Transcript RATAN TATA - Sphoorthy Engineering College

RATAN TATA
 Born
on dec 28, 1937 to Soonoo& Naval tata
 Brought up by grand mother
 Engineering degree from cornell university and
management programme from harvard in 1974-75
 Turned down job in IBM to join his own business.
Was given 2 sick units Nelco, Central India Textiles.
In 1991, he took over as group Chairman from the
legendary J.R.D. Tata, pushing out the old guard and
ushering in youthful managers. Since then, he has been
instrumental in reshaping the fortunes of the most
respected conglomerate of India.
 Tata sons were honest and solid but risk-averse
 Tata understanding India is changing has followed acquisitions
to expand its horizons.
 In 2000 he shelled out $435 million for Tetley Tea, making
Tata the world's No. 2 tea company.
 Two years later he paid $530 million for a 46% stake in
VSNL, India's state-owned international telecom carrier.
 He bought Daewoo Motor Co.'s truck unit, Daewoo
Commercial Vehicle Co., for $120 million.
 In July, the company will make another splash: the initial
public offering of Tata Consultancy Services, expected to raise
$1.1 billion
Under him Tata Consultancy Services went public and
Tata Motors was listed in the New York Stock
Exchange
His dream is to manufacture a car costing Rs 1 lakh.
In 1998, Tata Motors introduced his brainchild, the
Tata Indica.
Ratan retired from his executive post in 2003 after
turning 65, as per the rules he set.
 Down-to-earth, witty and startlingly straightforward, Tata upholds
the group's traditions and refuses to pay bribes to get a job done.
 His commitment to ethics and values has permeated through the
organization. In India's corporate circles he is known for his credible
business practices. The price of integrity has been high.
 Even his critics accept that Tata is a determined and persistent
manager. It was his determination that gave him an upper hand in his
fight with Russi Mody and his persistence that saw the successful
creation of the Indica.
 Talk cars to Ratan Tata and his face lights up immediately. He has
an undying passion for automobiles. "I like a car with a lot of power
and torque
 Tata is his company's biggest critic. He knows exactly where his
strengths lie and where they don't. As a result, he has no qualms in
seeking outside help in key areas if it improves his products, even at
the risk of ruffling feathers in his management.
 Ratan Tata established himself to be the right leader who could
help the company sail through the turbulent waters and reach the
desired lands. These targets never existed or were thought not
feasible by the company earlier. Prior to his handling the mantle,
these were hard even for conceiving. When Ratan Tata became the
Chairman of century old, well respected Indian business group, Tata,
it was a conservative company, dominated by the paradigm of
manufacturing. It was deriving dominant share of revenues from the
domestic market when domestic market itself was marked by two
important trends. First, it was making shift towards services and
secondly was moving towards opening up.
 Realizing that when the economy as whole is shifting to more of
services, the future belongs to the one that belongs to that segment
and the need for globalization is important when your domestic
economy itself is opening up, he initiated right moves. To be there
when it happens, he had to lead the company from over-dominantly
manufacturing paradigm to services based one and from domestic
focused to the one with global mindset. This was not to be achieved
by compromising on the existing focus or by resorting to hasty
retreat from the areas of operation. It was to be accomplished while
with continuity (may be diluting/withdrawing from some) but more
through furthering towards new areas.
 Human resource is another issue. That Tata has personally led the
company for almost 15 years and set up the Tata Business
Excellence Model to trade best practices, hasn't improved his
reputation.
"Our aim is to make Tata an international
company with a global workforce and global
delivery," says Tata
• "We should become a younger organization, an
organization of our time, more risk-taking, less
risk averse."