RATAN TATA

Ratan Tata, a name that made great impact not only in the world of business giants but also among the youths of India, was born on December 28, 1937 in Mumbai. He was the eldest son of Naval Tata. In 1962 he completed his Bsc in architecture from Cornell University and in the same year joined TATA Group working on the Tata Steel shopfloor at Jamshedpur, just as one of several thousand employees. In 1991 he took over as the group chairman from JRD Tata and since then he never looked back. On December 28, 2012 he stepped down as the chairman. In his 21 year long tenure as the chairman of the Tata Group, he took the group to a stellar heights. His out of the box thinking and unusual habit of taking risks made Tata a global name, a brand. Tata group has more than 80 brands under its name. From Tata Tea to Tata steel, the group is ever expanding and continues to do so but it never strayed from its vision of making products, which a common family in India, can afford. The vision which Ratan Tata envisioned and worked on diligently till the day he retired. He always believed in values and ethics and achieved the goals and objectives with the value system and ethical standards. By all the acquisitions from Tetley to JLR, Ratan Tata brought the global heroes and leaders to India. Even before others were trying to match their level with TATA, he used to raise his own to another level, leaving others to fume. He did much to strengthen the internal relationships and create new harmony within the group, but that is in some ways the least of his accomplishments. His real legacy to the group has been twofold: The development of an international strategy and the creation of the Tata brand. The secret of Ratan Tata lies in his ability to think big and small all at the same time. While he is taking the luxurious Pierre hotel in New York, he is also launching the budget Ginger hotels in India. He launched the worlds cheapest car and at the same time brought one of the iconic brands Jaguar and Land Rover to India. His contribution towards the underprivileged areas of the society cannot be undermined. He has always been respected for his social commitment besides his business acumen. He focuses on rural development. One of his latest goals is to somehow provide nutrition to the children and pregnant women in India because he thinks that would change the mental and physical health of our population in years to come. From Tea to Coffee, from Cars to Trucks, from Steels to IT, from Telecom to D2H services, from Hotels to Airlines. Tata is everywhere. Even when they are not marketing for themselves someone from amongst us is doing it. Such is their presence

Challenges:
Nelco
In 1971, Ratan Tata was appointed Director-in-Charge of The National Radio and Electronics Company Limited (Nelco) that was in dire financial difficulty, losses of 40% and barely 2% share of the consumer electronics market. He took the challenge and proposed to invest more on enhancing technologies rather than investing on consumer electronics, until then the company has never produced dividends. JRD Tata was first reluctant, given the financial performance of NELCO, but did not oppose his decision. Ratan Tata went on to implement the idea and from 1972 to 1975, Nelco touched a market share of 20 per cent. It recovered its losses. The blow, however, came in 1975 when Prime Minister Indira Gandhi declared a state of emergency, which led to an economic recession. Acute union problems in 1977 ensured a strike and an eventual lockout. Though Ratan Tata continued to believe in the fundamental soundness of Nelco, the venture did not survive.

Empress Mills
At around the same time, in 1977, Ratan Tata was given another chance. This time he had to revive a long time sick textile mills called Empress Mills, which was running in loss for years. Ratan to an extent succeeded in bringing the unit back from sickness to profit making unit, it had started to give dividends, but later as the market of cotton and cloth turned adverse, the mills losses began to pile. He was denied of Rs 50 Lakhs required to make mill competitive. Later in the year 1986, the mill closed, it was also the time of infamous Mumbai textile workers strike.

Singur
Ratan Tatas dream project for a Rs 1-lakh car came under fire when the Trinamool Congress chief and current Chief Minister of West Bengal Mamata Banerjee objected to locating the plant that would produce the Nano, in Singur. Facing allegations that the company was forcing people out of their lands in collusion with the then Left Front Government in the State, Ratan Tata and his team bid goodbye to their controversial tenure in West Bengal on October 7, 2008. Even knowing the grave loss involved in shifting the plant he shifted the Nano project to Sanand near Ahmedabad, with an investment of Rs 2,000 crore. He could have lobbied for the plant to stay in Singur but he did not do so as the presence of the plant was affecting manys emotions and sentiments, he decided to shift. But before moving out, the Tatas had offered to buy 400 acres and gift it to the affected farmers in return for the land Tata Motors had used to set up its car plant. The car was launched on March 23, 2009, amidst much fanfare with advance bookings that preceded its launch.

