Ratan Tata, in full Ratan Naval Tata, (born December 28, 1937, Bombay [now Mumbai], India), Indian businessman who became chairman (1991–2012 and 2016–17) of the Tata group, a Mumbai-based conglomerate.

He is the son of Naval Tata and the grandchild of Hormusji Tata. He is related to Tata group founder Jamshedji Tata, the husband of his biological maternal grandmother, Hirabai Tata. So, Ratan Tata is a Tata by birth.

Ratan Tata was raised by his grandmother as his parents separated when he was merely 10 years old. He has led an exemplary life inspiring millions of career aspirants around the globe.

Born with a golden spoon, Ratan Tata proved himself to be an excellent leader and a business owner. Ratan Tata’s first language is Gujarati.

Academic life and the early childhood years have a profound impact in shaping the personality of a person, and so it turned out to be in Ratan Tata’s case. Ratan Tata did his early schooling in Mumbai. He studied at Campion School, Cathedral, and John Connon School in Mumbai. Soon after, he went to Shimla to study at Bishop Cotton School.

A member of a prominent family of Indian industrialists and philanthropists (see Tata family), he was educated at cornell university, Ithaca, New York, where he earned a B.S. (1962) in architecture before returning to work in India. He gained experience in a number of Tata Group businesses and was named director in charge (1971) of one of them, the National Radio and Electronics Co. He became chairman of Tata Industries a decade later and in 1991 succeeded his uncle, J.R.D. Tata, as chairman of the Tata Group.

During the 21 years he led the Tata Group, revenues grew over 40 times, and profit, over 50 times. Where sales of the group as a whole, overwhelmingly came from commodities when he took over, the majority sales came from brands when he exited. He boldly got Tata Motors to acquire Tetly, Tata motors to acquire Jaguar Land Rover and Tata Steel to acquire Corus. All this turned Tata from a largely India-centric group into a global business, with over 65% revenues coming from operations and sales in over 100 countries. He conceptualised the Tata Nano car. In 2015, He explained in an interview for the Harvard Business School’s Creating Emerging Markets project, the development of the Tata Nano was significant because it helped put cars at a price-point within reach of the average Indian consumer.

Ratan Tata resigned his executive powers in the Tata group on 28 December 2012, upon turning 75, appointing as his successor, Cyrus Mistry, the 44-year-old son of Pallonji Mistry of the Shapoorji Pallonji Group, the largest individual shareholder of the group and related by marriage. On 24 October 2016, Cyrus Mistry was removed as the chairman of Tata Sons and Ratan Tata was made interim chairman. The decision went through intense media scrutiny that made many scrutinize the root causes of the sudden removal, and the resultant crisis. A selection committee was formed to find a successor. The selection committee consisted of Mr. Tata, TVS Group head Venu Srinivasan, Amit Chandra of Bain Capital, former diplomat Ronen Sen and Lord Kumar Bhattacharya. All of them, except Mr. Bhattacharya, were on the board of Tata Sons. On 12 January 2017, Natarajan Chandrasekaran was named as the chairman of Tata Sons, a role he assumed in February 2017.

Ratan cut down the number of companies in Tata Group from over 300 to invest in new budding businesses that showed growth potential. Ratan Tata is a true visionary in every way. Tata Group acquired multiple overseas brands to expand its reach. For instance, Tata tea acquired Tetley, a UK-based brand in 2000 for 407 million$. Tetley is sold out as Tata Tea which is a product of Tata Consumer Products Limited. It is now sold world over in more than 40 countries.

He turned around various companies under his supervision and generated huge revenues. Tata Son’s ventures from salt to software turned into a 100 billion$ group, under Ratan Tata’s tenure.

Under Ratan Tata’s initiative, Tata Motors acquired Daewoo Commercial Vehicles in 2004 for 102 million$. It was the biggest take-over of a Korean company by an Indian company. In 2007, Ratan Tata acquired Corus, an Anglo-dutch steel maker for 12.2 billion dollars. This deal led Tata-Corus to become the fifth largest steel maker in the world.

Ratan Tata’s sharp business acumen was yet again proven a year later, when Tata Motors acquired two British cars brands, Jaguar and Land Rover. This was an acquisition with Ford which costed 2.3 billion$ to Tatas. It was Ratan Tata who drove the entire acquisition campaign, and in 2017, JLR’s revenue topped 34 billion dollars.

In 2008, there was another feather added to the leadership hat of Ratan Tata, who launched, Tata Nano, the cheapest car in the world. Nano was launched in an Auto Expo and became a subject of case study in all Top-B school across the globe.

Once, during heavy rains in Mumbai, Ratan Tata saw a family of four riding on a bike. There were two kids travelling with their parents in heavy rains on a bike. The kids were sandwiched between father and mother. This provoked the idea of coming up with a cheap affordable car for low middle class consumers who are left at the fury of weather. This is how, Ratan Tata devised Tata Nano, to bring respite in the lives of such people.

