July 15, 2015 – Just past Noon I had this opportunity of accompanying Sir Ratan Tata to see him off at Chennai Airport post his Convocation Interaction with Great Lakers !
Truly a legend – When he stepped down December 2012, as he turned 75, he presided over the largest Indian multinational conglomerate; more than 65% of the group’s income came from overseas and it had 98 operating companies (28 listed) spread across 56 countries in six continents. At Rs 3.46 lakh crore (Rs 3.46 trillion or approx 63 billion USD) then , Tata Group revenue was 40 times the 1991 level, while net profit had gone up four times (Source- various Press reports). The Tata Group includes India’s largest private steel company, the biggest auto manufacturer and the largest IT outsourcing firm. Quoting Bala V Balachandran, Professor Emeritus at Kellogg School of Management, and Dean of the Great Lakes Institute of Management “Ratan Tata outperformed JRD. He toppled people as strong as Russi Mody, thought out of the box and came up with path-breaking concepts like the Nano” (http://business.rediff.com/slide-show/2010/oct/20/slide-show-1-amazing-story-of-how-ratan-tata-built-an-empire.htm#2)
The conversation began with what kept him occupied post retirement and he said it was philanthropy and compassion. That when he saw several malnourished children wherever he went in India it triggered that he should do something about it and started working on addressing this problem. Working on Children Malnutrition lead to the fact that one of the problems were that the mothers were malnourished. Many schemes were begun through Sir Ratan Tata Trust & Navajbhai Ratan Tata Trust . Currently, the Trusts’ work is spread across 170 districts in 17 states of the country, touching the lives of over 800,000 households through interventions that include drinking water and sanitation, health and nutrition, agriculture, education, arts, crafts and culture and skill development. Programmes of the Trusts have seen the disbursal of Rs. 1.48 billion (US $ 24.74 million) during the financial year 2013-14 (http://www.srtt.org/).
We then talked about the need for many more young graduates to become job providers than job seekers so long they do not chase valuation but look at the betterment of the society not withstanding a plethora of start-ups in the last 5 years. He then narrated a story of a bright Engineer in the Tata system whom he thought was very good and had immense potential and had in fact mentioned to him what he thought. However, on account of organisational constraints, he was not in a position to do much for this bright youngster. Ultimately the young man got frustrated and left to start up a Restaurant venture. A few years later, when their paths crossed again, this young man told him that his venture was very successful and he was happy for him.
He then briefly touched upon continuous learning from tech savvy youngsters & new technologies that enabled him understand and manage diverse businesses. This corroborated his recent investments in various tech start-ups and also his interaction earlier in the day, both with the graduands and the press that “I see the future in the young managers and young start-ups is worth. I saw this in the US in the 70s and the 80s, this disruptive environment and the ability to think outside of the box”.
Unfortunately by then we reached the airport and this short ride and the interaction, like all things came to an end. He took my Business Card and hoped that we can stay in touch. On reaching Mumbai, he sent me a personal mail that read “Dear Professor Swaminathan – It was great pleasure to spend a little time with you when you rode with me to the airport. I hope we can stay in touch”
We teach in our various courses a Harvard case “GE’s Two decade Transformation: Jack Welsch’s Leadership” Mr. Ratan Tata’s two decades of Leadership at the Tata Group is no less. I hope I will be able to write a similar case on this Legend someday, who personifies a couple of Prof. Bala’s famous quotes and advise “Passion with Compassion & Be Distinct or Become Extinct” and also walks the talk!
T.N.Swaminathan
Professor – Marketing, Great Lakes Institute of Management, Chennai
Leave a Reply