TheIndianEXPRESS eBOOK TATA RATAN HIS LEGACY Contents 3 INDIA'S RATAN 4 BUILT TO LAST: BRAND TATA 5 LIFE STORY 7 TRIBUTE 10 TRIUMPH OF ENTREPRENEURSHIP 12 CARS, COFFEE & CHARISMA 16 TATA'S CHOICE PRESERVES PARSI TRADITION 18 350 YEARS OF HISTORY 19 FAREWEEL TWEET COVER PHOTO : Suzanne Plunkett/Bloomberg News TheIndianEXPRESS 2 eBOOK Copyright © 2012The Indian Express TheIndianEXPRESS eBOOK India’s Ratan atan Naval Tata has stepped down as chair- projects — both the Indica and later the Nano — man of Tata Sons and while the entire team succeed. As he himself said in interviews following R at the $100 billion Tata conglomerate will the launch, he was surprised at the interest that surely feel his absence, the average Indian too will the Nano — priced at just R1 lakh — evoked around have reason to miss him. The country probably the world. That the Nano didn’t sell the kind of vol- never needed Tata more than it does today; as The umes it was expected to must have been disap- Economist wrote recently, ‘by standing out against pointing for Tata. As must have been the debilitat- graft so publicly and consistently, Mr Tata was ing losses in the telecom piece — an effort to ahead of his time’. explore new areas in a liberalised economic Not that the business suffered because of it; the regime — or the ambitious $12-billion acquisition diversified conglomerate that he has headed for of the Anglo-Dutch steelmaker Corus which has more than two decades now has grown 20% annu- left Tata Steel hugely leveraged, an attempt at ally since FY92 and at an even more impressive 30% making the group global. in the last six years to March, 2012, a feat that not No doubt the Tatas has the financial muscle to too many other business groups have been able to foray into new spaces but there was also the match. With a bit of luck, it may have done better appetite for risk; some of the global buys may not but the fact remains that Tata chose to keep his dis- have been well-timed, a fact that Tata has gra- tance from the political class and fortunately, for ciously conceded. But there’s no doubt many of him, there weren’t too many occasions on which he the buys – the hotels for example – hold out needed to engage with it. On the few times that promise. The spectacular turnaround at the loss- there was a skirmish, he took tough decisions as making Jaguar and Land Rover bought for $2.3 bil- during the critical agitation over land in Singur lion in March 2008 – critics carped that the Tatas West Bengal when the plant was re-located to would never be able to sell luxury brands in unfa- Sanand in Gujarat. But more moving out, the Tatas miliar markets – n less than three years was proof had offered to buy 400 acres and gift it to the affect- of the group’s technological and marketing skills. ed farmers in return for the land Tata Motors had But it’s a fact that TCS accounts for a tenth of the used to set up its car plant. It was a fine gesture and group’s turnover, a higher third of the profits and the kind of generosity that sets the Tatas apart from half of the market capitalisation. However, scep- the country’s other large industrial groups. tics who believed the Tatas would never do well in Tata’s biggest contribution to India though the consumer space have been stumped by the would have to be the confidence that he instilled success of a Titan or even a Westside. The biggest in India’s engineers backed by his own conviction asset that Tata will leave for Cyrus Mistry, of that they could produce an indigenous car at an course, is a capable cadre of CEOs. But without its affordable price and his determination to see the ‘ratan’ the Tata Group can never be the same. Copyright © 2012 The Indian Express 3 TheIndianEXPRESS eBOOK BUILT TO LAST: BRAND TATA By Morgen Witzel greater internal coordination and cohesiveness that the group needed, but to reassert the values— hen Ratan Tata steps down as leader of trust, innovation, commitment to community and the Tata Group, it will be a landmark people—that had made Tata great in the first Wmoment in the group’s history. For place; values that had come dangerously close to more than two decades, he has guided the group getting lost in the twilight years of JRD’s leader- through a period of unprecedented change, a peri- ship. od that has seen the Tata Group change from being Establishing the brand meant not just changing a highly respected Indian business into an organi- what Tata does, although there has been a historic sation that is increasingly engaged with the wider shift away from smokestack