OMTEX CLASSES THE HOME OF SUCCESS

OMTEX CLASSES THE HOME OF SUCCESS

INDEX

INTRODUCTION

EARLY LIFE

WEALTH

CAREER

PERSONAL LIFE

QUOTES

SOCIAL AND ENVIRONMENTAL RECORDS

AWARDS AND RECONITION

MAN OF THE YEAR? IT’S RATAN TATA

CONCLUSION

OMTEX CLASSES THE HOME OF SUCCESS

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.

Tata was born into the wealthy and famous Tata family of Mumbai. He

was born to Soonoo and Naval Hormusji Tata. Ratan is the great

grandson of Tata group founder Jamsetji 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

OMTEX CLASSES THE HOME OF SUCCESS

and both Ratan and his brother were raised by their grandmother Lady

Navajbai.

Ratan Tata completed a BSc degree in engineering with structural

engineering from Cornell University in 1962, and the Advanced

Management Program from Harvard Business School in 1975.[1]

He

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.[2]

Ratan

Tata, a shy man, rarely features in the society glossies, has lived for

years in a book-crammed, dog-filled bachelor flat in Mumbai's Colaba

district.[3][4]

Ratan Tata has his own capital in Tata Sons., the holding company of the

group. His share is around 1%, valuing his personal holding at

approximately US$ 1 Billion. About 66% of the equity capital of Tata

Sons is held by philanthropic trusts endowed by members of the Tata

family. The biggest two of these trusts are the Sir Dorabji Tata Trust and

the Sir Ratan Tata Trust, which were created by the families of the sons

of Jamshedji Tata. Ratan Tata is on the board of trustees of the Sir Ratan

Tata Trust, and is the chairman of the board of trustees of the Sir Dorabji

Tata Trust, giving him significant influence on the board of Tata Sons,

despite his minority personal shareholding.

OMTEX CLASSES THE HOME OF SUCCESS

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 did not 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 did not 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 did not 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

OMTEX CLASSES THE HOME OF SUCCESS

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 director 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 has 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

aluminium 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.

On March 26, 2008, Tata Motors, under Ratan Tata, bought Jaguar &

Land Rover from Ford Motor Company. The two iconic British brands,

Jaguar and Land Rover, were acquired for £1.15 billion ($2.3 billion).

OMTEX CLASSES THE HOME OF SUCCESS

Tata Nano car, 2008

Ratan Tata's dream was to manufacture a car costing Rs 100,000 (1998:

approx. US$2,200; today US$2,000 US$2,528). 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. Recently when his plant for

Nano production was obstructed by Mamta Banerjee, his decision of

going out of West Bengal was warmly welcomed. Banerjee had the

support of the people of Singur, where the Nano plant was being

constructed, and many social movements. They criticised Ratan Tata for

forcing people out of their land in collusion with the Left Front

government in the state, headed by Budhadeb Bhattacharjee.

On October 7, 2008, After a controversial stay in West Bengal, Ratan

Tata and his men shifted their Rs 1-lakh car Nano project to Sanand near

Ahmedabad at an investment of Rs 2,000 crore (Rs 20 billion), declaring

that efforts will be made to roll out the world's cheapest car from a

make-shift plant to meet the deadline. Praising Modi for speedy

allocation of about 1,100 acres (4.5 km2) of centrally located land, Ratan

Tata said that the company had a great deal of urgency in having a new

location and was driven by the reputation of the state. He successfully

made a secret deal with Narendra Modi who agreed to give him a soft

loan to the tune of approximately $10 billion to make the car in Gujarat.

The car was launched on March 23, 2009 amid much fanfare with

advance bookings that preceded its launch by months.

OMTEX CLASSES THE HOME OF SUCCESS

Mr. Ratan Tata has a metallic blue, ferari california and many more cars

Maserati. He sometimes likes to fly his private jet himself. He has a

Falcon Jet. He has never been married.

Quotes

"Question the unquestionable." & "a promise is a

promise,"

The TATA Group is widely believed to make the largest contribution to

charity of any corporation in India. However, during his tenure as

Chairman of the Tata Group, Ratan Tata has come in for criticism from

human rights and environmental activists for the TATA Group’s record

in this sector and the apparent reluctance to address these issues at the

Group level.

