It is one Entity of The Massive Tata Conglomerate that you would have Heard Little about. But, as Tata Interactive Enters The Domestic Education Sector in a Big way, that could Soon Change
When Ratan Tata became the Chairman in 1989, Sanjaya Sharma, who has been with the group for over 31 years, approached him and a team from TAS with a business idea – to get into computer-based learning. Tata liked the idea and the result was Tata Interactiv – an interesting yet relatively lesser known venture of the Tata group. Within a span of a little over two decades since its inception, Tata Interactive has gone through crests and troughs to become the leader in developing training solutions globally. The company has already served clients across education, government & defence, telecommunications and ICT, pharmaceuticals & health care, banking, financial services, airlines, logistics, hospitality et al. Founder & CEO Sanjaya Sharma elaborates on the company’s business model, and how, with its recent foray into schools, the journey in India has just begun.
How did you evolve towards e-learning? What core competencies has the company developed so far?
We began with a focus on computer-based training and multimedia. As the web came in the mid-1990s, we went into web-based learning. We also leveraged our multimedia skills to create web designs. We designed and ran tata.com for the first two years. By the end of the decade, we had acquired enough international references to focus on e-learning. We had invested in product formats like simulations, games, story-based learning, et al. It evolved more towards e-learning and simulations since then. Although it is a niche, Tata Interactive is recognised as the leader as well as the pioneer. Also, we are the only global player. It is a multimedia and multidisciplinary business, and it’s hard to serve multiple geographies. For instance, the style of English speaking itself is different in different countries. But you can never expect to be a TCS in this kind of niche. You can aspire to be an Ideo, the world’s biggest design company. But three core competencies have been developed – multimedia-based instructional design, project management that scales up and institutional selling, which we are leveraging for our expansions.
What is the rationale behind the recent foray into schools?
We have been looking at India as a larger opportunity in the past few years – be it on the vocational side, the school side or the higher education side. We have prioritised schools as the first step. We are leveraging the same core competencies – there is a team of over 200 people creating the same core content. That comes from the strengths of multimedia production and instructional design. Selling to schools is a different target audience, but it is still institutional selling adapted to schools. It will use our project management skills as well. Education represents a big change in philosophy for us. We were not chasing a billion dollar turnover earlier. With the entry into a mass segment like schools, we definitely expect to reach a billion dollars in the next few years.
What is the core value proposition that you will bring in for schools?
Our concept is to supplement the way teachers are teaching by providing them with methodology and the multimedia content through Internet. We have a cloud solution and everything is hosted centrally. The school server is connected to us. As we create new lessons, they keep popping into the school. The philosophy is built around the lesson plans supplied by us to the teacher. It is about how the topic is to be taught, cross linkages with other topics, short term and long term objectives, group/individual activities, assessments. The animation-based and multimedia-based components are also supplied to the teacher. Lesson plan is an overall plan to teach the lesson based on the way the board specifies. At this time, there is a lot of interest in terms of this concept. Some 7-8 thousand schools have implemented this system only partially. The sector is price sensitive, but demand is arising from all segments – trustees, principals, teachers, students and parents want it as well. We plan to cover some 100 cities across the country in the next few months.
When Ratan Tata became the Chairman in 1989, Sanjaya Sharma, who has been with the group for over 31 years, approached him and a team from TAS with a business idea – to get into computer-based learning. Tata liked the idea and the result was Tata Interactiv – an interesting yet relatively lesser known venture of the Tata group. Within a span of a little over two decades since its inception, Tata Interactive has gone through crests and troughs to become the leader in developing training solutions globally. The company has already served clients across education, government & defence, telecommunications and ICT, pharmaceuticals & health care, banking, financial services, airlines, logistics, hospitality et al. Founder & CEO Sanjaya Sharma elaborates on the company’s business model, and how, with its recent foray into schools, the journey in India has just begun.
How did you evolve towards e-learning? What core competencies has the company developed so far?
We began with a focus on computer-based training and multimedia. As the web came in the mid-1990s, we went into web-based learning. We also leveraged our multimedia skills to create web designs. We designed and ran tata.com for the first two years. By the end of the decade, we had acquired enough international references to focus on e-learning. We had invested in product formats like simulations, games, story-based learning, et al. It evolved more towards e-learning and simulations since then. Although it is a niche, Tata Interactive is recognised as the leader as well as the pioneer. Also, we are the only global player. It is a multimedia and multidisciplinary business, and it’s hard to serve multiple geographies. For instance, the style of English speaking itself is different in different countries. But you can never expect to be a TCS in this kind of niche. You can aspire to be an Ideo, the world’s biggest design company. But three core competencies have been developed – multimedia-based instructional design, project management that scales up and institutional selling, which we are leveraging for our expansions.
What is the rationale behind the recent foray into schools?
We have been looking at India as a larger opportunity in the past few years – be it on the vocational side, the school side or the higher education side. We have prioritised schools as the first step. We are leveraging the same core competencies – there is a team of over 200 people creating the same core content. That comes from the strengths of multimedia production and instructional design. Selling to schools is a different target audience, but it is still institutional selling adapted to schools. It will use our project management skills as well. Education represents a big change in philosophy for us. We were not chasing a billion dollar turnover earlier. With the entry into a mass segment like schools, we definitely expect to reach a billion dollars in the next few years.
What is the core value proposition that you will bring in for schools?
Our concept is to supplement the way teachers are teaching by providing them with methodology and the multimedia content through Internet. We have a cloud solution and everything is hosted centrally. The school server is connected to us. As we create new lessons, they keep popping into the school. The philosophy is built around the lesson plans supplied by us to the teacher. It is about how the topic is to be taught, cross linkages with other topics, short term and long term objectives, group/individual activities, assessments. The animation-based and multimedia-based components are also supplied to the teacher. Lesson plan is an overall plan to teach the lesson based on the way the board specifies. At this time, there is a lot of interest in terms of this concept. Some 7-8 thousand schools have implemented this system only partially. The sector is price sensitive, but demand is arising from all segments – trustees, principals, teachers, students and parents want it as well. We plan to cover some 100 cities across the country in the next few months.
For more articles, Click on IIPM Article
Source : IIPM Editorial, 2011.
An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri and Arindam chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist).
For More IIPM Info, Visit below mentioned IIPM articles.
IIPM Best B School India
Management Guru Arindam Chaudhuri
Rajita Chaudhuri-The New Age Woman
IIPM's Management Consulting Arm-Planman Consulting
IIPM in sync with the best of the business world.......
IIPM Prof. Arindam Chaudhuri on Internet Hooliganism
Arindam Chaudhuri: We need Hazare's leadership
Professor Arindam Chaudhuri - A Man For The Society....
IIPM: Indian Institute of Planning and Management
IIPM RANKED NO.1 in MAIL TODAY B-SCHOOL RANKINGS