industries towards world. In some ways, the change in the Tata Group services such as telecom and consultancy, which over the last 20 years reflects the changes in the are seen as being more in keeping with the needs Indian economy. of modern India. It also meant telling the Tata sto- Ratan Tata took over as leader from the much ry in new ways, to new stakeholder groups. A respected and much loved JRD Tata at a very notable example has been Tata’s engagement with important point. As Sumantra Ghoshal and Gita the youth of India, and increasingly in other coun- Piramal pointed out in their book Managing Radi- tries as well. As a result, Tata is now perceived by cal Change, Tata had to some extent become a young Indians as a thrusting, innovative, forward- business group depending on its legacy. The Tata looking company; and this would not have been name was respected and trusted, but was it the case 20 years ago. admired? As the Indian economy began its trans- The real alchemy here is that all of this has been formation towards greater market orientation, done without losing sight of fundamental Tata val- new names were beginning to emerge which ues. Indeed, they underpin the brand and are part seemed to represent the future of Indian business. of its heart. When I talk about Tata to young Indian Tata might have been consigned to its past. students, they tell me that the very things they Tata has changed all that. He did much to admire about Tata are its values, its trustworthi- strengthen the internal relationships and create ness and its belief in people. These are the very new harmony within the group, but that is in some ame values that Jamshetji N Tata laid down when ways the least of his accomplishments. His real the group was founded. They are alive today and legacy to the group has been twofold: The devel- they continue to help keep the Tata name strong. opment of an international strategy and the cre- The shift towards an international strategy ation of the Tata brand. has been slower to develop. Not surprisingly, ‘Before 1990’, he once told me, ‘we had a reputa- the group proceeded cautiously down this tion but we did not have a brand.’ The distinction is route at first. There was a lot to learn about an important one. Reputation is what other people international markets customers and interna- think about you; brand is the image of yourself tional ways of doing business. TCS and, more that you portray to other people. Tata knew that recently, Tata Motors, Tata Chemicals, Tata managing that brand was essential not just to the Steel and Indian Hotels, have gone further Copyright © 2012 The Indian Express 4 TheIndianEXPRESS eBOOK down the track towards internationalisation. Ratan has left the Tata Group a great legacy; Tata’s view has always been, however, that Tata it is for others to act upon that legacy. Predict- could not remain a purely Indian business. Like ing the future is always dangerous, but I will India itself, the group had to engage with the make a prediction anyway. When the next his- outside world. That strategy is now starting to tories of the Tata Group are written in 20 or 30 pay dividends. The growth of Tata Motors and years, the name of Ratan Tata will stand along- Tata Steel, to take just two examples, has been side those of JN Tata and JRD Tata as one of the spectacular. And as their business portfolios great figures in the group’s history. have begun to increase, so have their interna- tional reputations. Morgen Witzel is Fellow, Centre for Leadership Studies, University of Exeter Business School. LIFE STORY BORN ON DECEMBER 28, 1937 Ratan Naval Tata is the adoptive great grandson of Tata Group founder Jamshetji Tata. His father Naval Tata was adopted by Sir Ratan Tata from the family of a distant relative. Ratan Naval Tata was the eldest son of Naval Tata from his first marriage to Soonoo Commisariat. Soonoo and Naval sepa- rated when Ratan N Tata was seven years old. Ratan and his brother were raised by grandmother Lady Navajbai. BEGINS SCHOOLING IN BOMBAY — 1940S Ratan Tata began his schooling at South Bombay’s Campion School. Followed by a stint at Bishop Cot- ton in Shimla and finished off back in Bombay at Cathedral and John Connon School. GOES TO THE US FOR HIGHER STUDIES — LATE 1950S After finishing school, Ratan Tata went to Cornell University in the US to study BS in architecture with structural engineering. He graduated in 1962 and returned a few years later to the United States to complete the Advanced Management Program from Harvard Business School in 1975.