India's business world was shaken up on Monday after Tata Sons suddenly decided to sack its chairman, Cyrus Mistry, and reinstate Ratan Tata as an interim chief until a new candidate has been selected. The company announced the news in a terse press release on Monday afternoon, giving no indication regarding the reason for Tata's sacking.
"Tata Sons today announced that its Board has replaced Mr. Cyrus P. Mistry as Chairman of Tata Sons. The decision was taken at a Board meeting held here today," the group said in a statement. A new selection committee, including Ratan Tata but not featuring Mistry, has also been set up to look for a candidate to replace him in a matter of four months.
Cyrus Mistry took over as Ratan Tata's hand-picked successor in 2011, only the second non-Tata to run the group holding company – which oversees Tata Consultancy Services, Tata Motors, Tata Steel, Tata Power among others. His appointment was lauded as an unusual attempt for a major Indian conglomerate to go with a professional, rather than keeping the job within the family. That now seems to have unraveled, with Ratan Tata once again taking over, although this has been done along with the setting up of a new selection committee.
The news happened to come on the same days as turmoil within another mostly family-run organisation, the Samajwadi Party.
This prompted plenty of humour on Twitter with a rather familiar joke.
Cyrus Mistry to be replaced now, mostly by Ratan Tata.
— Gabbbar (@GabbbarSingh) October 24, 2016
Tata Sons is the new Samajwadi Party.
Just Saw on Facebook, #Cyrusmistry and #Akhileshyadav are now friends!
— Nilesh Sharma (@imnillogical) October 24, 2016
Cyrus Mistry must be feeling like he's Amar Singh of Tata Group...
— Finger of India (@IndiaFinger) October 24, 2016
Not all of it was Samajwadi humour either. The names of both Tata Sons and its now former-chairman offered plenty of wordplay as well.
Q. What Tata Sons told Cyrus Mistry?
— KM (@monteskw) October 24, 2016
A. Tata ✋✋
Mistry Mystery pun
— Rohan (@mojorojo) October 24, 2016
Counting down to the first "Mistry Mystery" headline. https://t.co/dBYUb8BbjI
— Peter Thal Larsen (@peter_tl) October 24, 2016
Someone in Tata Sons is removing Being Cyrus from the VCR and putting back Prem Ratan Dhan Payo.
— Ramesh Srivats (@rameshsrivats) October 24, 2016
For those who thought this might be the sign of some potential opportunities, or trends within the industry, there was plenty of fodder to chew on.
Tata Sons is now looking out for a Chairman. Interested candidates send in your resumes at aukatmainreh@tatasons.com #CyrusMistry
— Shreejon Biyani (@ShreejonBiyani) October 24, 2016
When is NRN coming back to Infosys. Pattern recognition :-) #CyrusMistry
— Ninad Kunder (@ninadkunder) October 24, 2016
Job opening at Tata Sons.
— Shiv Aroor (@ShivAroor) October 24, 2016
Meanwhile Ashutosh has congratulated Cyrus Broacha on a short but successful stint as the Chairman of Tata Sons.
— The Viral Fever (@TheViralFever) October 24, 2016
Just to bury his Intolerance comment, Ratan Tata fired Cyrus Mistry.
— Gabbbar (@GabbbarSingh) October 24, 2016