From boardroom war to public spat, tiff over Cyrus Mistry’s ouster will be taught in B-schools

The tussle between Ratan Tata and Cyrus Mistry will be taught in B-schools as it covers every aspect of management and crisis.

From removal of Mistry, boardroom war to e-mail wars that went in public, every detail of the tussle has now become a valuable lesson to be taught in the management schools.

As per experts, one can learn about corporate governance, conflict management, etc from the tiff between the Tatas and Mistry.

"In the case under development - the ouster of Cyrus Mistry - we plan to focus on the issues related to ownership rights and managerial rights; in a listed firm, the former does not automatically afford the latter,” Ramachandran J, who teaches corporate strategy and policy at IIM-Bangalore, told ET.

The matter will also be taught at IIM-Calcutta. Anirvan Pant, associate professor of strategic management, told ET the point of discussion would be whether it was enough to engage as a chairman just on the strategy dimension or should one look at both strategy and creating an identity for the group.

Among the many takeaways from this saga, said the professors ET spoke to, is how family-managed businesses should handle succession successfully. The selection of a successor, his induction and the clarity that a non-family CEO should get will also be talked about with students.

"When a case is written on this, it can be used brilliantly to illustrate the problem of governance, succession planning, economic value added, ethics versus efficiency and the role of culture in organisations,” Ajit Prasad, the director at IIM-Lucknow, told ET.