I am not sociable, neither am I anti-social, is how the late Ratan Tata described himself in an interview. But being an unabashedly private person did not prevent the corporate icon from growing the Tata Group from just $4 billion when he took over as group chairman in March 1991 from his more illustrious predecessor and uncle JRD Tata to over $104 billion by December 2012 when he hung up his boots up after turning 75.
He once said, “When you are a founder or a chairman of a company, every tough decision is a lonely decision, you would be lucky if you had a right mentor.” The 86-year-old did not even have a family of his own as he never married despite coming close to saying ‘I do’ not once but thrice.
Many of Tata's associates only came across Jimmy Tata, who lives in seclusion in a south Mumbai 2BHK flat, when he was brought in, stone-faced, to the lawns of the NCPA in Nariman Point on a wheelchair to pay his homage to his elder brother.
As for his stepbrother Noel Tata, who on Friday was appointed the chairman of the 13 Tata Trusts, which collectively own 66.6 percent of the $165-billion Tata empire with a market capitalisation of over Rs 34 trillion, the executive said, “I have seen them together only at the board meetings or any such official functions and never at personal functions.”
In an interview with senior journalist Coomi Kapoor, Tata attributed his detachment to the very strict childhood he had under his father. When his father married a second time, Ratan and his younger brother Jimmy came under the care of their paternal grandmother Lady Navajbai Tata, the widow of Sir Jamsetji Tata’s younger son. She was his main comfort and anchor after his mother Sooni Commisariat left them with her after getting a divorce when he was only seven.
“It is not that he used to cane us but he wanted a certain decorum from us and he never allowed us to flaunt our wealth,” he said.
On his discomfort with opulence, he said elsewhere, “My brother Jimmy and I used to feel embarrassed in being driven in our grandmother’s Rolls Royce to the school. Instead we would get down from the car soon after it exits the gate and then walk down asking the driver to follow us.”
According to his former executive assistant at Bombay House, who later became the CEO of Tata Trusts, R Venkataraman, Tata was more at home with his dogs.
“Those closest to Ratan Tata were definitely not people but his pet dogs, which he had aplenty at his Colaba bungalow and all the stray dogs,” is how he put it. That he got an air-conditioned kennel built in the basement of Bombay House for stray dogs -- those which chose to walk with him could do so up to his official chamber -- bears testimony to this.
Recalling an instance of Tata's "undying affection for animals", brand specialist Suhel Seth, who worked closely with the Tata Group, wrote in a media column after Tata's passing, “I still remember he was being given a Lifetime Achievement Award by Prince Charles in February 2018: all arrangements had been made at Buckingham Palace and two days before the event he called me to say one of his dogs was unwell and he didn’t have the heart to travel and would I convey this to Prince Charles: something I did only to be told by Prince Charles, that this (Ratan) was an honourable man."
Another former Tata hand, who worked with Tata for more than a decade at the Bombay House and later at the Trust when RNT became their full time chairman and wished not to be identified, told TNIE that he was not a voluble person at all but was a perfectionist.
“He was a boss who demanded excellence and perfection. At the same time, he was very reasonable to see that others are not put to discomfort. He was a person of very precise words and brevity and would never speak with abandon. Though he was an introvert, he was never aloof. When it came to execution, he always demanded clear plans and never accepted any grey areas in a plan,” the ex-Tata executive explained.
When JRD was looking for someone to replace him, Ratan was not the first choice. In fact, he was the dark horse in the race. His ascension to power was not accepted by many a satrap in the Tata empire. But, over the next two decades, he would take the group to new heights.
The Tata Group was the first from India Inc to go on an overseas acquisition spree, snapping up three British companies and remaining the largest employer in the manufacturing sector of that island nation. But its stupendous rise was achieved more through organic growth — there are over 100 companies in as many sectors in the group, 30 of which are listed, with the crown jewel TCS being the second most valued company with over Rs 15 trillion in market cap — and less through acquisitions.
His eye for perfection had him battling many a corporate war from within the group. The pugnacious Tata took on the group satraps who considered their companies as their personal fiefdoms and showed them the door one after another. JRD, who headed Tata Sons from 1938 until 1991, allowed people like Russi Mody in Tata Steel, Darbari Seth in Tata Chemicals and Tata Tea and Ajit Kerkar in Indian Hotels to come up and never interfered in the operations of these satraps who, in turn, thought they would manage their companies in their way.
But Ratan Tata was keen to bring more cohesiveness into the group, increase the Tata stake in them, strengthen the Tata brand and expand through organic and inorganic routes.
Mody first ignored Tata but, when the latter persisted, put up a tough fight to retain control over Tata Steel as its chairman. To cut him to size, Tata introduced the group’s retirement policy that directors above 75 should resign from Tata boards. Mody had to go.
The next was Seth, who was close to JRD but was uncomfortable with Ratan. He had to leave Tata Chemicals and Tata Tea under this retirement policy but managed to get his son Manu Seth as MD of Tata Chemicals. He also resigned later.
But Kerkar, who was running Indian Hotels as his personal fiefdom, put up stiff resistance and the retirement policy did not work as Kerkar had years to go. Later, Tata eased him out as well.
These three boardroom battles gave him complete control over the group which he continued to exert till his last breath, which was one of the reasons for his tiff with the late Cyrus Mistry who was appointed chairman in December 2012 and continued till October 2016 when he was thrown out by the board. This was an act that took some sheen off Tata's personal aura.
Tata did not want to be remembered as the most admired corporate leader or a visionary whose influence reshaped the business landscape. Asked about his legacy some years ago, all he said was, "I'd like to be remembered as a person who made a difference, not anything more, not anything less." The Rs 1 lakh car Tata Nano, the water purifier Tata Swach and the multi-crore Small Animals Hospital in central Mumbai whose construction he personally oversaw are all testament to the difference he made.
"If I think about how I would like to be remembered, I would like to be remembered as a person who was able to make a change, who was able to be responsible for a change in the way we looked at things. What that might be spelt out as, I can't really say..." Tata said.
What truly excited him was finding satisfaction in enabling something meaningful that contributed to the world, regardless of its financial success. He lived by that credo till the very end.
