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Crafting the Story of a Corporate Legend
Excerpts from the interview:
Q: Writing a biography at the best of times is not an easy task. But writing that of an eminent industrialist is probably in a league of its own. What was the experience like?
A: There are many things I would like to reveal about the arduous journey of writing the biography of a simple man. Because of the complexities embedded in his simplicity. Second, the Tatas are the largest conglomerate in the country. You have about 28 listed companies and about 100 unlisted companies. Now the problem you face is that many companies are you going to deal with? Tata was hands on, on several of the companies. And you need to understand that he came at a time which is almost the same time as India’s 1991 liberalisation policy was announced. So he was faced with more problems than perhaps any other industrialist of his time. There was this system which existed prior to this. And that was the licence raj, where each of the companies would live in their own cocoon and it would be a seller’s market. Suddenly they were faced with the prospects of the onslaught of multinationals perhaps even taking them over. They had to increase the quality of their products.
They had to increase their customer focus. The parent company, Tata Sons, had to increase the stake in these several companies. So it was a tumultuous phase for Mr Tata. But the amount he has done or the kind of changes that he has brought about in Tata companies and Tata Sons, you would find it is unprecedented. And it had complex sets of strategies woven together to form pillars of movement towards an unexpected and uncharted trajectory. Both people in India and abroad dismissed him as a greenhorn. He overcame all those challenges and made Tata conglomerate what it is today.
Q: What do you think a biography should contain?
A: His challenges, his capabilities, how he was able to rise to the occasion and dispassionately assess what he has done and the impact he has made. Not only for Tata Group, for the society, for the nation and globally.
Q: You were dealing with a gentleman who lived such a life, larger than a normal life. How did that impact or in any way affect your writing?
A: Did I admire him? Yes, I admired him. My admiration saw no limits. Did I find him to be a unique person? Yes, I did. Did I agree with him on everything? I did not agree with him. I said, ‘Sir, I am looking at this work very impartially to the best of my capability’, and he would not say, ‘look at it for his point of view’. He used to tell me, ‘Thomas, if you write this, it’s not me, the other person may be a little upset or hurt. Would you not like to consider that?’ And that used to melt me. He’s not saying, ‘do it’ or ‘don’t do it because it’ll affect me’, but because it will adversely affect somebody else. That’s the empathy this man had.
Q: So did Mr Ratan Tata actually see some portions of this manuscript as it was in?
A: No, but I discussed a lot of things with him. There were so many things, I didn’t want to get it wrong.
Q: How would you like this book of yours to be remembered?
A: It’s for the readers to judge. I can’t be the judge of my own work. But there’s nothing ever said or spoken or written about Mr Tata that I have not analysed. I wanted this to be a book of record for Mr Ratan Tata. I wanted this book to cement Mr Ratan Tata’s legacy, because unlike other industrialists, this man is at fault for being so reticent and not revealing of the things he has done. He is an inspiration, for generations and generations and generations to come.
Mr Tata became a lodestar for conducting business ethically, morally, in a normative fashion. And he showed them you can be good, you can be right and be successful.