Tata Group Chairman Cyrus Mistry on Tuesday said "challenging situations" confronted by some of its businesses require hard and bolder decisions on pruning portfolio even as he stressed that the conglomerate is open to acquisitions within and outside India, besides organic growth.

Mistry, who took up the baton at salt-to-software conglomerate in December 2012 from his predecessor Ratan Tata, said he wanted the group firms to have speed and agility to adapt to turbulent environments even as he maintained that the existing debt level is not a matter of concern.

He further said ‘green shoots’ of a turnaround are visible at Tata Motors and Tata Steel has potential to grow significantly while several Tata firms are gaining traction in two new markets of Iran and Myanmar.

"It was clear to me relatively early that one needed to confront the challenging situations facing some of our businesses, and ultimately this would entail hard decisions on pruning the portfolio," he said in an interview to his group’s in-house magazine.

Stating that there are no shortcuts, he said there would always be external influencers and so-called experts, who motivated by immediate transactional gains, would goad to churn portfolio.

"It is important that we develop our own prognosis based on knowledge and context, keeping all stakeholders in mind. We should not be afraid of taking tough decisions for the right reasons, with compassion," he said.

He said some of the innovations are incremental and the ‘dare to try’ concept does make the Tatas bold.

"We have to start taking bolder steps because true value in today’s environment will not only be created from incremental innovation, but the bolder and bigger strides that we take," he said.

Mistry said each of the group companies is charting its own strategy and growth story, with the focus on sustainable and profitable growth.

On some group companies having taken on significant debt, he said: "This has to be seen in the context of business growth, increasing cash from operations and capital projects under way which will lead to future growth. As the group has been growing significantly in the past, the total capital employed has also grown. Proportionately, there has been an increase in debt." .