23/02/2022
From torchbearer to transformer, Ratan Tata has played shepherd and scout while guiding the Tata group into a new age, and he has done it in his own distinctive style.
After taking over a group that was a bloated, unevenly managed and excessively bureaucratic, Mr Tata was unsurprisingly seen by many as an encroacher, an accidental leader who had ascended to the top mainly by virtue of his surname and lineage.
But decades years later, it can be argued that Mr Tata has changed the group for the better. He has done this while staying true to the traditions and tenets of the group, which make his accomplishments exemplary. As Mr Tata’s becoming chairman got synchronised with the opening up of India’s economy, he saw the chance to fashion a new kind of organisation, to rejuvenate and recast its many enterprises to suit a radically altered business dynamic.
So Mr Tata seized the day. He welcomed the opportunities, fortified the Tata companies to guard against the threats, and embraced the prospect of taking the group to foreign shores. Lastly, he made the workspace more cohesive, introduced fresh thinking, fostered innovation, and sparked in his charges an appetite for calculated risk-taking.
