Tata Chemicals' Managing Director, Prasad Menon, shares his vision for the company

As a pioneer, leader and innovator, Tata Chemicals has had an illustrious past. Our future holds the promise of even greater achievements, provided we remain forward-looking, performance-oriented and agile, capitalise on our strengths and eliminate our weaknesses.

The challenges are tremendous and we do not have the luxury of time on our side. What we do have is the vision, the commitment and the expertise to become a leader, where leadership is not just being the biggest, but the best — in terms of people and their competitiveness, the quality of our products, the value we provide to our customers, and all our business processes.

Our people have crossed the first hurdle by understanding and accepting the need for change. The company is now well on its way to changing its mindset completely. We are moving towards being market-led, customer-centric and totally concentrated on costs and speed of response. Our people have displayed their capability in doing mammoth-size projects and have a tremendous spirit. It is our people, therefore, who hold the key. Which is why we are concentrating more than ever before on human resources.

Another crucial element of our philosophy is that of performance: financial results, better practices and our ability to leverage technology for the benefit of all our stakeholders. We have taken some hard decisions in order to be globally competitive. This is the way forward in a world where the sharper the focus, the better the chances of securing success.

We have set ourselves the objective of being the lowest-cost producer of soda ash in the world. We must achieve this objective — through cost optimisation, marketing strategies, technology improvements and people skills. Only then can we become truly global leaders.