New Delhi, Aug. 13 -- India's most consequential conglomerate has just confirmed that professionals might run the business, but it's the family that runs the professionals. Natarajan Chandrasekaran's decision to step down as chairman of Tata Sons is the starkest proof yet.

Chandrasekaran was no outsider, having spent three decades with the group, rising through TCS to become its chief executive before taking charge of Tata Sons in 2017 at a moment of acute stress following Cyrus Mistry's messy exit. As an insider, a technocrat, and a manager without a family stake, he was the ideal professional successor after the Ratan Tata-Cyrus Mistry rupture. And the numbers back him: rapid growth, increased profitability, even though the newly minte...