An enduring legacy
Tata , who loved fast cars and flying his own plane, gave the common Indian a unique product — the Rs 1-lakh car, the Tata Nano, in 2010.
Tata was born on December 28, 1937 to Naval Tata and Soonoo Commisariat. He had a rough childhood as his parents separated when he was all of seven, and was raised by his grandmother Navajbai Tata, along with his younger brother Jimmy.
He completed his degree in architecture in 1962 from Cornell University, New York, and got an advanced management programme from Harvard Business School in 1975. On the advice of JRD Tata, he turned down a job offer from IBM to join the family business.
Tata began his career with the family group as an apprentice on the shop floor of Tata Steel, shovelling limestone and handling the blast furnace. In the late 70s, he was given charge of the National Radio & Electronics Company and Bombay-based Empress Mills. In 1991, JRD stepped down as chairman of Tata Sons, naming Ratan his successor. At this time, Ratan was the fourth generation in the dynasty to take over the family business.
There were also downsides during his tenure. Under his watch, the conglomerate ended up sitting on a debt pile of $26 billion which caused concern among some investors. Tata’s telecom business was also under severe strain in the wake of the 2G scam.
He stepped down on December 28, 2012 on turning 75, appointing Cyrus Mistry as his successor.
The group’s aggregate sales at the end of 2011-12, around the time he stepped down, were at Rs 4.51 trillion. This was 43 times the turnover in 1992-93, when he first took over as chairman.
Tata continued to head the main two Tata Trusts, Sir Dorabji Tata Trust and Sir Ratan Tata Trust, as well as the major holding company, Tata Sons. Together, he holds 66.8 percent in them.
He was in the thick of controversy when Nira Radia, the group’s PR head, allegedly revealed sleazy deals that the group did under his watch especially in the telecom space.
Ties between Mistry and Tata soured later and the former was forced out in a boardroom coup on October 24, 2014. The manner in which Mistry was ousted dented Tata’s image as well as that of the group.
Following this, Tata again took up the mantle of the group till N Chandrasekaran of TCS was appointed as the Tata Group chairman in January 2017.
