Ratan Naval Tata, the business titan and global icon who led the Tata giant to more than thirty countries after becoming chairman in 1991, died today at Breach Candy Hospital in Mumbai. He was 86 years old and was undergoing regular medical checkups due to his age.
Paying tribute to Ratan Tata, his company Tata Sons today shared a commemorative note recalling his journey through his growing up years and decades.
Ratan Tata, who became one of the most respected industrialists and philanthropists globally, was born on December 28, 1937, to Naval and Sunu Tata. He and his younger brother, Jimmy, were raised by their grandmother Nawazbai R Tata in a Baroque manor. Called the Tata Palace in downtown Bombay (now Mumbai).
Nawazbai, a formidable matriarch, instilled a strong set of values in her grandchildren. “She was very kind, but also very strict in terms of discipline.” Mr Tata might remember one of his interviews in which he spoke candidly about his growing up years. “We were very sheltered and didn’t have many friends. I had to learn piano and played a lot of cricket,” he said.
Ratan Tata – School and College Years
Mr Tata was schooled at Campion and then at Cathedral and John Connon – both in Mumbai. He then pursued his higher education at Cornell – an Ivy League university in the United States.
At Cornell he studied architecture and structural engineering, and his years in America from 1955 to 1962 greatly influenced Mr. Tata. This, in many ways, was his making. According to details shared by Tata Sons, he traveled across the US and became so enthralled with the California and West Coast lifestyle that he agreed to settle in Los Angeles.
job at ibm
When Nawazbai’s health deteriorated. Mr Tata is forced to return to the life he thought he had left behind. Mr. Tata said in an interview with CNN in 2011, “I was in Los Angeles and very happy. And I left when I left before I should have.”
Once back in India, Mr. Tata received a job offer from IBM. JRD Tata was not happy. “They called me one day and said you can’t work for IBM while staying here in India. I was in (the IBM office) and I remember they asked me for my resume, which I didn’t have. The office had electric Typewriter So I sat down one evening and typed a resume on his typewriter and gave it to him.”
relationship with her father
Unlike his eldest son, Naval Tata was a friendly and sociable personality, who was at home with kings and commoners alike. He became a director of Tata Sons, an eminent figure in the International Labor Organization and a renowned sports administrator. However, there appeared to be differences in temperament between father and son. “We were close and we were not,” Mr Tata will write in a special publication celebrating the lives of Jamsetji Tata, JRD Tata and Naval Tata. Tata Sons recalled Mr Tata saying, “I left India for a decade when I was 15. I must say that, as is often the case between father and son, there was probably a difference of opinion “
“(My father) hated confrontation. He was very good at negotiating compromise… Often, that compromise involved compromise, and he was completely in favor of ‘give and take.’ As, he did a lot and sometimes according to a memory tribute shared by Tata Sons, he wrote, As younger and less mature people, we look for solutions, for peace or whatever, the ground. Will fight with them to leave.
architect
As he has often said, architecture provided him with the tools to become a perceptive business leader. The pity was that Mr. Tata had only a few opportunities to properly use that tool in discipline, a house he designed for his mother, a residence in Alibaug and his own oceanarium in Mumbai. The coastal house was the most prominent of these.
His passion and love for pets
Mr Tata had little more time for his other desires. Flying and fast cars, both of these, like many other things born in the Cornell cauldron, were enduring obsessions. As if he was scuba diving until his ears could no longer tolerate the pressure.
Mr Tata, a non-drinker and non-smoker, deliberately chose to live alone. This sounds a lot like the man: a lone warrior dedicated to Tata. He was accompanied by his German Shepherds, Tito and Tango, at his ancestral home in Mumbai, and his affection for them was always immense.
Many of Mr Tata’s pets were taken away due to death and the loss took a toll on him, but he never missed an opportunity to bond with another loyal surrounder. He once said, “My love for dogs as pets has always been strong and will continue as long as I live.”
“Every time one of my pets dies there is an indescribable sadness and I resolve that I cannot go through another separation of that nature. And yet, two-three years later, My house becomes too empty and too quiet for me to live without them, so there is another dog who gets my affection and attention just like the previous dog.”
A timeline of the life and times of Ratan Tata
-
1937: Ratan Tata was born to Sunu and Naval Tata.
-
1955: Departure for Cornell University (Ithaca, New York, USA) at the age of 17; He studies architecture and engineering over a period of seven years.
-
1962: Bachelor of Architecture degree awarded.
-
1962: Joined Tata Group as Assistant in Tata Industries; At the end of the year, he spent six months training at the Jamshedpur plant of the Tata Engineering and Locomotive Company (now called Tata Motors).
-
1963: Taken to the Jamshedpur facility of Tata Iron and Steel Company, or TISCO (now called Tata Steel), for a training program.
-
1965: Technical officers have been appointed in the engineering division of TISCO.
-
1969: Serves as the local representative of the Tata Group in Australia.
-
1970: Returned to India, joined Tata Consultancy Services, then worked in software for a short time.
-
1971: He is named director in charge of an ailing electronics enterprise, National Radio and Electronics (known as NELCO).
-
1974: Joined the board of Tata Sons as a director.
-
1975: Completed the Advanced Management Program at Harvard Business School.
-
1981: Appointed Chairman of Tata Industries; The process of transforming it into an enabler of high-technology businesses begins.
-
1983: Drafts Tata strategic plan.
-
1986-1989: Serves as the Chairman of national carrier Air India.
-
25 March 1991: Took over from JRD Tata as Chairman of Tata Sons and Chairman of Tata Trusts.
-
1991: The restructuring of the Tata Group comes at a time when the Indian economy is undergoing liberalisation.
-
2000 onwards: The Tata Group’s growth and globalization drive has gained momentum under his leadership and the new millennium has seen a series of high-profile Tata acquisitions, among them Tetley, Corus, Jaguar Land Rover, Brunner Mond, General Chemical Industrial Products and Daewoo. Are.
-
2008: Launched Tata Nano, born out of the pioneering small car project which he guided and piloted with enthusiasm and determination.
-
2008: He has been awarded the Padma Vibhushan, the country’s second highest civilian honour, by the Government of India.
-
December 2012: Tata Sons chairman resigns after 50 years with Tata Group; has been appointed Honorary Chairman of Tata Sons.
-
October 9, 2024: Ratan Tata dies at the age of 86.
