel and Corus has resulted in the creation of an enterprise which is the 6th largest steel company in the world with a combined output of over 25 Million tonnes.
While the deal has been completed successfully, the key challenge now lies with all of us at Tata Steel and Corus in working together, learning from each other and helping each other deliver superior performance – at the same time aligning all our efforts towards a common goal of doubling our profits in five years.
Figuratively, the two firms involved in such deals are like two houses – both having their strong and weak points; ideally, the integration process should deliver a third house which captures all the strong points and improves upon the weak points resulting in a combined entity which is stronger than a simple arithmetic combination of the two entities.
To this end, a seven-member Strategic & Integration Committee has been formed to spearhead the integration process. Mr Ratan Tata, Chairman of the Tata Group, heads the committee and the other members of the committee are as follows:
Tata Steel Members – Mr B Muthuraman (Managing Director), Dr T Mukherjee (Deputy Managing Director, Steel) and Mr Kaushik Chatterjee (Vice President, Finance).
Corus Group Members – Mr Phillipe Varin (CEO), Mr David Lloyd (Executive Director, Finance), and Mr Rauke Henstra (Division Director, Strip Products).
The integration committee’s mandate is to determine future strategic priorities of the enlarged group and drive integration where there is a clear business benefit. A number of integration teams have been formed with representations from Tata Steel and Corus – some would look at synergies arising out of various operating units (like procurement, manufacturing, etc) for immediate benefit and others would examine strategic issues which would deliver value in the long term.
I am sure that as we move forward on the path of integration of the two companies, the enthusiasm, energy and innovative spirit of the people of the two organisations will help us to achieve our goals.
B Muthuraman |
