Everything about Ratan Tata totally explained
Ratan Naval Tata (born
December 28,
1937, in
Mumbai) is the present Chairman of the
Tata Group,
India's largest conglomerate founded by
Jamsedji Tata and consolidated and expanded by later generations of his family.
Biography
Ratan Tata was born into the wealthy and famous
Tata family of
Mumbai. He was born to Soonoo and Naval Hormusji Tata, a
Gujarati-speaking
Parsi family. Ratan is the great grandson of Tata group founder
Jamsedji 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
Campion School, Mumbai and graduated from
Cornell University in 1962 with a degree in Architecture and Structural Engineering.
Ratan joined the Tata Group in December 1962, after turning down a job with IBM on the advice of
JRD Tata. He was first 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 (Nelco), 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. was reluctant due to the historical financial performance of Nelco which had never even paid regular
dividends. Further, Nelco had 2% market share in the consumer electronics market and a loss margin of 40% of sales when Ratan took over. Nonetheless, J. R. D. followed Ratan's suggestions.
From
1972 to
1975, Nelco eventually grew to have a market share of 20%, and recovered its losses. In 1975 however, India's Prime Minister
Indira Gandhi declared a state of emergency, which led to an economic recession. This was followed by union problems in
1977, so even after demand improved, production didn't keep up. Finally, the Tatas confronted the unions and, following a strike, a
lockout was imposed for seven months. Ratan continued to believe in the fundamental soundness of Nelco, but the venture didn't survive.
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. However, competition from less labour-intensive enterprises had made a number of companies unviable, including those like the Empress which had large labour contingents and had spent too little on modernisation. On Ratan's insistence, some investment was made, but it didn't suffice. As the market for coarse and medium cotton cloth (which was all that the Empress produced) turned adverse, the Empress began to accumulate heavier losses.
Bombay House, the Tata headquarters, was unwilling to divert funds from other group companies into an undertaking which would need to be nursed for a long time. So, some Tata directors, chiefly
Nani Palkhivala, took the line that the Tatas should liquidate the mill, which was finally closed down in
1986. Ratan was severely disappointed with the decision, and in a later interview with the
Hindustan Times would claim that the Empress had needed just Rs 50 lakhs to turn it around.
In
1981, Ratan was named Chairman of Tata Industries, the Group's other holding company, where he became responsible for transforming it into the Group's strategy think-tank and a promoter of new ventures in high-technology businesses.
In
1991, he took over as group chairman from
J.R.D. Tata, pushing out the old guard and ushering in younger managers. Since then, he's been instrumental in reshaping the fortunes of the Tata Group, which today has the largest market capitalization of any business house on the Indian Stock Market.
Under Ratan's guidance, Tata Consultancy Services went public and Tata Motors was listed on the
New York Stock Exchange. In
1998, Tata Motors introduced his brainchild, the
Tata Indica.
On
January 31 2007, under the chairmanship of Ratan Tata, 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's dream was to manufacture a car costing
Rs 100,000 (1998: approx. US$2,200; today US). He realized his dream by launching the car in New Delhi Auto Expo on
January 10,
2008. Three models of the
Tata Nano were announced, and Ratan Tata delivered on his commitment to developing a car costing only 1 lakh rupees, adding that "a promise is a promise," referring to his earlier promise to deliver this car at the said cost.
On
March 26,
2008,
Tata Motors under Ratan Tata bought over Jaguar & Land Rover from Ford Motor Company. The icons of British Luxury, Jaguar and
Land Rover were acquired for £1.15 billion ($2.3 billion).
Personal life
Ratan Tata, a shy man, rarely features in the society glossies, drives himself to work in a Tata car and has lived for years in a book-crammed, dog-filled bachelor flat in
Mumbai's Colaba district.
Awards and Recognition
On the occasion of India's 50th
Republic Day on, Ratan Tata was honoured with the
Padma Bhushan, the third highest decoration that may be awarded to a civilian. On he was awarded the
Padma Vibhushan, the second highest civilian decoration. He was one of the recipients of the
NASSCOM Global Leadership Awards-2008 given away at a ceremony on February 14 2008 in Mumbai. Ratan Tata accepted the Carnegie Medal of Philanthropy in 2007 on behalf of the Tata family.
Ratan Tata serves in senior capacities in various organisations in India and he's a member of the Prime Minister's Council on Trade and Industry. In March 2006 Tata was honoured 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.
Ratan Tata's foreign affiliations include membership of the international advisory boards of the
Mitsubishi Corporation, the
American International Group,
JP Morgan Chase and
Booz Allen Hamilton. He is also a member of the board of trustees of the
RAND Corporation, and of his
alma maters:
Cornell University and the
University of Southern California. He also serves as a board member on the
Republic of South Africa's International Investment Council and is an Asia-Pacific advisory committee member for the
New York Stock Exchange. Tata is on the board of governors of the East-West Center, the advisory board of RAND's Center for Asia Pacific Policy and serves on the programme board of the
Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation's India AIDS initiative. In February 2004, Ratan Tata was conferred the title of honorary economic advisor to
Hangzhou city in the
Zhejiang province of
China.
He recently received an honorary doctorate from the
London School of Economics and was listed among the 25 most powerful people in business named by Fortune magazine in November 2007.
In May 2008 Mr Tata made it to the Time magazine's 2008 list of the World's 100 most Influential people.Tata was hailed for unveiling his tiny Rs. one lakh car 'Nano'.
Further Information
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