OMTEX CLASSES THE HOME OF SUCCESS

Kalinganagar, Orissa: On January 2, 2006, policemen at Kalinganagar,

Orissa, opened fire at a crowd of tribal villagers. The villagers were

protesting the construction of a compound wall on land historically

owned by them, for a Tata steel plant. Some of the corpses were returned

to the families in a mutilated condition. When pushed for comment,

TATA officials said the incident was unfortunate but that it would

continue with its plans to set up the plant.[10]

Dow Chemicals, Bhopal Gas Disaster: In November 2006, survivors

of the Bhopal gas disaster were outraged by Ratan Tata’s offer to bail

out Union Carbide and facilitate investments by Carbide’s new owner

Dow Chemical. Tata had proposed leading a charitable effort to clean-up

the toxic wastes abandoned by Carbide in Bhopal. At a time when the

Government of India has held Dow Chemical liable for the clean-up and

requested Rs. 100 crores from the American MNC, survivor’s groups

felt that Tata’s offer was aimed at frustrating legal efforts to hold the

company liable, and motivated by a desire to facilitate Dow’s

investments in India.[11]

TATA supplies to Burma’s military regime: TATA Motors reported

deals to supply hardware and automobiles to Burma’s oppressive and

anti-democratic military junta has come in for criticism from human

rights and democracy activists. In December 2006, Gen. Thura Shwe

Mann, Myanmar’s chief of general staff visited the Tata Motors plant in

Pune. ["Myanmar Ties." December 8, 2006. The Telegraph, Calcutta,

India]. In 2009, TATA Motors announced that it would press ahead with

plans to manufacture trucks in Myanmar.[12]

,[13]

Singur displacement: The Singur controversy[14]

in West Bengal led to

further questions over TATA’s social record, with protests by local

villagers and some political parties over forcible eviction and inadequate

compensation to those being displaced for the TATA Nano plant. As the

protests gathered steam, and despite having the support of the ruling

CPI(M) government, TATA eventually pulled the project out of the state

of West Bengal, citing safety concerns. The Singur controversy was one

OMTEX CLASSES THE HOME OF SUCCESS

of the few occasions when Ratan Tata was forced to publicly address

criticisms and concerns on any environmental or social issue. Ratan

Tata’s subsequent embrace of and praise for Narendra Modi, Chief

Minister of Gujarat, also earned him brickbats on account of Modi’s

openly communal stance and his performance as Chief Minister during

the 2002 pogrom that saw hundreds of Muslims killed in riots within the

state.[15]

Dhamra Port: On the environmental front, the Dhamra port controversy

has received significant coverage, both within India and in Tata’s

emerging global markets. (‘India – Tata in troubled waters’, Ethical

Corporation, November 2007, London, UK)[16]

The Dhamra port, a venture between TATA Steel and Larsen & Toubro,

has come in for criticism for its proximity to the Gahirmatha Sanctuary

and Bitharkanika National Park, from Indian and international

organizations, including Greenpeace. Gahirmatha is one of the world’s

largest mass nesting sites for the olive ridley turtle and Bitharkanika is a

designated Ramsar site and India’s second largest mangrove forest.

TATA officials have denied that the port poses an ecological threat, and

stated that mitigation measures are being employed with the advice of

the IUCN.[17]

On the other hand, conservation organizations, including

Greenpeace, have pointed out that no proper Environment Impact

Analysis has been done for the project, which has undergone changes in

size and specifications since it was first proposed and that the port could

interfere with mass nesting at the Gahirmtha beaches and the ecology of

the Bitharkanika mangrove forest.[18]

,[19]

Protests by Greenpeace to Dhamra Port construction is also alleged to be

less on factual data and more on hype and DPCL's (Dhamra Port

Company Limited) response to Greenpeace questions harbours on these

facts [20]

,[21]

. Nevertheless, if good intentions prevail on both sides, we

can have progress on sustainable development in one of the poorest parts

of India, benefitting the society immensely.

OMTEX CLASSES THE HOME OF SUCCESS

On the occasion of India's 58th Republic Day on 26 January 2000, Ratan

Tata was honoured with the Padma Bhushan, the third highest

decoration that may be awarded to a civilian. On 26 January 2008 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. [22][23]

Ratan Tata serves in senior capacities in various organisations in India

and he is 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.[24]

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,

University of Southern California and of his alma mater, Cornell

University.[25][26]

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

OMTEX CLASSES THE HOME OF SUCCESS

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 Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur.He 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'.

On 29 August 2008, the Government of Singapore conferred honorary

citizenship on Ratan Tata, in recognition of his abiding business

relationship with the island nation and his contribution to the growth of

high-tech sectors in Singapore. Ratan Tata is the first Indian to receive

this honour.

After the 26 November 2008 Mumbai attacks, Forbes opined Ratan Tata

be brought into politics, calling him India's most respected business In

2009 he was appointed an honorary Knight Commander of the British

Empire[28]

.

OMTEX CLASSES THE HOME OF SUCCESS

Man of the year? It's

Ratan Tata Mahendra Singh Dhoni was run out for 0 in his ODI debut and made 30

on his Test debut. Somewhat like Ratan Tata, whose managerial start

with Nelco was largely nixed and involvement with the legendary

Empress Mills met with modest success.

But that's where any forced comparison between the son of Ranchi and

the scion of Jamshedpur should stop.

