Ratan Tata – The Man of Wisdom

There are many people, who dream big, but there are a few who take a step forward to achieve their dreams and there are very few who actually convert those dreams into reality. One of such very few persons is a man who is known as one of the most respected businessmen today and the man is the incomparable “Mr. Ratan Tata”.

Ratan Tata joined the Tata Group 21 years back in 1991 as chairperson. He is a member of an eminent Tata family of entrepreneurs and humanitarians of the country. At the time, when Ratan Tata came, the Tata group was already facing its debasement during its difficult days such as the deregulation of steel expenses and the globalization of the frugality. It was Ratan Tata who had an enormous vision and profound knowledge that shaped the group and gave it an improvement and future perspective of growth.

Ratan Tata’s horizon did not lie to deal in domestic economy; he rather wanted to take the business on a global level. He was the first Indian businessman to question “Why are we not looking beyond India”, “why aren’t we taking things further” and the answers were quite revolutionary for the Tata group. Under his leadership, the Tata group generated a swarm of merchandises that pleased the emerging trends in about 80 nations. During his time, the revenues of the Tata Group augmented to nearly 67.4 billion.

It was the result of this great business leader’s visionary per brilliance that there was a chain of foreign companies’ acquisitions after 2000 that included Tetley (British Tea Brand), Daewoo Motors (South Korean truck maker), and NatSteel (Singapore) etc. It was because of his supreme managerial efficiency that Tata Motors was able to achieve Jaguar Land Rover and Tata Steel achieved Corus that changed the group’s visibility from an Indian centric corporation to an international giant venture with nearly 65% of the revenue originating from overseas.

Besides being such an outstanding businessman, Ratan Tata is also a magnanimous personality. He is a great humanitarian and a person with unequivocal simplicity. He has been cited as the only leading Indian business tycoon with net worth of around $970 million. He’s also been named as one of the most popular civic personalities in legislation, venture, culture and athletics. Tata Consultancy Services became communal and Tata Motors acquired recognition in the New York stock exchange, all thanks to Mr. Tata’s incessant vision for running concepts and modernization.

Ratan Tata is a Mumbai native; he completed his school studies from Bombay and then went on to complete his graduation in architecture and structural engineering from Cornell University in 1962 and advanced management program from Harvard Business School in 1975. Also, he is an associate of the Alpha Sigma Phi community.  In the initial phase of his career, he worked in Tata Steel in 1962, digging limestone and managing the blast kiln. Then in 1991, he was chosen by JRD Tata as his inheritor and was adjudged as the chairperson of the Tata Group, which proved to be a turning point for the Tata Group.

Thanks to Ratan Tata’s forceful tactics in trade, he generated compounded annual growth rate of 18.3 percent for the Tata Group. For the contribution, he made towards the country; Rata Tata received huge accolades and recognition in return such as Padma Bhushan in 2000, Padma Vibhushan in 2008 and Lifetime Achievement Award by Rockefeller Foundation in 2012. He’s also an associate of the Prime Minister’s assembly of Trade and Business and one of the boards of governors of the East-West center.

As of 28^th December, 2012, Ratan Tata is going to retire and Mr. Cyrus Mistry is going to take charge as the new chairman of the Tata Group.  Now the most important question arises, “Can Cyrus Mistry really replace Ratan Tata?”, “Can he repeat what Ratan Tata did and achieved in 21 years?” This question leaves us in a quite unapparent state right now as there will be a lot of speculations over the topic but one thing is true for sure that the legacy of “Mr. Ratan Tata” will continue forever.