Ratan Tata obituary: The visionary who bridged tradition and innovation

Bengaluru/Mumbai: Ratan Naval Tata, revered businessman and chair of Tata Trusts which owns Tata Sons, died late Wednesday at Mumbai’s Breach Candy Hospital.

Tata, who remained a bachelor, is survived by a brother Jimmy Tata, and two half-sisters from his mother’s side. He also has a half-brother, Noel Tata, who is the chair of Trent.

Besides family members, Tata Sons chairman Natarajan Chandrasekaran and Tata’s close friend Mehli Mistry were at the hospital.

“Mr. Tata’s dedication to philanthropy and the development of society has touched the lives of millions. From education to healthcare, his initiatives have left a deep-rooted mark that will benefit generations to come. Reinforcing all of this work was Mr. Tata’s genuine humility in every individual interaction,” Tata Sons chief Chandrasekaran said in a statement.

“Shri Ratan Tata Ji was a visionary business leader, a compassionate soul and an extraordinary human being,” Prime Minister Narendra Modi posted on social media platform X. “He provided stable leadership to one of India’s oldest and most prestigious business houses. At the same time, his contribution went far beyond the boardroom. He endeared himself to several people thanks to his humility, kindness and an unwavering commitment to making our society better,” he added.

As recently as Monday, Tata, 86, had assured that there was nothing about his health to cause concern after he was admitted to the hospital for age-related ailments.

“I am aware of recent rumours circulating regarding my health and want to assure everyone that these claims are unfounded,” Tata had said. “I am currently undergoing medical check-ups due to my age and related medical conditions.”

Tata appeared to be in good health until last Friday. On Saturday, he suffered sinking spells, but rallied. By Sunday morning, his condition had improved. But a little past midnight, his condition again took a beating and he was admitted to the hospital, about a 20-minute drive from his house in Colaba.

Tata, who joined the Tata Group in 1962, assumed its leadership in 1991 after his predecessor, J.R.D. Tata, passed away in Geneva, Switzerland. By coincidence or destiny, his taking over coincided with the opening-up of India’s economy and the resulting reforms.

Within six years of his arrival, Tata reorganized the Tata Group, which had $5.9 billion in revenue. This process involved sacking leaders, including Russi Modi of Tata Steel, Darbari Seth at Tata Chemicals, and Ajit Kelkar of Indian Hotels Co.

A rising India at the start of the century again saw Tata’s most ambitious bet: to push his group to seek business from overseas. This resulted in the Tata group spending $15 billion to buy Tetley Tea, Jaguar Land Rover and Corus Group, the Anglo-Dutch steelmaker.

By the time he decided to retire in 2012, when he had turned 74, Tata Group’s revenue totaled $100 billion.

Ratan Tata was the son of Naval Tata, who was adopted by Ratanji Tata, son of Jamsetji Tata, who founded the Tata group in 1868. While growing up in what was then Bombay, life was luxurious for the young Ratan: He was driven to school in a Rolls-Royce.

While at Campion and then at Cathedral and John Connon, he learned to play piano and cricket.

As a student at Cornell, Tata spent his initial two years studying engineering in deference to his father’s wishes. Then he switched to architecture—“much to my father’s consternation”, he would later say in an interview with Tata group’s in-house magazine. His attention to detail perhaps came from his stint at Cornell, with the cars built from scratch at Tata Motors attracting particular scrutiny and review from the chair.

Upon his return from Cornell in 1961, Tata had a job offer from IBM. J.R.D. Tata wasn’t amused. “He called me one day and said you can’t be here in India and working for IBM. I was in [the IBM office], and I remember he asked me for a resume, which I didn’t have. The office had electric typewriters, so I sat one evening and typed out a resume on their typewriter and gave it to him,” he said in an interview with Tata Review.

One of the country’s most revered business leaders, Tata was a pioneer in business who did not shy away from taking bold bets. Cementing the Tata brand among Indian households and making the country’s largest conglomerate a name outside India will be among his most significant legacy. This culminated when Tata regained control of Air India, the flagship carrier, in January 2022.

The crowning moment for the Tata group since the start of the century was the public offering of Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) in 2004. Today, TCS is the country’s largest information technology services company. It accounts for 90% of Tata Sons’ total profits and returns over $4 billion in dividends every year.

Back in 2005, the Ministry of Corporate Affairs selected TCS to complete the e-governance project that allowed corporate filings to be completed over the web. This saw all directors of companies in India getting a unique eight-digit number. Ratan Tata was the first businessman to get the unique number: Tata’s Director Identification Number is 00000001.

Also read | How Ratan Tata transformed Tata Group country’s most ubiquitous brand — a timeline

In his interactions with journalists and investors, Tata always came across as soft-spoken, sophisticated, very courteous, and forever conscious of his identity.

By entrusting Chandrasekaran as the chair of Tata Sons, Ratan Tata let professional managers oversee the business of one of the country’s oldest business houses. But Tata Trusts, the majority owner of Tata Sons, is overseen by Ratan Tata’s friends, and with his passing, uncertainty remains about who will take over the Tata Group.

Ratan Tata-A Life, his authorized biography, remains an unfinished project.

Not all business decisions were successful. Tata’s cherished project, Tata Nano, the cheapest and smallest car, launched in 2008, was mired in controversies from the start, and Tata Motors manufactured the last Nano in 2018. The Tata group’s entry into telecom services also was more in losses and never took off.

But the one event that probably scarred Tata’s reputation was the sacking of Tata Sons’s former Chair, Cyrus Mistry, and the subsequent public spat with the Shapoorji Pallonji family, which owns 18% of Tata Sons.

Tata was a teetotaler and a non-smoker. He loved pets, especially dogs, and Bombay House, the headquarters of the Tata Group, provided a kennel and food for the street dogs in the vicinity.

In an interview with Economic Times, R. Venkataramanan, the then CEO of Tata Trusts, quipped when asked about his proximity to RNT, that only two persons are close to the chairman—Tito and Tango, the German Shepherds who occupied centre stage at his home. They died of old age later.

In 2008, Tata was given the country’s second-highest civilian award, the Padma Vibhushan.