Ratan Tata has been an excellent leader, with sharp decisiveness, fairness, enthusiasm, integrity, endurance and business skills. He served Tata group for 50 years. At 75, he retired from Chairmanship of Tata Group in 2012, after hiring a suitable person to fill in the gap. Ratan Tata’s successor was Cyrus Mistry, who was the son of Pallonji Mistry of the Shapoorji Pallonji Group. He was the largest individual shareholder of the group.

But, Cyrus Mistry was suddenly removed from Chairmanship in 2016. His sudden removal was heavily scrutinised by the media. Ratan Tata was appointed as the interim Chairman immediately. A big selection committee was formed to hire a new chairman. The committee comprised of

Mr. Tata, Amit Chandra of Bain Capital, TVS Group head Venu Srinivasan former diplomat Ronen Sen and Lord Kumar Bhattacharya. On 12 January 2017, Natrajan  was named as the Chairman of Tata Sons.

Tata is a supporter of education, medicine and rular development  and considered a leading philanthropist in India. Tata supported University of new South Wales faculty of engineering to develop capacitive deionization to provide improved water for challenged areas.

Tata Hall at the University of California, San Diego (UC San Diego), opened in November 2018, houses facilities for the biological and physical sciences and is the home of the Tata Institute for Genetics and Society. The Tata Institute for Genetics and Society is a binational institution that coordinates research between UC San Diego and research operations in India to assist in societal and infrastructure development in the area of combating vector-borne diseases. Tata Hall is named in recognition of a generous $70 million gift from Tata Trusts.

Tata Education and Development Trust, a philanthropic affiliate of Tata Group, endowed a $28  million Tata Scholarship Fund that will allow cornell university to provide financial aid to undergraduate students from India. The scholarship fund will support approximately 20 scholars at any given time and will ensure that the very best Indian students have access to Cornell, regardless of their financial circumstances. The scholarship will be awarded annually; recipients will receive the scholarship for the duration of their undergraduate study at Cornell.

In 2010, Tata Group companies and Tata charities donated $50 million for the construction of an executive center at Harvard Business School (HBS). The executive center has been named Tata Hall, after Ratan Tata (AMP ’75), chairman emeritus of Tata sons  The total construction costs have been estimated at $100 million. Tata Hall is located in the northeast corner of the HBS campus, and is devoted to the Harvard Business School’s mid-career Executive Education program. It is seven stories tall, and about 155,000 gross square feet. It houses approximately 180 bedrooms, in addition to academic and multi-purpose spaces.

Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) has given the largest ever donation by a company to Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) for a facility to research in cognitive systems and autonomous vehicles. TCS donated $35 million for this grand 48,000 square-foot building that is called TCS Hall.

Tata was started in the year 1868. Since then, it has grown by leaps and bounds. Today, if you list down the top companies in India, then 4 out 5 companies belong to Tata group. Tata gained its global recognition by collaborating with multiple international brands.

There are 96 brands operating under Tata umbrella, out of which 36 are publicly listed like Titan, Tata Steel, etc. The total market capitalisation is about 130 billion$.

The first 21 years of leading Tata Group as Chairman by Ratan Tata, created new benchmarks for the company’s success. Tata’s revenues grew over 40 times and its profits grew over 50 times. Tata’s business strategies of buying out promising global brands or acquiring a few of them, helped Tata to emerge as a global leader. Tata was no longer restrained within the Indian boundaries, but its collaboration with Tetley and Corus, just showcased its potential to the world.

Tata’s 65% revenues started coming from sales in more than 100 countries across the globe. It was Ratan Tata’s sharp business acumen that led to the formation of Tata Nano. He wanted to launch a car within the reach of an Indian consumer, which he disclosed in one of the interviews given to Harvard Business School Emerging Markets Project.

Tata also ventured in Snapdeal (India’s leading e-commerce website) in 2016, Teabox (online premium tea seller), and cashkaro.com (a discount coupon and cash-back website). Ratan Tata evaluated the business investment opportunities and invested in companies both in early as well as late stages.

He invested 0.95 Crores in Ola Cabs, which was an upcoming promising venture. In April 2015, Tata had partnered with Chinese Smartphone Xiaomi. In October 2015, Tata ventured into partnership with American Express, and invested in Bitcoin Venture Abra. In 2016, Ratan Tata invested in Nestaway, which is an online real estate portal to scout for fully furnished flats for bachelors. Nestaway later acquired Zenify to venture into family rental market segment and online pet care portal, Dogspot.

Apart from these investments under the leadership of Ratan Tata, Tata Motors invented its first batch of Tata Electric Vehicles. These vehicles are manufactured in Gujarat. Electric vehicles is an ambitious target of Indian government to have only electric cars on Indian roads by 2030.

In 2014, Tata Group endowed the Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay and formed the Tata Center for Technology and Design (TCTD) to develop design and engineering principles suited to the needs of people and communities with limited resources. They gave ₹950 million to the institute which was the largest ever donation received in its history.

