Satish Borwankar named Tata Motors COO, Pisharody quits

Tata Motors has appointed Satish Borwankar as chief operating officer with immediate effect, while his tenure as executive director would be extended for a period of two years from July 2017, the company said in a statement to the stock exchanges.

Tata Motors also announced that Ravindra Pisharody had resigned from the post of executive director (commercial vehicles) for personal reasons. Pisharody also resigned as director of the company and its associated firms. He had been an executive director on the Tata Motors board for almost five years, since June 2012. Tata Motors said his successor would be announced soon.

In its filing with the BSE on Monday evening, Tata Motors said Pisharody was quitting ''due to personal reasons'' and would ''continue to serve the company until further notice''.

New COO Borwankar, with a degree in mechanical engineering from IIT Kanpur, started his career with Tata Motors in 1974. He was appointed executive director (quality) on the Tata Motors board in June 2012. He has worked in various executive positions, overseeing and implementing product development, manufacturing operations and quality control at the commercial vehicles business. He was also the head of the company's Jamshedpur plant.

Pisharody's resignation comes at a time when the company has seen a slowdown in sales of its commercial vehicles in the domestic market. The company's CV sales grew by a mere 0.45 per cent to 305,620 units in FY17. In May 2017, the CV sales in the domestic market were at 23,606 units, down 13 per cent from the same month last year.

Prior to becoming the executive director, Pisharody was the president of Tata Motors' CV division since June 2009.

There is a feeling within the industry that the company is losing its grip in the medium and heavy CV space with aggressive build-up by rivals Ashok Leyland and newcomers like BharatBenz.

Also, Tata Motors was caught unawares during the transition to Bharat Stage IV emission norms when the Supreme Court decided to ban registration of BS III vehicles from 1 April, which comes as a double whammy in a losing market.

Pisharody's decision is also in line with Tata Motors' recent revamp of its management reporting structure where the huge hierarchical model of 14 layers gave way to just five. Driving the change is Guenter Butschek, managing director, who has also spearheaded key initiatives like the Volkswagen car alliance.