What Ratan Tata has done to put India on the world business and

corporate map this year, starting with his journey in 1991, will take the

delightful Dhoni many careers to accomplish. As Tata celebrated his

70th birthday on Friday, he could bask in the glow of recognition from

Fortune, the Wisden of business, which has listed him among the 25

most influential businessmen in the world.

Nothing in Tata's early life presaged this. An indirect descendant of the

great Jamshedji, Ratan Tata had a tough childhood, his parents

divorcing when he was only seven.

After attending Mumbai's Campion School, he went to Cornell in the

US, where he earned a degree in architecture and structural

engineering, hardly qualifications for building great companies.

OMTEX CLASSES THE HOME OF SUCCESS

When he returned to India after turning down a job with IBM on the

advice of JRD, he was sent to Jamshedpur to work the floor at Tata

Steel with other blue-collar employees, shovelling limestone and

handling the blast furnace. The trial by fire at the bottom of the pecking

order would stand him in good stead.

His managerial career did not start auspiciously. Given charge of Nelco

and Telco during the license-permit raj, he struggled to put them on the

rails and might well have thought he was running Hell-co. Tata satraps

breathed down his neck; critics said he looked out of depth.

JRD's decision to pass the baton on to him in 1991 coincided with the

start of India's economic reforms. After a period of consolidation, Ratan

Tata came into his own.

In 1998, he undertook a huge gamble with India's first indigenously

manufactured ‘people's car', appropriately termed Indica. Two years

later, he surpassed that with an astonishing $435 million deal for

Tetley, the most English of teas and companies, in what was then the

biggest acquisition in Indian history. It was a forerunner to a wave of

international expansion by Indian businesses in IT and pharma business.

The west began to take notice.

But even that was chump change compared to what followed. Over the

next five years, Ratan Tata led an acquisition spree that has expanded

the group to a nearly 100-company behemoth that makes everything

from salt to software, to shortly, swish cars. Few events shook the

OMTEX CLASSES THE HOME OF SUCCESS

corporate world more than Tatas' $21-billion acquisition of Anglo-Dutch

steelmaker Corus, an event that would have filled his great forbear

Jamshedji with pride.

The quiet understated powerhouse now includes the world's second

largest tea business (Tata Tea); Asia's largest software firm (Tata

Consultancy Services); the world's fifth largest steel giant (Tata Steel); a

plush worldwide hotel chain (Indian Hotels); the world's fifth largest

truck maker (Tata Motors) and an automobile manufacturing spectrum

that spans everything from a bicycle factory in Zambia, a $2,500 cheap

car, South Korea's Daewoo commercial vehicle, to soon $50,000 luxury

Jaguar models.

Ratan Tata has done it without experimenting with his hairstyle, riding

fancy motorbikes or dating Bollywood heroines (he remains single.) In a

recent interview, he confessed he "never had the desire to own a

yacht".

But the global corporate world now knows that if ever he spots a yacht-

making business which he can grow, he might buy it. Man of the year?

It's a no-contest. By several innings and tons of runs, it's Ratan Tata.

OMTEX CLASSES THE HOME OF SUCCESS

Ratan Tata : India's Industrial Architect

Ratan Naval Tata, the Chairman of the Tata Group, one of the

largest group of industries ; something he inherits from his earlier

generation. Brought up by his grandmother due to seperation of his

parents, Ratan Tata did his schooling from Cathedral and John Cannon

School in Mumbai. Later on he got his Architectural and Engineering

Degree from Cornell University. From here he joined his famiy busines.

After turning down a job offer from IBM, he joined the Jamshedpur

Tata Steel plant working with the Blue Collar employess handling blast

furnances.

Peek in the Past

In 1971, Ratan Tata joined Nelco and turned it into a profit churning

company. Later on when he joined the sick unit of Tatas Empress Mill,

he turned it into a dividend declaring company.In 1981 he was declared

the Chairman of the Tata Group of Industries.Today the Company has

been listed in New York Stock Exchange.

The Story So Far

OMTEX CLASSES THE HOME OF SUCCESS

The young lad who left the IBM job and brewed the corridors of his

own company, is today the Chairman of Tata Group of Companies and

has his company listed in New York Exchange. His latest expedition is

the Tata Elegante the latest Tata four wheeler he presented at the

Geneva Car Expo.

The Recognition Honoured with Padma Bhushan he is a memeber on

Prie Ministers Council on Trade and Industry. Ratan Tata was also

honoured by Cornell University as the 26th Robert S. Hatfield Fellow in

Economic Education, considered to be the highest honour by the

Cornell University. He is also a member of the board of trustees of the

RAND Corporation. He is board member on the Republic of South

Africa's International Investment Council and is a Asia-Pacific advisory

committee member for the New York Stock Exchange