ETtech Exclusive: Naveen Tahilyani steps down as Tata Digital CEO after just a year at the helm
In a fresh top-deck churn, Tata Digital CEO and MD Naveen Tahilyani has stepped down just a year after being handpicked by Tata Sons Chairman N Chandrasekaran to steady the group's digital commerce ambitions. His abrupt exit underscores the Tata group's ongoing struggle to stabilise leadership at its much-hyped superapp venture, Tata Neu.
ADVERTISEMENT Tahilyani, a Tata veteran who was previously CEO of Tata AIA Life Insurance, was tasked with bringing executional rigour, financial discipline, and consumer focus to a fragmented digital portfolio spanning BigBasket, 1mg, Tata Cliq, Tata Croma, and the Neu app. His mandate: fix the superapp's faltering strategy and stitch together the group's digital assets into a cohesive platform.
UK-headquartered life insurer Prudential plc on Thursday announced Tahilyani's appointment as regional CEO for India, Africa, the Philippines, Cambodia, Laos and Myanmar, with additional responsibility for the health vertical.
Over the past few months, however, Tahilyani's role was gradually narrowed as plans emerged to carve out BigBasket and 1mg for separate fundraises and eventual IPOs.
This marked the end of the road for Tata Digital as a unified digital platform seeking external capital—undercutting the very premise of the superapp strategy Tahilyani had brought in to scale. Tata Neu, the group's superapp, launched in April 2022 aimed at consolidating its various consumer-facing digital businesses into one integrated platform. 'There was angst that independent business units like 1mg and BigBasket weren't allowed operational freedom,' said a person familiar with internal discussions. 'Tahilyani began shifting Tata Neu's positioning from a central command to a shared digital platform,' said a person in the know.
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' It was clear that Tata Digital as an entity had become less relevant with BigBasket and 1mg in talks to raise independent funding. Plans to go to market to shore up capital as consolidated unit never frutified,' another person close to the matter said on the condition of anonymity. ET reported on April 7 that that the Tata group is preparing to raise $1.3 billion for its digital assets BigBasket and 1mg.
Strategy changes, limited traction
ADVERTISEMENT Under Tahilyani, the group recalibrated focus on core Tata-owned brands such as Croma and Tata Cliq. Backend integration plans across BigBasket, 1mg, and Tata Cliq were put on hold to preserve brand identities and avoid a clunky user experience—an issue that plagued Neu's early rollouts.It accounted for less than 10% of gross sales for BigBasket and 1mg, according to insiders, signalling limited consumer adoption and weak cross-platform synergies.
ADVERTISEMENT 'There's now a clear view that unless Neu delivers a seamless, value-led experience, it cannot subsume the identities of stronger consumer brands,' one source said.
Still, Tahilyani had laid down some groundwork. He was working closely with unit heads to align strategies and had approved 1mg's upcoming offline expansion into standalone pharmacies and diagnostic labs, as reported by ET on May 14.
ADVERTISEMENT Leadership churn continues
Tahilyani's tenure came on the back of continued leadership churn at Tata Digital. Since the exits of Myntra founder Mukesh Bansal in 2022 and multiple senior leaders over the past two years, the company has seen successive overhauls of its top team, including one initiated under Tahilyani himself.
Chandrasekaran, who chairs Tata Digital's board, had reportedly grown impatient with Neu's sluggish progress and had hoped Tahilyani would accelerate execution and prepare the business for possible external investment or eventual IPOs of BigBasket and 1mg.'This was always going to be a tough turnaround,' a senior executive said. 'The digital foundation is in place, but scale and traction remain elusive.'
The Tata group had renewed its Indian Premier League (IPL) title sponsorship for another five years to boost Neu's visibility, signalling continued investment in its digital play.
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