A nationalist with an international outlook

My first meeting with Ratan Naval Tata left an abiding positive impression. It took place in Bombay in 1991, a few months after he had taken over from his illustrious predecessor, JRD Tata, as chairman of both Tata Sons and Tata Trusts, and after I had left the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) and was on my way to Mexico on my first ambassadorial assignment. Ratan was seated in a small room with a large German Shepherd by his side in a modest apartment. A teetotaller himself, he generously offered me a drink.

A revered monk once told me that to get the true measure of any person, one should observe how they treat animals. Ratan’s obvious love for his pet dog endeared him to me. Later, I learnt of his lifelong devotion to all animals. He pioneered veterinary care infrastructure in India in partnership with Cornell’s College of Veterinary Medicine. This attribute provided a true measure of how compassion and a  humanitarian perspective informed all his activities.

My work in the PMO as foreign and defence policy adviser to the Prime Minister entailed keeping in informal contact with some of our prominent industrialists. What set the new head of India’s most reputed business group apart was his modesty and lack of any airs and graces.

Since that first meeting, I had the privilege of close interaction with Ratan during my ambassadorial assignments, particularly in Germany, the UK and the USA. Later, our interaction intensified after he invited me to join the board of Tata Motors in 2010, and subsequently during my tenure from 2015 to 2019 on the board of Tata Sons, including during the challenging transition to a new leadership of the Group when I also happened to be a member of the search committee. I got to know him better — a soft and sensitive person but tough as nails when challenged; a guide and mentor to many and one who remained a life-long student of new and emerging technologies; an individual of great humility who set high standards of performance, but led by example.

He was a gentleman in the old sense of the term, a good listener who conversed in the same tone with his peers and employees alike. He was tolerant of dissent and encouraged independent thinking, often by financing projects by autonomous think tanks and independent media outlets. While JRD Tata had openly financed the Opposition Swatantra Party, Ratan Tata went a step ahead in corporate financing of General Elections in a fully transparent manner, with funding allocations made proportionate to party representation in the outgoing and incoming Lok Sabhas and accessible to any interested member of the public.

He had a distaste for conspicuous consumption and ostentatious display of wealth. He was a visionary leader who consolidated, expanded and diversified the company’s holdings, but firmly believed that accumulation of wealth was not an end in itself, but a means of service to the community and country. He focused on strategic growth to broaden social responsibility and philanthropy, particularly in healthcare, education and equitable development.

Ratan Tata made a series of major acquisitions abroad such as Tetley Tea in 2000, Corus steel group in 2007, and Jaguar Land Rover in 2008. Such large investments and the earlier decision to make Tata Consultancy Services go public in 2004 and listing Tata Motors in the NYSE the same year, transformed the Tata Group into an influential multinational conglomerate.

Ratan emerged as India’s most respected and widely honoured businessman. Taken together, its century-plus track record of integrity and probity and of honouring all commitments gave the Tata Group considerable goodwill and leverage in promoting our commercial, economic and technological collaboration abroad. In the USA, the UK and other countries, major policy decisions are taken not only at cabinet meetings but in board rooms of major companies, which play a role in final decisions taken in the US Congress or national parliaments.

We witnessed this during Ratan’s pivotal role in the Track 2 dialogue from 2000-04, and later as Co-Chairman of the India-US CEOs’ Forum, which led to the conclusion of the India-US Next Steps in Strategic Partnership, the first 10-year India-US defence framework agreement in June 2005 and the civil nuclear deal the same year, where he was specially invited for the signing ceremony.

Ratan Tata was a nationalist who believed that Tata Group’s growth should be linked with India’s larger development goals, but felt that these goals could be best promoted by increased innovation and international competitivity of our companies.

His passing marks the end of an era. But long before he left us, he had ensured that the Tata legacy was in safe hands, with Nataraj Chandrasekhar as his chosen successor at Tata Sons in 2017, and by diversifying the leadership of the Tata Trusts. His wise choice of a low-profile but action-oriented successor at Tata Sons was borne out by the fact that in the last seven years, the Tata Group’s revenues doubled and its market capitalisation quadrupled — an amazing track record by any standard.