You're more likely to see him in the driver's seat of a Tata Safari than being driven around in a fancy sedan. Noel loves driving-fast-but, perhaps, the only time he gets to indulge is once his six-and-a-half-day week is done. Don't be surprised to see him, along with a couple of his Trent colleagues, driving out of Mumbai early morning to neighbouring Pune or Nashik on "site visits" as they look around for potential locations to put up their stores.
Himanshu Chakrawarti, COO of Landmark, Trent's books and music subsidiary, says that it is immensely possible to catch Noel in the corridor to bounce a few ideas off him. K.M. Bharuka, Managing Director of Kansai Nerolac, on whose Board Noel is an Independent Director, adds: "He is very approachable by nature, not just for me, but also for junior members of our team who feel they can seek advice from him.
For a man who's the only Tata (apart from RNT) in the close-to-100-company Tata Group at a director level, such unfussiness is remarkable (RNT's younger brother by two years, Jimmy Tata, had worked in various Tata companies; he retired in the '90s). Also, at 53, Tata is now one of the more senior CEOs in the Group after a recent spate of retirements (see The Bombay House Shuffle, page 54). And if you consider that he is the son-in-law of Pallonji Mistry, who owns roughly 18 per cent in Tata Sons, making him a larger shareholder than RNT himself, Noel should be blazing a trail at Bombay House.
Tuesday, December 14, 2010
Something about Tata
A fan club for an incredibly low-profile and selfconfessed introvert may seem as improbable as the US President winning a Nobel Peace Prize, but then even that's happened now. A fan club is also embarrassing for the 53-year-old Tata ("if it flatters, that's the end of me," he quips), who defies the image of the conventional corporate honcho in pinstripes. For starters, he avoids suits, blazers and even ties (he reluctantly agrees to knot one for photographs for BT, even as he lets on that he's more at ease in half sleeves).
Then, he shuns the CEO cocktail circuit, is quick with his "regrets" on RSVPs to corporate dos, is usually last-in-firstout at any group shindig that calls for the presence of Tata company CEOs (like the launch of the Tata Nano car, for instance)-and, best of all, for a head of a close to Rs 1,000-crore company, he's refreshingly downto-earth. Those who know him well say he is happy to stay at company guest houses when on office tour and, according to one friend, "he will always look to spend less if it is possible."
Then, he shuns the CEO cocktail circuit, is quick with his "regrets" on RSVPs to corporate dos, is usually last-in-firstout at any group shindig that calls for the presence of Tata company CEOs (like the launch of the Tata Nano car, for instance)-and, best of all, for a head of a close to Rs 1,000-crore company, he's refreshingly downto-earth. Those who know him well say he is happy to stay at company guest houses when on office tour and, according to one friend, "he will always look to spend less if it is possible."
Something about Tata
These aren't the results of a dipstick survey conducted by Business Today when writing this feature on Noel Naval Tata, whose prominence is inversely proportionate to the expectations riding on him. Rather, this is an opinion poll on a web page that proclaims to be "the unofficial website of Noel Tata by fans".
At the time of writing, the number of viewers who had taken the poll was a little over 200, more than three-fourths of whom clearly see Noel as a logical heir to Ratan Naval Tata, whose tenure as Chairman comes to an end once he turns 75 in 2012 (there is a slim chance of RNT still being the man calling the shots after that by virtue of his control of the trusts that control Tata Sons). Along with the poll, the website carries links to a biography of Noel, as well as a profile and news on the company he runs-organised retailing major Trent Ltd.
At the time of writing, the number of viewers who had taken the poll was a little over 200, more than three-fourths of whom clearly see Noel as a logical heir to Ratan Naval Tata, whose tenure as Chairman comes to an end once he turns 75 in 2012 (there is a slim chance of RNT still being the man calling the shots after that by virtue of his control of the trusts that control Tata Sons). Along with the poll, the website carries links to a biography of Noel, as well as a profile and news on the company he runs-organised retailing major Trent Ltd.
Today's Business (CNBC Europe)
The programme was renamed from "Today's Business Europe" in May 2003. While the title was only slightly altered, the programme was reduced from two hours to one (with the then-titled CNBC Europe Squawk Box gaining an hour). While Today's Business Europe had been presented in front of CNBC Europe's video wall, the new programme (initially co-anchored by Guy Johnson and Serena Al-Awa, who has since left CNBC Europe) was presented from behind a desk.
The programme ended its run on March 23, 2007 and was replaced on March 26 by a new show, Capital Connection, co-anchored by Maura Fogarty at CNBC Asia in Singapore and Sedgwick in London.
The programme ended its run on March 23, 2007 and was replaced on March 26 by a new show, Capital Connection, co-anchored by Maura Fogarty at CNBC Asia in Singapore and Sedgwick in London.
Today's Business (CNBC Europe)
Today's Business was a business news programme aired on CNBC Europe from 6-7am CET (5-6am WET) between January 2001 and March 2007. The programme was originally based on the CNBC U.S. morning programme Today's Business, which was later replaced by the programme Wake Up Call. The European Today's Business was presented by Steve Sedgwick.
