Ratan Tata, for whom life was more than logic

Ratan Naval Tata, an entrepreneur extraordinaire, a visionary who was daringly ambitious and a man of mercurial instincts at times, a rare gem in that treacherous sea of business sharks where venality often trumps other characteristics, shone above all his ilk with his genuine concern for his employees, deep empathy with fellow beings, ethics in business dealings, and quiet philanthropy with self-effacing humility. 

Ratan was not to the manor born in the classic sense. He was not a direct descendant of Jamshedji Tata. He was the son of Naval Tata who was adopted into the Tata family. His childhood was not a bed of roses. His parents separated when he was 10. He secured a degree in Architecture from Cornell University in the US. He returned to India and joined the Tata group and worked on the shop floors of different companies, beginning with Tata Steel, and eventually rose to be a manager, earning his spurs there where the Tata culture and ethos must have seeped into his blood. In 1991, JRD Tata, the towering, charismatic icon of the Tata empire, stepped down as Chairman of Tata Sons, the holding company of the various Tata companies, and passed on the baton to Ratan Tata, who was 54 then. 

A few things stand out in Ratan Tata’s remarkable and stellar career as a business leader. He galvanised the staid and lumbering Tata Group, which resembled a public sector undertaking in many respects, into a nimble elephant and revved up revenues by 40 times and profits by 50 times. This, at a conglomerate unequalled in diversity anywhere in the world -- straddling salt to software, and steel and automobiles to aviation, hydropower and hospitality. I once asked the late management guru C K Prahalad, who argued for companies to stick to their “Core Competence”, what explained the Tata success story. He said that Tatas’ core competence was “managing diversity and corporate ethics” which draws talent and inspires loyalty at lower salaries compared to competition! 

Ratan Tata stunned the world with three audacious acquisitions. Tata Tea acquired Tetley, Tata Motors acquired Jaguar-Land Rover (JLR), both globally recognised brands. He bought the loss-making JLR from the formidable Ford Motor Company, which was struggling to turn it around. And Tata Steel bought Corus Steel in Europe, the fourth-largest steel-maker in the world and four times bigger than Tata Steel, for an eye-popping $13 billion. And it was won through a transparent, if hair-raising, online global bidding war which was done over eight hours, through the night, and required proof of funds in the bank. Arun Gandhi, the Tata official who steered the bidding, told me that Ratan Tata was at the back-end, stayed connected to him through it, and did not flinch. Some nerves of steel! 

Tatas almost came to grief after the JLR and Corus acquisitions after the financial meltdown of 2008 and other crises that rocked the interconnected globe, but the sheer guts and perseverance of the Tatas under Ratan have turned at least JLR to profit eventually. It is said paradoxically that “Vision is the art of seeing the invisible. Vision is seeing the future. And Ratan clearly saw that. 

But beneath the demeanour of geniality and humility of Ratan Tata, his most endearing qualities, lay also the persona of a tough and ruthless leader who did not tolerate insubordination, insouciance or insensitivity. When Ratan took over the reins from JRD, the Tata Group had many larger-than-life leaders who were highly regarded, well-entrenched and powerful leaders in their own right, like Russy Modi of Tata Steel, Darbari Seth of Tata Tea, and Ajit Kerkar of the Taj Hotels entities, and others. When Ratan sensed that there was resentment and resistance to his elevation and he would not have the freehand he needed to take the Tatas into new directions, he moved with lightning speed to ease them out one by one, by bringing in the retirement age of 75 or removing them unceremoniously when the situation so demanded. 

Ratan was similarly swift and merciless in removing Cyrus Mistry, who had outstanding credentials and whose family was the second-largest shareholder in Tata Sons, whom he had himself nominated as his successor after an elaborate and painstaking search of two years through a non-partisan committee, overlooking his step brother. When Cyrus seemed to be clinically and logically, and some might say, rightly, getting the Tatas out of many ventures that he thought did not make business sense but which were the passionate offsprings of Ratan like Air Asia, Vistara airlines, the Tata Telecom joint venture with NTT, and seemed to be acting without considering Ratan’s views, the latter had Cyrus removed from all Tata companies. 

I had a brief glimpse of this with my short partnership with Tatas. Ratan Tata was also a licensed pilot and was passionate about flying and flew his own company jet. He funded a start-up from Tatas called Tata Business Jets (TBJ), promoted by an entrepreneur from Singapore, to usher a new revolutionary concept called fractional ownership, a kind of timeshare of business jets. I met him along with the late R K Krishna Kumar, a trusted associate of Ratan in Tata Sons. The business jet venture was grounded, and RK called me and asked if my company, Deccan, could take over and run it. He asked me to meet Ratan and I was told that he was deeply attached to it and believed the Indian market was ready for it. I was overawed by Ratan’s utter simplicity. I agreed to the proposal.

 When Cyrus took over, his guillotine first fell on TBJ, without any discussion on it. I rushed to meet RK and wanted to meet Ratan. I was told very discreetly that the whole Tata edifice was shaking and was asked to wait. 

It occurred to me that while Cyrus may have done what he thought was right for the Tatas, in Ratan’s mind, there is more to life than logic. Ratan was not a cold businessman. He was full of dreams and passions. As Tagore said, “A mind all logic is like knife all blade. It bleeds the hand that uses it.” 

That brings us to the totally illogical decision to acquire Air India. Though Ratan had retired from the active management of all Tata companies, he was Chairman of Tata Sons, which controlled the group. N Chandrasekaran was a laudable choice as his successor, and Ratan still had his firm but benign grip on the companies as Chairman Emeritus. 

Paris, the prince of Troy, stole Helen, the wife of King Menelaus of Sparta. Menelaus led a war against Troy, killing Paris. While one can imagine what passions drive men to wage wars to repossess the women they love, one wonders what possessed Ratan Tata to win back Air India, a princess in the Tata empire that was “stolen” from them through nationalisation and had since been made into an impoverished relic.

It must have been a deep, emotional and irresistible urge that the Tatas paid an astronomical sum to a loss-making airline, to add to the two airlines they already had. But that is Ratan Tata, which made him heroic and as romantic as the knights of yore. 

Ratan had his human foibles. He was flippant at times, as he came across in the Niira Radia tapes. He, on one or two occasions, gave in and succumbed, and crossed the lines of corporate governance when one of the companies acted rashly, and the CBI sent Tatas a notice to appear before them. But there was never a trace of greed or fraud for personal benefit. 

His humaneness and decency, above all his generosity of spirit in giving back to society, transcended any shortcomings he may have had. When the Taj Mahal Palace Hotel in Mumbai was attacked by terrorists and around 160 people, including guests and employees, were killed, along with 200 others -- workers, vendors and passengers – at the Mumbai railway terminus, he not only compensated all those who had perished at the Taj hotel, but also all the nameless dead on the streets, regardless of their caste, religion and ethnicities. Such compassion and philanthropy has no parallel. Ratan Tata will remain the lodestar for the rest of business leaders to look up to and emulate.

(The writer is a soldier, farmer, and entrepreneur