Warren Harris has seen a lot of change in more than 20 years with Tata Technologies, much of it coming within the last four years. Harris, the president and chief operating officer, was among those charged with first piecing together a newly combined company in 2005 and then rebranding it under the Tata name.
That’s two major changes in less than half a decade. It’s required a lot of work on the part of Harris and the company’s other leaders, particularly in the area of communication — both outgoing and incoming.
“Over the last three and a half years, what we’ve learned is that it is very important to have long antennae that stretch into the organization,” Harris says. “They allow you to pick up the issues, challenges and feelings of the employees and the various teams that you have assembled throughout the organization. In terms of messaging and communications, it has been just as important for me to listen and to collect input as it has been to package communications and deliver them.”
If you don’t communicate during a time of change, both in terms of disclosure and seeking feedback, your culture will suffer and you risk allowing your company to lose its focus on your mission and core values.
Rebranding, mergers, acquisitions and other foundation-level changes can have many advantages from the standpoint of resources, financial clout, culture and a host of other variables. But it doesn’t make the process any easier to endure.
It’s something Harris has had to continually deal with as Tata Technologies has continued to evolve. Here’s what he learned along the way.