Indicas Success But Nanos Failure

1990 was the year when automobile industry came back from the long era of darkness to the lights of demand and likeness and no one except Ratan Tata understood the importance of the situation and had the vision of utilising the opportunity. Ratan Tata wanted to venture into the passenger car industry and hence, he put a dedicated team to develop a car model which he wanted to be the face of future, a car that would change the traditional way of car modeled in those days. But he was not satisfied by the models developed by the designers of India, so he entrusted the entire design and styling to I.DE.A, an Italian design house known for world class designs. The result was an astonishing looking hatchback car, named Indica that became an instant hit. It was also awarded as the best model in that year. It was the conglomerates first passenger car which became the no.1 car in its segment within two years. Ratan Tata wanted to respell that magic again in 2009 by the launch of NANO, a lakhtakiya car, priced at 1 lakh Rupees which he promised to be the car for middle class people. It got huge praises both from the critics and the people. But due to political and technical problems, Nano sales dropped and it failed on the expectations of its makers. He faced many criticism after these issues but without caring much about what they said Ratan Tata continued to promote Nano in the last days as the chairman and tried hard to get the response he received at

the time of the launch of Nano. The fate of Nano could have been different if he had stayed for some more time.

Personality Traits according to Big Five Model:

1. Openness: Ratan Tata had High attributes of Openness. His architectural intelligence helped him in innovating new ideas and his curiosity of challenging the situations gave, to the world, some of the most innovative products that brought revolution. Tatas Nano, though was not successful in terms of sales but made its mark in its segment of hatchback cars. It forced other Indian manufacturers to remodel their cars. Tatas Ace is the worlds smallest truck which made its own segment and became a huge success. Tata Indicas model was a revolution even though it was the first venture of Ratan Tata in passenger cars segment. He always learned and improved from his past experiences. 2. Conscientiousness: Right from the time Ratan Tata took the position of most renowned Mr. JRD Tata, he began to show his excellence. The decisions he made to save NELCO and Empress Mills were organized and was based on conscientious thinking and not on chances. If the countrys situation had been conducive, he could have been successful in reviving those units. His ideas, perception, vision were well planned. Again when the Tata Motors was not doing well in the country, in order to keep the status of the company, he acquired Jaguar and Land Rover, which brought TATA Motors back into the business. Even after facing criticism over his decisions and failing several times in his tenure, he remained persistent and proved the ones criticizing wrong, by his actions. He proved again and again that his Conscientiousness attribute was High. 3. Extraversion: TATA Group spends about 4.5% of its profit to philanthropic activities. Ratan Tata has always believed in an individuals responsibility towards ones society. He had and has been active in many social activities throughout and after his tenure as chairman of the group. Though he retired from the chairmans position yet he has continued to be the chairman of his Foundation. As a chairman he never compromised with the values and ethics of the company. He was friendly, active and has always dedicated his work efforts to make products for every household in the country, not because of profits but to give them what they deserve. He opened several and one of the best research and management institutes in the world so as to give the best platform for the development of the country as well as for the youths. This shows his High Extraversion attribute.

4. Agreeableness: Ratan Tata has High Agreeableness attribute. Singurs situation, where a political group and workers revolted against the setup of the plant, was dealt extraordinarily by Ratan Tata. Instead of being business minded and musing over his profits and losses he decided to leave and shift to Sanand, Gujarat, and gifted 400 acres of land to the farmers who got affected before relocating to Gujarat, evidently giving the proof of his compassionate and cooperative nature. He made TATA a brand that everyone can trust on. He accepted the mistakes he committed and quickly recuperated from the situation by learning from his mistakes. 5. Emotional Stability: Every time Ratan Tata failed in his ventures, right from NELCO to Nano, he faced harsh criticism. At the time of NELCO many even started to doubt about his ability and they said that if he became the chairman of the group then Tata will be a history. But to their surprise Ratan Tata never deferred, he maintained his calm and kept doing what he believed in. Taking risks was his habits and in his tenure he increased the revenue to 13 folds by making some tough strategic decisions. This shows very Stable Emotionally.

Some other personality traits:

1. Risk Taking: Ratan Tata has always been a risk taker. It is evident from his venture into the passenger automobile industry when the group earlier was only into heavy vehicles manufacturing business. The risks he took by acquiring the second largest steel manufacturing plant in Europe, Corus. The deal was the biggest deal of that year. This also came under lots of criticism as steel industry was not very profit making industry at that time but still Ratan Tata went ahead with the acquisition. The acquisition of Tetley, a UK based company, is the second largest manufacturer of tea. Nano and Ace, came out because he wanted to experiment with the minds of the people, in which he partially succeeded. 2. Proactive Personality: Tata has more than 80 individual companies under one group and it keeps on increasing. Ratan Tata soon after taking over as the chairman made some critical changes in the structure of the group. He grabbed all the opportunities that came across him. To improve the situation and position of the group in the world made him strive hard. Tata will only be retiring from his responsibilities as the executive head of the group. He will continue to be active in several other capacities, including that of leading some of the large Tata

trusts. As chairman of some of them, he will continue to influence the vision and strategies of the group. He is only redefining his role and is passing over the baton of leadership to a younger person in whom he and the group have faith. It is obvious that a person of his commitment and capability will only be delighted to see the institution that he has nurtured for two decades continues to grow. That alone will make eternal his legacy.