Cyrus Pallonji Mistry (1968-2022) was an Indian businessman and Chairman of Tata Sons, the holding company of the Tata Group, from 2012 to 2016. Educated at the London School of Economics and Imperial College London, Mistry focused on streamlining operations and addressing challenges within the Tata conglomerate. He was also involved in the Shapoorji Pallonji Group, his family’s construction company. Mistry’s tenure at Tata Sons ended in 2016 following his ousting, which led to legal disputes with the Tata family. His legacy includes his efforts to modernize the Tata Group and his role in a significant corporate controversy in India.
Cyrus Pallonji Mistry Quotes
1. “At the end of the day, everybody has to take the right decisions for the right reasons.”
— Cyrus Pallonji Mistry
2. “I think when you take decisions, you should take them not on the basis of what you believe is a convenient outcome, but what you believe is the right outcome. That’s something that is important.”
— Cyrus Pallonji Mistry
3. “When you look at good governance, you also need to look at how you approach the subject.”
— Cyrus Pallonji Mistry
4. “I am not looking for board positions, I am looking for good governance.”
— Cyrus Pallonji Mistry
5 “Shareholder value gets lost when things are done illegally, when corporate governance is not adhered to, when cohesive action is not taken.”
— Cyrus Pallonji Mistry
6. “If wrong decisions, both from a governance perspective and ethics, happen, this is a slippery slope that we will go down. Unless and until you recognise this, you will not take the right decisions.”
— Cyrus Pallonji Mistry
7. “When an institution goes through an inflection point, it has to institutionalise itself. That institutionalisation requires governance to be put in place, governance processes.”
— Cyrus Pallonji Mistry
8. “Let us look at international institutions and trusts. Trusts have a certain roles and unless you define what their roles are, what is it that they control? Are they controlling the day-to-day operations? If you do that, then what is Tata Sons for? What are the operative companies for? Effectively, you need to have clarity on the roles of different players inside a structure. That is the governance framework.”
— Cyrus Pallonji Mistry
