Tata Motors Commercial Vehicle Head Pisharody Resigns

Ravindra Pisharody, the executive director of Tata Motors’ commercial vehicle business has stepped down from his position citing personal reasons. This was a surprise move for many as Pisharody never hinted towards quitting the company. In another statement, Tata Motors also said that it has appointed Satish Borwankar as chief operating officer with immediate effect and gave two years extension. Borwankar was to retire in July this year.

Company officials also confirmed that Pisharody resignation and Borwankar’s promotion are two separate developments that aren’t linked to each other. Ravi Pisharody joined Tata Motors almost a decade ago as Vice President of CV, Sales & Marketing. He has been associated with board of various verticals of Tata Group of companies. An alumnus of IIT Kharagpur, he worked for Castrol Ltd and Philips India before joining Tata Motors.

The sudden development comes in the wake of speculations that company is rearranging the top management; however, company has denied any such move. The resignation does raise eyebrows as Tata Motors seems to be troubled with its weak sales past two years. In last fiscal, company lost a record market share of 43 percent with the medium and heavy truck business plunged to nearly 50 percent.

Pisharody was going through tough challenge of disposing off BS-III vehicles that erupted after the Supreme Court ordered the ban on the sales and registration of the same starting April 1. Company was saddled with a large inventory worth INR 1,500-2000 crore. This also resulted in a loss of INR 148 crore in the last quarter of FY17 incurred due to steep discounts offered in three days before the ban came into effect.

Moreover, this sudden move came at a time when company is undergoing massive transformation process under which about 1500 people will be losing their jobs. The company has been conducting a program called Organisational Effectiveness to revise the roles and responsibilities of various key executives.

In May 2017, the overall commercial vehicle sales dropped by 13 percent to 23,606 units as against 27,026 units in May 2016. In small commercial space too, Tata Motors has lost ground to Mahindra & Mahindra while in the medium and heavy commercial vehicle category, Ashok Leyland captured a large chunk of the market under Pisharody’s leadership.

However, he also helped Tata Motors regain the buses business in recent times. He was also responsible in recuperating the company from losses in the truck business by introducing Prima Truck Racing. During his stint, company totally revamped its commercial fleet and introduced a whole new range of trucks. Yet, there is no downplaying the fact that exit of a top official like Pisharody is a great cause of concern and unrest within organisation of this stature.