The programme, affectionately referred to by presenters as "TBiz", featured a look ahead to the day. Segments included a review of yesterday's business, a news headlines round-up, as well as early results. The programme also linked up with CNBC Asia for continuing coverage of the Asian session
The programme, affectionately referred to by presenters as "TBiz", featured a look ahead to the day. Segments included a review of yesterday's business, a news headlines round-up, as well as early results. The programme also linked up with CNBC Asia for continuing coverage of the Asian session
Today's Business
In 1999, there was once Today's Business: Early Edition weekdays 4-5 am ET on CNBC, hosted by Bob Sellers and Bonnie Behrand, made the whole Today's Business expand to 3 hours.
Today's Business: Early Edition provides frequent round-ups of key business and general news stories, along with sports updates. Regular segments include "Wake Up with Jay," highlights from Jay Leno’s "Tonight Show" monologue; and live weather reports from Chief Meteorologist Joe Witte.
Today's Business: Early Edition provides frequent round-ups of key business and general news stories, along with sports updates. Regular segments include "Wake Up with Jay," highlights from Jay Leno’s "Tonight Show" monologue; and live weather reports from Chief Meteorologist Joe Witte.
Today's Business
Today's Business is a show on CNBC that aired in the early morning, 5 to 7AM ET timeslot, hosted by Liz Claman and Bob Sellers, and it was replaced by Wake Up Call on Feb 4, 2002. The show gives news that will probably affect the trading day ahead.
Today's Business (Europe) was the equivalent program on CNBC Europe. It ended on 23 March 2007 and was replaced by Capital Connection.
There was also a program on CNBC Asia called CNBC Today, but it was replaced by Asia Wake Up Call.
Today's Business (Europe) was the equivalent program on CNBC Europe. It ended on 23 March 2007 and was replaced by Capital Connection.
There was also a program on CNBC Asia called CNBC Today, but it was replaced by Asia Wake Up Call.
Business Plus- TV Channel
Business Plus is the first Pakistani channel to offer business news and analysis. The focus of Business Plus is on news and current affairs through credible and hard-hitting programming. First mover advantage resulting in high brand preference among viewers.
Business Plus is identified for its credible & authentic news & data due to its systematic editorial policy Dedicated, specialized and a professionally qualified team for all operations & programming.
Business Plus is identified for its credible & authentic news & data due to its systematic editorial policy Dedicated, specialized and a professionally qualified team for all operations & programming.
Monday, December 13, 2010
Understanding uncertainty: Infinite monkey business
The idea that an infinite number of monkeys typing at random on an infinite number of typewriters will eventually produce the complete works of Shakespeare apparently dates from 1913, and has appeared repeatedly in popular culture ever since. When the BBC Horizon team decided to make a programme about infinity. We said we needed a program to churn out random letters and match them to Shakespeare, and so they commissioned a Monkey Simulator program from Aaron Russell, which is available from this website.
The Monkey Simulator program generates random symbols from a list of 31 options: 26 lower-case letters, a space, a comma, a full stop, a semicolon and a hyphen. After a sequence of four symbols has been generated, the program searches for a match in a stored plain-text version of the Complete Works of Shakespeare, ignoring whether a letter is capital or lower-case. If the procedure finds one or more matches, it generates a further character and again checks if there is a match for five symbols, and so on, until no matches are found. Then it starts again with a new sequence of four characters. Characters are generated at a rate of 50 per second. (We note that this procedure cannot match sequences that stretch over the 36,357 line returns in the text file, and also cannot match all the other punctuation in the text, such as the 10,475 question marks and 8,827 exclamation marks.)
The Monkey Simulator program generates random symbols from a list of 31 options: 26 lower-case letters, a space, a comma, a full stop, a semicolon and a hyphen. After a sequence of four symbols has been generated, the program searches for a match in a stored plain-text version of the Complete Works of Shakespeare, ignoring whether a letter is capital or lower-case. If the procedure finds one or more matches, it generates a further character and again checks if there is a match for five symbols, and so on, until no matches are found. Then it starts again with a new sequence of four characters. Characters are generated at a rate of 50 per second. (We note that this procedure cannot match sequences that stretch over the 36,357 line returns in the text file, and also cannot match all the other punctuation in the text, such as the 10,475 question marks and 8,827 exclamation marks.)
Business Plus- TV Channel
Business Plus is the first Pakistani channel to offer business news and analysis. The focus of Business Plus is on news and current affairs through credible and hard-hitting programming. First mover advantage resulting in high brand preference among viewers.
Business Plus is identified for its credible & authentic news & data due to its systematic editorial policy Dedicated, specialized and a professionally qualified team for all operations & programming.
Business Plus is identified for its credible & authentic news & data due to its systematic editorial policy Dedicated, specialized and a professionally qualified team for all operations & programming.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
