Former Chairman, Tata Group
About The Leader
About The Leader
Ratan Tata has demonstrated an ability to envision the future, a leader characterized by an empathetic style that generated trust with business partners and his employees
Ratan Naval Tata is an Indian industrialist, philanthropist and a former chairman of Tata Group.
Recipient of two of the highest civilian awards in India. Well known for taking bold steps for Tata Group & play key roles in the group's acquisition of Tetley, Jaguar Land Rover & Corus.
Acting chairman of the group’s philanthropy trust, which receives 66% share of group profit
His Purpose
Ratan Tata believed in building businesses which addressed the key needs of the country built on the principles of visionary thinking, empathy, and community wellbeing.
During the 21 years he led the Tata Group, revenues grew over 40 times, and profit over 50 times. While sales of the group were mainly commodities when he took over as its leader, by the time he left the majority of sales came from Tata's brands. He boldly got Tata Tea to acquire Tetley, Tata Motors to acquire Jaguar Land Rover and Tata Steel to acquire Corus. All this turned Tata from a largely India-centric group into a global business with over 65% revenues coming from operations and sales in over 100 countries. He also conceptualized the Tata Nano car.
Upon turning 75, Ratan Tata resigned his executive role in the Tata group on 28 December 2012.
Case for Change
Case for Change
The automotive industry is a popular industry with huge revenues worldwide. However, India never had its own indigenously developed car.
"When we decided to make our own car to meet India's growth ambitions, the industry experts claimed that we would fail miserably."
Investment Portfolio
Investment Portfolio
"We sent designers to Prague to pursue learning the design of the car. Considering the risks of entering the automotive business, we decided to buy an old plant and refurbish it."
His Leadership Qualities
His Leadership Qualities
Ratan Tata has demonstrated ability to envision the future, demonstrated empathy to become a trusted leader for his employees and partners.
Visionary
Visionary
The core of the Tata philosophy was to be a pioneer in industries the group operated. In the 1980s, most of the Indian cars were built in partnership with international companies. Despite everyone's doubts, RNTs vision to be the first Indian company to develop an indigenous passenger car.
Key Actions
Key Actions
He hired a design team & sponsored them for training with international partners. To reduce the risks, he acquired used equipment at a discount rather than investing in new materials. Addressing the needs of customers for larger space & lower costs, he focused on a high mileage diesel variant with a larger cabin with “More care per car” slogan.
Leadership Behaviors
Leadership Behaviors
Future vision for growth of hatchback cars
Trusting his own capabilities to acquire new skills
Utilizing partners with complementary skills
Lesson Learned
Lesson Learned
He understood a customer need and growing market in passenger vehicles market along with the growing Indian consumer income and made investments in developing the portfolio
By understanding the capabilities which his team lacked and working with the international partners he worked to develop those capabilities
He understood the risks involved in setting up the car business
By understanding that there were risks of failure, Ratan Tata looked to acquire old plants to setup the initial plant and cut down on capital expenditures.
Go Getter Attitude
Go Getter Attitude
Insulted by Ford officials when he set out to sell his loss making passenger vehicle business, Ratan Tata left the room without deal, came back to his company and launched new models to transition the company and eventually went on to buy Jaguar Land Rover from Ford.
Key Actions
Key Actions
Losses led to Tata planning to sell the passenger vehicle business. At a meeting in Detroit with Ford officials, the Tata team walked out after feeling insulted. He left motivated to change the perception about the business acument of his country. He worked rigorously with his team to launch new car models and regenerate profits. Later, he acquired Jaguar Land Rover from Forda.
Leadership Behaviors
Leadership Behaviors
Selling and communicating a bold vision with a case for change and setting stretch goals.
Lesson Learned
Lesson Learned
She sold a vision with a plan to the board and its employees
She told the board they needed to just keep the performance going in the short-term. The medium-term focus was on what kind of acquisitions we were going to make to bolster the company's portfolio in emerging and developing markets. For the long-term, we were going to invest in R&D, start the portfolio transformation to put in place multiple initiatives which will not pay out today, but would reap benefits in future
Empathy
Empathy
Ratan Tata saw a family of four traveling on motorbike in heavy Mumbai rains. He decided to work with his team on building an affordable $2000 car for ensuring safe travel for masses in India.
Key Actions
Key Actions
He worked with his team to build prototype designs for $2000 car. With certain frugal innovations and multiple prototypes the team came up with the initial model. To ensure speed of execution, he moved the initial plant location completely to comply with farmers who protested some aspects of the land acquisition and quickly launched a new plant.
Leadership Behaviors
Leadership Behaviors
Empathy and customer focus driving decisions over profits
Quick design, prototyping, and execution
Lesson Learned
Lesson Learned
He understood that India needed more affordable solutions which created impact and made lives of its people better
By being able to risk business capital with a focus on affordability over profitability he demonstrated his concern for people & community
He understood that empathy could enable working with better partners, satisfied employees. and loyal customers
Understanding the needs of employees and customers & supporting both groups helps win long-term loyalty to the brand
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