Ratan Naval Tata

About Ratan Tata

Ratan Tata is a philanthropist and more than 65% of his share is invested in charitable trusts. His aim has been to raise the quality of life for Indians along with Human Development.

Ratan thinks that 'Philanthropy' can be seen in different perspectives, earlier 'philanthropy' was to develop institutions, charitable hospitals etc. whereas, now it’s more about nation building.

Personal Background of Ratan Tata

Ratan Tata was born to Naval Tata and Soonoo Commisariat and has a younger brother Jimmy Tata. Ratan's father, Naval Tata was remarried to Simone Dunoyer, after his divorce and had one son, Noel Tata, from his second wife. Ratan's father was an adopted son of Sir Ratan Tata.

Ratan N. Tata has been brought up in an old and well-known business family. He belongs to a prominent Parsi family. He has not faced any such financial issues since his family had been successful businessmen since the British rule in India. He was brought up by his grandmother, Lady Navajbai.

Ratan N. Tata is a highly educated businessman. He holds a Bachelors degree in Architecture from the Cornell University, USA, and has pursued and Advanced Management Program from the Harvard Business School, USA. It was in 1962 that he joined his family business; the Tata Group. Ratan N. Tata is 73 years old, unmarried and has been in news regarding several of his relationships. But the big question is “who would eventually succeed Ratan N Tata?”. Media has been talking about his strive for finding an appropriate successor.

Beginning of Ratan Tata's Career

• Ratan N. Tata, after completing his higher studies returned to India and turned down a job at IBM on JRD Tata's advice and joined the Tata Group in 1962, for which he was sent to Jamshedpur to work on the shop floor at Tata Steel.
• In 1971, he was appointed as the Director of National Radio and Electronics, which was in a bad state of 40% losses and only 2% of consumer market share. But as soon as Ratan N. Tata joined the company he gave its statistics an upward turn, he took the company from 2% of market share to 25%. National Emergency was declared, which posed great problems such as, weak economy and labour shortage and NELCO was nearing collapse again.
• JRD Tata soon declared Ratan Tata his successor in 1981 and Ratan had to face criticism since people believed that he's not experienced enough to handle a business of the scale that of like the Tata Industries. After ten years of his entry into the Tata Industries, he was appointed the Chairman of the Tata Group. After Ratan's appointment, The Tata Group reached absolutely new heights which had never been experienced by this group earlier. Under his direction, the company went through several different entrepreneurial ventures.
• The conversion of 'the corporate commonwealth' of different Tata-affiliated company into one cohesive company, the acquisition of Tetley, Jaguar Land Rover and Corus, which turned Tata from a major India-Centric company to a global business name, all this is credited to Ratan N. Tata. His major releases have been Indica and Nano in India. Today, Tata Group's 65% of the revenue comes from abroad. After the liberalization of controls in the 1990s, the Tata Group of Companies achieved great success, which again is credited to Ratan N. Tata.

Achievements of Ratan Tata

• Ratan Tata serves the Indian organizations in senior capacities, for example, he is the member of the Prime Minister's Council on Trade and
• Industry. He is also on the advisory board of the RAND's center for Asia Pacific Policy.
• Ratan N. Tata is also an active participant in the India's AIDS initiative program.
• Ratan Tata has a long list of foreign affiliations as well, such as, the membership of the international advisory board of the Mitsubishi Cooperation, the American International Group, JP Morgan Chase and Booze Allen Hamilton.

Ratan Tata has the following honorary distinctions as well:

• Legend in Leadership Award from the Yale.
• Honorary Citizenship of Singapore
• 'Businessman of the Decade' Award by the Federation of Indo-Israeli Chambers of Commerce in 2010.
• Carnegie Medal of Philanthropy, on behalf of the Tata Family.

Ratan N. Tata has been also honored by the Government of India with the second highest civilian award, The Padma Vibhooshan, in 2008.

The Tata Group- Company Profile

The Tata Group of Companies is the leading conglomerate company of India. The company has over 90 operating companies in seven business sectors: communications and information technology, engineering, materials, services, energy, consumer products and chemicals. The group operates in over 80 countries. The Tata Group has over 395,000 employees working worldwide.

The brand name 'Tata' has been respected in the country for about 140 years. Their Market Capitalization is of about $99.78 billion and has a shareholder base of 3.5 million.

Obstacles faced by Tata Group

• In June 2008, the Tata Group faced a global financial crisis due to the failure of the acquisition of Jaguar Land Rover (JLR). The bridge loan taken by them of US$ 3 billion which was used to fund the acquisition of the JLR was not paid back fully, only US$ 1 billion was paid.
• Complexity in raising funds before the acquisition was another problem for the Tatas.
• Tata had negative working capital and it was facing a problem in cash liquidity. The Tata’s thought of merging with other big companies, but very soon it managed all the issues.
• Due to the Global financial crisis, the Indian automobile sector was highly affected: the GDP growth declined and inflation took place due to which the prices of the fuels and automobiles products increased and hence Tata Motors, the leading automobile company of India suffered the most.

Last Updated on January 17th, 2019