My sacking was over in a minute: Nirmalya

The 56-year-old professor says his song of the year was ‘Love and Hate’ by Michael Kiwanuka

November 05, 2016 11:16 pm | Updated November 17, 2021 06:18 am IST - MUMBAI:

Nirmalya Kumar, Member- Group Executive Council, Tata Sons and Visiting Professor of Marketing, London Business Council, at the 3rd Raghu Pillai Annual Memorial oration, in Chennai on Friday ( January 9, 2015)
Photo: Bijoy Ghosh

Nirmalya Kumar, Member- Group Executive Council, Tata Sons and Visiting Professor of Marketing, London Business Council, at the 3rd Raghu Pillai Annual Memorial oration, in Chennai on Friday ( January 9, 2015) Photo: Bijoy Ghosh

Nirmalya Kumar, former non-executive director of Tata Sons, was ‘sacked’ with a minute’s notice, according to a post on his personal blog.

Tata Sons had announced yesterday that Dr. Kumar, a visiting professor of marketing at the London Business School, had decided to explore options outside Tata Sons and had left the services of the company.

As part of the now-disbanded Group Executive Committee (GEC), Dr. Kumar was responsible for the group's strategy. In his blog post, titled ‘I just got fired’ Dr. Kumar said that he was in fact fired the same Oct. 24, Monday evening that chairman Cyrus P. Mistry was removed from the top job.

Dr. Kumar said he was offered no explanation for his ouster.

“At 9:00 pm, I get a call from a colleague with whom I had worked very closely and got along famously as we were often on the same side of arguments,” Dr. Kumar wrote, recalling the eventful day of October, 31. “He informs me: It is my unpleasant duty to say your services are no longer required. No explanation. I query: Does this mean I do not need to show up tomorrow morning? Receive an affirmative reply. That’s it. It’s all over in a minute.”

Organisational changes

The post comes a day after Tata Sons announced organisational changes in a statement, which said that Dr. Kumar, along with N.S. Rajan and Madhu Kannan “have decided to explore options outside Tata Sons and have left the services of the company.”

The three were part of the six-member GEC, which was disbanded after the removal of Mr. Mistry.

Dr. Kumar, who almost opted to become a professional disc jockey, wrote that his song of the year was ‘Love and Hate’ by Michael Kiwanuka and that the choice of song was ironic, given what had happened on October 24.

The 56-year-old professor wrote in his post that despite the “unceremonious” and “un-Tata-like” end, he had nothing negative to write about.

CEOs silent

“Once fired, you discover your friends and the integral qualities of those who worked with you. The interesting insight for me was that the higher in the organisation you go, this human aspect declines. People at the bottom of the pyramid treated me with the same respect and affection as always. Their smiles were genuine and open,” he wrote, adding that those in the middle management level were also actually sad to see him go.

“The reaction at the top of the pyramid was interesting. With 3 exceptions, the many CEOs and top executives I worked with closely for 3 years went silent.”

Top News Today

Sign in to unlock member-only benefits!
  • Access 10 free stories every month
  • Save stories to read later
  • Access to comment on every story
  • Sign-up/manage your newsletter subscriptions with a single click
  • Get notified by email for early access to discounts & offers on our products
Sign in

Comments

Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.

We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of The Hindu and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.