Ratan Tata Biography, Life, Awards, Net Worth
Ratan Tata Wiki
Ratan Tata is former chairman of Tata Sons and is an Indian Industrialists. In the years, 1990 to 2012 he served as the chairman of Tata Group and again served as interim chairman from October 2016 to February 2017, and he is still the head of its charitable trusts. He is an heir of the Tata family, and son of Naval Tata.
Naval Tata was adopted by Ratnani Tata who was the son of Jamsetji Tata, and the founder of the Tata group. He is an alumnus of the Cornell University College of Architecture and Harvard Business School through the Advanced Management Program that he completed in 1975.
In 1961, he joined his company and before that he used to on the shop floor of Tata steel. He was the apparent successor of JRD Tata upon the latter’s retirement in 1991. There are a few things that make him a significant figure in the world, one of the few is that he donates 60–65 percent of the profits to charity.
He tried his best to turn Tata from a largely Indian centrist group into a global business, he acquired Tetley through Tata Tea, Jaguar Land rover through Tata Motors, Corus through Tata Steel.
Early Life
Ratan Tata was born on 28th December 1937 in Bombay (now Mumbai) during British Raj. His father’s name was Naval Tata, and he was born in Surat. His biological maternal grandmother had been the sister of Hirabai Tata, wife of group founder Jamsetji Tata.
His biological grandfather’s name was Hormusji Tata, and he belonged to the broader Tata Family. Ratan, therefore, was a Tata by birth. His parents Naval and Sonoo separated in 1948 when he was 10, he was then raised by the widow of Sir Ratan Ji Tata, and his grandmother Navajvai Tata.
He was then formally adopted by Navajbai Tata, who was formally adopted through the J. N. Petit Parsi Orphanage. Gujrati is his first language. Noel Tata is his half-brother, from Naval Tata’s second marriage to Simone.
Ratan Tata Education
His middle schooling was done in Campion School, Mumbai, followed by Cathedral and John Connon School, Mumbai, and at Bishop Cotton School in Shimla, and, in 1955, graduated from Riverdale Country School in New York City.
He completed his B. Arch degree from Cornell university, and in 1975 he attended the seven-week advanced Management Program of Harvard Business School- and institution which he has since endowed. He was promoted in 1970s to management, He achieved initial success, he turned Group Company National Radio and Electronics (NELCO) around, but later it collapsed due to economic slowdown.
In 1991, J.R.D Tata stepped down as chairman of Tata Sons, naming him his successor.
When he settled down into the new role, he faced stiff resistance from many company heads, some of the individuals who resisted had spent decades in their respective company head and they were very powerful and influential due to the freedom to operate under JRD Tata. He set the retirement age so that he can replace them.
Innovation was his main motive and younger minds were given opportunities and responsibilities. Under his stewardship, overlapping events were turned into streamlined which turned into a synergized whole. He wanted to take the business to a global level.
He led Tata Group for 21 years and during this time period revenues grew over 40 times, and profits over 50 times. With his bold moves, Tata Tea acquired Tetley, Tata Motors acquired Jaguar Land Rover, and Tata Steel acquired Corus, which resulted in turning Tata into a global business from a largely India-centric group. Sixty-five percent of revenues came from operations and sales in over 100 countries.
He gave the concept of the Tata Nano car. While giving an interview for the Harvard Business School’s Creating Emerging markets project, he said the development of the Tata Nano car was significant because it helped in putting cars at a price point within the reach of the average Indian consumer. On 28 December 2012, Ratan Tata resigned from the executive powers in Tata Group when he turned 75.
The Board of Directors and legal division refused to appoint Cyrus Mistry as a successor of the 44-year-old son of Pallonji Mistry. He was the largest individual shareholder and related by marriage. On 24 October 2016, Ratan was made Interim chairman after removing Cyrus Mistry as chairman of Tata Sons. To find a successor a committee was formed.
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. Natarajan Chandrasekaran was named as the chairman of Tata Sons on 12 January 2017, a role he assumed in February 2017.
Ratan Tata Honors and Awards
In 2000, Ratan Tata was awarded Padma Bhushan, and in 2008, he was awarded Padma Vibhushan, both the third and second highest civilian awards by the government of India. He also received the highest civilian award of Assam ‘Assam Vaibhav’ in 2021 for his exceptional contribution towards furthering cancer care in Assam.
Personal Life
In an interview 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.” In a recent interview, Ratan Tata admitted that he loved a girl while he was working in Los Angeles.
And during that time, his parents were 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 the relationship was called off. Due to this, Tata stood by his commitment and never married.
In Popular Culture
Mega Icons (2018–2020) is a show which is telecasted on National Geographic, it is an Indian documentary television series that shows the life of prominent Indian personalities.
One episode was dedicated to the Life of Ratan Tata. He has also appeared on Rendevouz with Simi Garewal, an informal chat show hosted by Indian actress Simi Garewal.
