Ratan Tata Retires; A Journey from Rs. 14,000 crore to $100 Billion Empire

Today is the last working day for Mr. Ratan Tata at Tata Group, he is the man, whose supreme leadership helped Tata Group to become a $ 100 billion empire today from Rs. 14,000 crore revenue in 1991, when he took over as Group Chairman. It was the year 1962 when Ratan Tata had joined the Tata Group and after serving the group for 29 years, Legendary Mr. JRD Tata handed over the group's responsibility to the man who he felt was the most deserving.

Mr. Tata who turns 75 today will hand over all his responsibilities to Cyrus Mistry, who was chosen as successor in November 2011 and was formally appointed chairman earlier this month. He has already been serving on the board of Tata Sons since 2006. Today when Mr. Tata is finally retiring, not just the Tata group people, but everyone from politicians, film makers to entire business faternity have praised him for his exceptional contribution in not just the Tata Group but the Indian business and economy.

JJ Irnai, Former Director, Tata Sons said, "What Ratan Tata has left behind is that he has taught the group to think big. When he took over, I do not think our combined turnover was even $10 billion. In the last 20 years, it has increased to $100 billion." "The opportunity was there. He grabbed it and he taught all the companies to think big and most importantly to think beyond the shores of India," he further added.

AM Naik, Executive Chairman, L&T Said that Ratan Tata is the man who took the group to 'different heights altogether'."The sales have gone up almost 43 times during his tenure. The profit has gone up over 50 times. He has 28 odd listed entities all doing well and the Tata Group's logo has improved its value considerably. Tata was always a good brand but he has taken it to be the No. 1 brand of India," Naik said.

Bajaj auto chairman, Rahul Bajaj believes that Ratan Tata has been able to maintain the 'Tata DNA'. "This is especially with respect to value systems and ethical values. He has fully maintained that. As he says maybe in terms of growth and the rate of growth, the group had to sometimes pay a price, but because of him, the Tata Group did not compromise on values and on ethical business dealing. So he has done a great job," he said.

Explaining the phenomenon leadership skills of Mr. Tata, Harsh Goenka, Chairman of RPG Enterprises took an example of Titan, a small company of Tata Group, "The reason behind it is, India has been very poor in terms of design. We do not have any world class products which we can be proud of. Titan has been one product which has world class designs as far as watches are concerned and it is now diversified into jewellery and now into many more things," he said.

Former Telecom Minister, economist and thinker Arun Shourie says, "I remember that 20 to 25 years ago the Tatas were a collection of fiefdoms. These were very good people, but they were powers in their own right. Mr Darbari Seth was a formidable figure. Mr Rusi Modi, Mr Nani Pankhiwalia, these were wonderful people, but this was not a group. Ratan Tata slowly changed that or rather rapidly changed that nature of the group by bringing in persons of his own age group."

Major international acquisitions done by Tata Group happened under his leadership only, Tata tea's purchase of Britain's iconic tea brand Tetley, acquisition of Anglo-Dutch steel maker Cours in 2006 and Jaguar Land Rover are just few to name from the long list. CarDekho salutes Mr. Tata for his enormous contribution in the Indian economy and wishes him all the best for the second inning of life.