Ratan Tata Case Study

Ratan Tata:
Tata Group Chairman (1991-2012)
Ratan Naval Tata has stepped down as chairman of Tata Sons and while the entire team at the $100 billion Tata conglomerate will surely feel his absence, the average Indian too will have reason to miss him. The country probably never needed Tata more than it does today; as The Economist wrote recently, ‘by standing out against graft so publicly and consistently, Mr. Tata was ahead of his time’. Not that the business suffered because of it; the diversified conglomerate that he has headed for more than two decades now has grown 20% annually since FY92 and at an even more impressive 30% in the last six years to March, 2012, a feat that not too many other business groups have been able to match. With a
On the few times that there was a skirmish, he took tough decisions as during the critical agitation over land in Singur West Bengal when the plant was re-located to Sanand in Gujarat. But more moving out, the Tatas had offered to buy 400 acres and gift it to the affected farmers in return for the land Tata Motors had used to set up its car plant. It was a fine gesture and the kind of generosity that sets the Tatas apart from the country’s other large industrial groups. Tata’s biggest contribution to India though would have to be the confidence that he instilled in India’s engineers backed by his own conviction that they could produce an indigenous car at an affordable price and his determination to see the projects — both the Indica and later the Nano — succeed. As he himself said in interviews following the launch, he was surprised at the interest that the Nano — priced at just R1 lakh — evoked around the world. That the Nano didn’t sell the kind of volumes it was expected to must have been disappointing for Tata. As must have been the debilitating losses in the telecom piece — an effort to explore new areas in a liberalized economic regime — or the ambitious $12-billion acquisition of the Anglo-Dutch steelmaker Corus which has left Tata Steel hugely
He did that successfully, and made the institution stronger. A leader’s ability to inspire comes not only from the techno-managerial capabilities that he exhibits, but also the sincerity with which he undertakes the challenges and leads. Tata has proven time and again that he believes in the fundamental strengths of the Tata Group. The group has always believed in values such as compassion for all stakeholders. He continued to practice the values of the organization that he was destined to lead. Even at the time of finding a successor, he did not go ahead and announce a hand-picked successor. He wanted to ensure that the person who was stepping into the chair that he was going to vacate had the capabilities to take the organization to newer heights. The future had to be in safe hands. He continued to adhere to the human values such as caring and collaboration across the group. /Employees were often paid salary increments even when the concerned group company made financial losses. The logic being: The factory workers did not do anything wrong for the less than adequate performance of the organization. This was especially so at the worker level. The group did not start cutting staff even in the newly acquired Corus in UK. The beginning of economic liberalization in 1991 coincided with the arrival of Tata as the future leader of the group. That was the water shed, make or break moment for India. The country badly needed