He was born in Mumbai to Sonoo and Naval Hormusji Tata on 28 December 1937. His parents had a difficult marriage. When Ratan was seven they separated and Ratan grew up at the grand Tata Palace with grandmother Lady Navajbai Tata. "She was a wonderful, wonderful person of the old world, from whom one learnt a lot. I owe her an enormous amount of gratitude for what she did for me throughout my life," he says. As a child Tata was uncomfortable with ostentatious displays of wealth. He used to squirm when the family Rolls Royce dropped him off at the all boys Campion school.
For college Ratan shuttled off to the USA to study architecture, graduating with a bachelor's degree from Cornell University. He was keen to continue living and working in America. Navajbai insisted that he return and he deferred to her wishes. Back in India in 1962 he moved to Jamshedpur in Bihar on his first assignment with the group. The company was Tata Steel (then known as Tisco) and Ratan spent six years on the shop floor, first in the engineering division and finally in the projects division as technical assistant to the Director-in-Charge.
Having completed his apprenticeship, he was then sent to earn his spurs in the group's ailing textiles companies. Ratan engineered the turnaround of Central India Textiles, and more importantly Nelco. He was appointed chairman of Tata Industries in 1981. The move immediately established Ratan as a possible successor of JRD Tata, on par with JRD's favorite, Nusli Wadia, Tata Steel head, Russi Mody and the host of others Tata achievers. The next step up the ladder was deputy chairman of Telco (since renamed Tata Motors) in July 1988.
On 25 March 1991 after a prolonged period of suspense JRD handed over the chairman's hot seat to Ratan. At the time the group consisted of 84 companies with a total sale of Rs240bn but it was also rife with internal conflicts. Anti-monopoly laws introduced in the 1970s had loosened bonds between the Tata companies. "There was a great risk that the group would drift apart," JRD said at the time.
Ratan had to fight a long and bitter battle with Russi Mody (who was JRD's original choice for the post) to consolidate his position in the group. In the end, Mody was asked to resign for bad mouthing Tisco's performance in the press. The boardroom battles also saw the departure of Ajit Kerkar, the head of Indian Hotels, and the fading of Tata Chemicals' strongman, Darbari Sheth.
The large number of battles he has fought over the past twenty years have made Ratan philosophical. And keener than ever to see how he can improve India, a dream shared by Mukesh Ambani and Kumar Managalam Birla. All three see their leadership position as a platform of opportunity. As Ratan once mulled, "in my spare time I don't just think about new businesses for the group, I am just as much involved in trying to think ... would there be a way to convert the desert into a crop field or would there be a way to increase the water supply [in] India, and those, or new kinds of alternate medicine that might wipe out some of the epidemics we have."
Source : moneycontrol
For college Ratan shuttled off to the USA to study architecture, graduating with a bachelor's degree from Cornell University. He was keen to continue living and working in America. Navajbai insisted that he return and he deferred to her wishes. Back in India in 1962 he moved to Jamshedpur in Bihar on his first assignment with the group. The company was Tata Steel (then known as Tisco) and Ratan spent six years on the shop floor, first in the engineering division and finally in the projects division as technical assistant to the Director-in-Charge.
On 25 March 1991 after a prolonged period of suspense JRD handed over the chairman's hot seat to Ratan. At the time the group consisted of 84 companies with a total sale of Rs240bn but it was also rife with internal conflicts. Anti-monopoly laws introduced in the 1970s had loosened bonds between the Tata companies. "There was a great risk that the group would drift apart," JRD said at the time.
Ratan had to fight a long and bitter battle with Russi Mody (who was JRD's original choice for the post) to consolidate his position in the group. In the end, Mody was asked to resign for bad mouthing Tisco's performance in the press. The boardroom battles also saw the departure of Ajit Kerkar, the head of Indian Hotels, and the fading of Tata Chemicals' strongman, Darbari Sheth.
The large number of battles he has fought over the past twenty years have made Ratan philosophical. And keener than ever to see how he can improve India, a dream shared by Mukesh Ambani and Kumar Managalam Birla. All three see their leadership position as a platform of opportunity. As Ratan once mulled, "in my spare time I don't just think about new businesses for the group, I am just as much involved in trying to think ... would there be a way to convert the desert into a crop field or would there be a way to increase the water supply [in] India, and those, or new kinds of alternate medicine that might wipe out some of the epidemics we have."
Source : moneycontrol