6 Business & Leadership Rules Every Leader Can Learn From N Chandrasekaran
📅 Aug 13, 2026Business Today10 MIN10 SEGMENTS · 3 SPEAKERS
From AI and talent disruption to the transformation of Air India, N Chandrasekaran opens up on the big bets shaping the Tata ...
What N. Chandrasekaran said
Written from the verified transcript and checked against it. Every figure links to the moment it was said.
N. Chandrasekaran, Chairman of Tata Group, discussed the group's strengths and transformation strategy. He emphasized the group's long-serving people, brand, and value system as core strengths, while acknowledging complexity and past balance sheet issues. He outlined a three-phase strategy: strengthening the core, simplifying structures, and leveraging synergies. Chandrasekaran detailed the group's transition to renewable energy, projecting that by 2025 renewable capacity would surpass coal and by 2027-28 would double it, reaching 65-70% renewable. He highlighted four dimensions of transformation across all businesses: AI, energy transition, supply chain, and talent. He mentioned the group's pivot to electric vehicles and hydrogen buses. He also spoke about Air India, noting the government's divestment of 100% and the restructuring of the balance sheet, and the support of 1 billion people rooting for its success. He emphasized the importance of combining inspiration with rigor and discipline.
Key takeaways
By 2025, Tata's renewable capacity will exceed its coal capacity, and by 2027-28, it will double, making 65-70% of capacity renewable.
The 3S strategy focuses on strengthening the core, simplifying structures, and seizing synergies across the group.
Every Tata business must transform across four dimensions: AI, energy transition, supply chain, and talent.
Tata Group launched an electric vehicle in six months due to synergies between businesses.
Air India receives four to five daily emails from customers and supporters, reflecting the national goodwill behind it.
Numbers and commitments
Figure
What it refers to
Type
At
2025
Year when renewable capacity exceeds coal capacity
Tata group has a lot of people who serve the group for a very long time, so that's our strength. Our aim is to give a product which every Indian is proud of. Give a service which I don't want a second one which is better than anything else that exists. I think by 2025 our renewable capacity will be higher than our coal capacity and by 2027-28 probably our renewable capacity will double the coal capacity, so 65-70% will be renewable. I would only say that people should continue to be bold, they had to have discipline, and it does take time to build a good business. Talent is we are predominantly an inbred company. I think Tata group has a lot of people who serve the group for a very long time, so that's our strength. But at the same time we need to inject talent and also train our people on new technologies because AI will be a disruptor. I think we can talk about AI for all day but it'll be a disruptor and it is real. It's going to change the productive equation by an order of magnitude. It has implications on jobs. It has got implications on skills that are required for the future. It has got a huge regulatory issue because already different governments have started reacting differently, which we have got to take the lead to come out with some kind of a regulatory framework where there is not too much of a difference between because it's a global world as much as the geopolitics is making it out to be difficult, but still we are a connected world so.
It has lots of implications. Once the bid process started, once we knew that government is going to divest 100%, and then the government was going to restructure the balance sheet, then we felt comfortable because we knew there will be challenges and there are lots of challenges because we have to fix a lot of things. But the good thing is 1 billion people want Air India to succeed. Everyone in this country is rooting for Air India. You can't have a better tailwind than that. Okay. There is a mail every day.
Chandrasekaran, N. (2026, August 13). 6 Business & Leadership Rules Every Leader Can Learn From N Chandrasekaran [Interview transcript]. Business Today. CEOInterviews.AI. https://ceointerviews.ai/interview/1200017/
MLA
N. Chandrasekaran. "6 Business & Leadership Rules Every Leader Can Learn From N Chandrasekaran." Business Today, 13 Aug. 2026. Transcript, CEOInterviews.AI, https://ceointerviews.ai/interview/1200017/.
BibTeX
@misc{chandrasekaran2026_1200017,
author = {N. Chandrasekaran},
title = {6 Business \& Leadership Rules Every Leader Can Learn From N Chandrasekaran},
howpublished = {Interview transcript, Business Today. CEOInterviews.AI},
year = {2026},
month = {aug},
url = {https://ceointerviews.ai/interview/1200017/},
note = {Speaker-attributed transcript with timestamps}
}
