Ratan Tata was born
into an old Parsi family of Bombay (present-day Mumbai), the first child of
Soonoo & Naval Hormusji Tata. Ratan's childhood was troubled, his parents
separating in the mid-1940s, when he was about seven and his younger brother
Jimmy was five. His mother moved out and both Ratan and his brother were raised
by their grandmother Lady Navajbai. He was schooled at the Cathedral and John
Connon School in Mumbai.
In 1962, after graduating from Cornell University with a
degree in Architecture and Structural Engineering, Ratan joined the family
business. Ratan turned down a job offer from IBM, following the advice of
J.R.D. Tata, and entered the family business. Ratan joined the Tata Group in
December 1962, when he was sent to Jamshedpur to work at Tata Steel. He worked
on the floor along with other blue-collar employees, shoveling limestone and handling
the blast furnaces. In 1971, Ratan was appointed the Director-in- Charge of the
National Radio & Electronics Company Limited (Nalco), a company that was in
dire financial difficulty.
Ratan suggested that the company invest in developing
high-technology products, rather than in consumer electronics. J. R. D.
followed Ratan's suggestions. From 1972 to 1975; Nalco eventually grew and
recovered its losses. In 1977, Ratan was entrusted with Empress Mills, a
textile mill controlled by the Tatas. When he took charge of the company, it
was one of the few sick units in the Tata group. Ratan managed to turn it
around and even declared a dividend. In 1998, Tata Motors introduced his
brainchild, the Tata Indica.
On January 31st, 2007, under Ratan Tata's chairmanship,
Tata Sons successfully acquired Corus Group, an Anglo-Dutch steel and aluminum
producer. With the acquisition, Ratan Tata became a celebrated personality in
Indian corporate business culture. The merger created the fifth largest steel
producing entity in the world. Ratan Tata was honored by the Government of
India with the Padma Bhushan on 26th January 2000, on the occasion of the 50th
Republic Day of India.
He serves in senior capacities in various organizations
in India and he is a member of the Prime Minister's Council on Trade and
Industry. In March 2006 Tata was honored by Cornell University as the 26th
Robert S. Hatfield Fellow in Economic Education, considered the highest honor
the university awards to distinguished individuals from the corporate sector.
He recently received an honorary doctorate from the London School of Economics
and listed among the 25 most powerful people in business named by Fortune
magazine in November 2007.
Ratan Tata is indeed
a visionary and has made India proud. With novel ideas like the Tata Nano
Priced at a lakh only, more people can afford to buy a car. He has played a
very important role in helping increase the standard of living of the common
man. The future of India is bright with leaders like Ratan Tata showing the way
to success.
The company headed by
Tata has almost single-handedly built Indian industry. Initially mill owners,
the group now includes India's largest software house and one of its most
prestigious hotel chains (the Taj), as well as steel and car production. The
success of the Tata Group, India's largest conglomerate, is largely down to
Tata's courageous and principled management strategies, and yet Ratan himself
does not appear on any rich list; the Tata family owns just one per cent of the
holding company.
A SLOW STARTER:
Early business failures in the Tata Group's
electronics and mill interests did not mark Ratan out for a starring
role. Indeed, when he succeeded his uncle, J.R.D. Tata, as chairman in 1991,
few expected the group to survive the challenges of liberalization. By trimming
the group's 300 "fiefdoms" and removing managers who didn't share his
"global not local" vision, Tata reinvented the company.
GLOBAL PLAYER:
Today, the Tata Group has the largest market
capitalization of any business house of the Indian Stock Market. His ambitious
global acquisition spree began in 2000 with the takeover of Tatley Tea. The
2007 purchase of Anglo-Dutch steel gaint Corus for $13 billion was the biggest
takeover of a foreign company by an Indian corporate, marking his arrival as a
truly global player.
It is often said that Tata's heart is in the
motor industry. Famously media shy, Tata was propelled into the spotlight in
2008 with his bold takeover of prestige British brands Jaguar and Rover, a move
that was branded as "reverse colonialism". In 1998 he launched the
Indica, the first totally Indian car. With typically unwavering belief in his
project to create a people's car, Tata proved skeptic wrong in 2008 with the
launch of the "one lakh" ($2,150) car, the Tata Nano.
Under Tata's leadership, the group has set a
standard for corporate responsibility. As well as providing housing, education
and medical care to employees, the company ploughs over two thirds of profits
into trusts that finance good causes. Unusually in India, the company is known
to be incorruptible.
LEADERSHIP STYLE:
Audacious, degnified and philanthropic. One
of Tata's first principles in business is to be bold but to "do no
harm".
BUSINESS LESSONS: PUTTING SOMETHING BACK
Tata believes passionately in using his
company's growth for the betterment of his employee's lives and the community
at large. He believes the company's long-term position and influence depend on
this approach, and that shareholders will prosper in such a regime.
- Avoid
all corrupt activities even when times are difficult and temptation is
high.
- Obey
your instincts when they tell you that what you are being offered is too
good to be true.
- Make
sure your company listens to the community around it and contributes to
its well-being.
KEY STRENGTH:
The ability to think globally. Tata has
transformed a lumbering, bureaucratic, Empire-rea conglomerate into a dynamic
world player.
BEST DECISION:
Deciding that Tata Group should make its own
cars. Critics said it was vanity project, but Tata Motors is now India's second
biggest car maker.
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