Tata Trusts under the Chairmanship of Ratan Tata provided a grant of ₹750 million to the Centre for Neuroscience, Indian Institute of Science to study mechanisms underlying the cause of Alzheimer’s disease and to evolve methods for its early diagnosis and treatment. This grant was to be spread over 5 years starting in 2014.

Tata Group, under the leadership of Ratan Tata formed the MIT Tata Center of Technology and Design at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) with a mission to address the challenges of resource-constrained communities, with an initial focus on India.

 

Ratan Tata’s Social media handles

Twitter: Ratan N. Tata (@RNTata2000)

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ratantata/?hl=en

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ratantata.aks/

Ratan Tata as one of the world’s leading philanthropist

In the words of Ratan Tata, “What I would like to do is to leave behind a sustainable entity of a set of companies that operate in an exemplary manner in terms of ethics, values and continue what our ancestors left behind.”

Ratan Tata has guarded the brand image of Tata strictly. Under his stewardship, Tata always has been making the headlines for all the right reasons. Tata is the biggest business brand that contributed immensely in the growth and development of India. In one of his recent unique endeavours, Ratan Tata wrote some insights on how businesses should be carried out post COVID-19. He did this to help lakhs of businesses to steer through the storm of sudden pandemic. Ratan Tata is truly an inspiration for the world and youngsters look upto him.

In 2011, Ratan Tata stated, “I came close to getting married four times and each time I backed off in fear or for one reason or another.” Ratan Tata stated recently that he loved one girl in Los Angeles while working there. As his family member was ill, so he had to return to India but the parents of the girl didn’t allow her to come to India with Tata. So, Tata stood by his commitment and never married.

The Tata group comprises over 100 operating companies spread across six continents.

Tata Chemicals, Tata Communications, Tata Cliq, Tata Consultancy Services, Tata Consumer Products, Tata Motors, Tata Elxsi, Tata Steel, Tata Power, Jamshedpur FC, Voltas, Tanishq, Tata Projects Limited, Titan, Tata Capital, Trent, TajAir, Indian Hotels Company Limited, Cromā, Vistara, and Tata Starbucks.

Awards

Ratan Tata is the recipient of the highest national awards bestowed by Indian government to its most-skilled and extra-ordinary civilians. He received the second highest civilian award, Padma Vibhushan, in 2008, and the third highest civilian award, Padma Bhushan in 2000.

Ratan Tata is also a trained pilot. He has a licence for flying F-16. He is the very first civilian to hold such licence.

Net worth

Ratan Tata’s net worth is 1 billion dollars which is equal to Rs. 7416 crore in Indian currency. His monthly income is 90+ crores and his annual income is 820+ crores.

Assets

Ratan Tata owns a house in Mumbai (India) where he resides. He bought this luxury house in the year 2015. This house is estimated to be worth around Rs. 150 Crores. He owns multiple properties across India.

Ratan Tata owns multiple cars, few of which are the best luxury cars in the world. He owns Cadillac XLR, Mercedes Benz, Range Rover, Honda Civic, Maserati Quattroporte, Chrysler Sebring, Ferrari, Buick Super 8, Jaguar and Tata.

Is Ratan Tata the richest man in the world? 

‘No, Ratan Tata is not the richest man in the world.’ Despite having staggering turnover which is bigger than what Bill Gates or Mark Zuckerberg or Jeff Bezos make, Ratan Tata is not the richest man.

Well, there is an interesting story behind that. Ratan Tata is a man of ideologies, ethics and values. He doesn’t relate his success by getting ranked on Forbe’s top list but believes genuinely in giving back to the society.

Would you believe that Ratan Tata donates 65% of his money to charitable causes? Any revenues generated across the world never affects his personal account, rather is given to charitable organisations.

His personal net worth never goes beyond 1 billion dollar mark.

Interesting facts about Ratan Tata

1. Ratan Tata wanted to marry a girl who he fell in love with, while working in New York. But, destiny played its role, as he had to relocate back to India to be with his ailing grandmother and the girl refused to relocate with him.
2. Tata has a lot of love for animals. The tradition is that the headquarters of Tata Sons, has a kennel for stray dogs, which lets them in during rainy weather.
3. When Ratan Tata joined Tata in the beginning, he was given the job of managing the blast furnace and shoving limestone. His first job was managing operations on the shop floor of Tata Steel in 1961.
4. It was because of Tata’s pragmatic business skills, he led merger and acquisitions with multiple business conglomerates that sky rocketed Tata’s revenues.
5. Ratan Tata earned his ethics from his grandmother who raised him post his parents separation. He learnt to stand up with dignity at every adverse situation from her. He owes the biggest moral lessons of his life to his grandmother.
6. In 2009, he envisioned Tata Nano car, the cheapest car of India worth Rs 1 lakh and rolled it out in the market. Tata Nano scaled up Tata’s competency at global level.

Ratan Tata is truly a man of ethics and principles. The biggest lesson he has taught to us is that no matter what happens, never compromise on your principles and ethics.