Obituary

 Largely A Silent Operator, Ratan Tata Bows Out At 86

Born in December 1937, in pre-independence Bombay, Ratan Tata, the great grandson of the founder Jamsetji, died on October 9^th, 2024, also in Mumbai.

Qualified as an Architect from Cornell University in the US, he joined the Tata Group in 1962 on the shop floor at Tata Steel. At the age of 54, he was handed the top job of Chairman of the Group and Tata Sons, its main holding company. This was by the legendary JRD Tata, who got it approved by the board of Tata Sons, in 1991, when his own health began to fail. Like Ratan, who never married, JRD, though married, was childless.

The year of Ratan’s takeover proved to be both stellar and probably fated. Because it was in 1991 that the PV Narasimha Rao government with Manmohan Singh as finance minister, unshackled the Indian economy, and the Licence-Permit Raj was finally ended. Ratan Tata was able to grow the Tata Group manifold, unfettered by government restrictions, able to invest abroad, taking the turnover from USD 4 billion to USD 100 billion today.  Ratan Tata succeeded in taking a storied but largely domestic company international, largely via a series of audacious acquisitions rolled out at an increasing pace.

And yet, the key to the profitability of the Tata Group under Ratan Tata lay in the revival, expansion and taking public of Tata Computer Services (TCS), in 2004. This was soon after the Indian IT story took the world by storm. Companies like TCS and Infosys became well known in the US and Europe and changed the global image of India. But now we are in the age of AI.

Ratan Tata stayed at the operational helm till 2012, when he turned 75. He continued thereafter to chair the two main Tata trusts Sir Dorabji Tata Trust and Ratan Tata Trust which he had controlled since the passing of JRD Tata in 1993. These two trusts together own 66% of Tata Sons and Tata Industries, the other holding company in the group, and wield enormous influence.

Now these two trusts will most likely go to another Tata in the chair, probably Noel Tata, 67, his half-brother. Noel also has three children who bear the Tata name, all in their thirties, and who work in the Tata Group in various capacities presently. Noel Tata is already a trustee in both the trusts.

Ratan Tata returned to operational control over the Tata Group and Tata Sons briefly in 2016, after the ouster of Cyrus Mistry as Chairman of the Group and Tata Sons. This after Ratan Tata had picked Cyrus for the job after great deliberation four years earlier. The detailed reasons about why the falling out happened are not known to the public, and since Cyrus Mistry died in a car crash in 2022 himself, there will probably not be any new information either.

The present Chairman of the operating companies and Tata Sons is N Chandrashekharan, again hand-picked by Ratan Tata from his earlier perch heading Tata Computer Services (TCS). Chandrashekharan has proved to be a very competent manager of the group, and the former architect of the rise of TCS. For the near future, he is likely to stay in place.

Ratan Tata is credited with consolidating the group in the early years after his takeover in 1991. It had drifted into near autonomous units headed by powerful satraps such as Russi Mody whose father had also been Chairman of Tata Sons. There were a clutch of satraps Ratan Tata had to bring to heel, and he did it with his trademark determination and his reputation as a quiet operator. Thereafter, he set about increasing the shareholding of the holding companies in various operating companies to obviate the threat of any hostile takeover. Next, he decided to charge royalties for use of the Tata brand name. After this period of assertion, Ratan Tata became the undisputed leader of the Tata Group and set about a great deal of expansion and diversification. He was also mindful of the Tata values of integrity and trust at all times.

Ratan Tata was very fond of dogs, always keeping a pair of German Shepherds as pets for years, adopting and also looking after strays, providing them dog shelters and letting them sit in the lobby at Bombay House, the Tata HQ and the Taj Mahal Hotel, the group’s flagship hotel. Recently, he set up a hospital for animals, particularly dogs.

In recent years, Ratan Tata also invested in a slew of Start-Ups, partially to encourage young entrepreneurs but also with an eye to potential profits as they develop. A few of his bets paid off handsomely before he passed away. It goes to show that his business instinct was operating well till the last.

Ratan Tata was highly respected nationally and internationally, earning state honours. In his home state of Maharashtra, he has been accorded a state funeral and a day of mourning in his honour. Jharkhand, where Tata Steel operates from, has also declared a day of mourning.

There will no doubt be legacy issues given his many philanthropic activities, the interest in the arts, research, aeroplanes, aviation, with Ratan Tata being a pilot like JRD before him, and India’s progress in aatmanirbhar defence manufacturing in which Tata plays a part. But it will also be interesting to see how the Tata group changes on its way to becoming a trillion USD group in an age when India is to become the third largest economy in the world. This is a far cry from both the world of JRD Tata and his successor for the most part, but something to do them proud.

 (945 words)

October 10^th, 2024

For: Firstpost/News18.com

Gautam Mukherjee