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Businessmen and industrialists are generally a despised lot in India. They are seen by the common man as sharks who survive – and thrive – on the blood of the ‘mango’ people. If Ratan Tata proved an exception to this general rule – as much in death as in life – there is not one, but several reasons for it.
For one, for the man who helmed the Tata group for over three decades, business was much more than just balance sheets and bottomlines. Botttomlines, of course, were important for him, just as it is for every industrialist worth his salt. Otherwise, Tata Sons wouldn’t have leapfrogged from a $ 5 billion group to a $ 100 billion global behemoth with stakes in everything from salt to software and automobiles to aviation – and with a presence in over 100 countries spread across six continents - under his watch. But what made this visionary leader special was a) his lifelong commitment to make the life of the common man better and b) keeping India at the centre of all his activities. Many people laughed when he announced his plans to make the world’s cheapest car at just Rs 1 lakh so the common man could have the pleasure of driving a car. But he pressed ahead undeterred and launched the Nano, though it never succeeded the way other Tata ventures did.
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The second attribute – the pride in India – was also in evidence in an episode related to cars. Having burnt his fingers with the launch of Indica, the first indigenously designed car in India, in 1998, Tata was desperate to sell the group’s car business. He went to meet Bill Ford, the Ford Corporation chief, at its headquarters in Detroit to work out a deal. But what happened at the meeting – and thereafter – is the stuff of legend. As recalled by Praveen Kadle, who accompanied him for the talks, in an interview in 2015, the Ford boss snubbed him, saying; “When you don’t know anything about passenger cars, why did you get into the car business in the first place? We will actually be doing you a favour by taking over your car division.” Tata came back humiliated at this affront – not just to himself but to India as well - and decided not to sell off the car business but to turn it around instead. He worked hard and launched the much improved Indica 2, which proved to be an instant hit. Tata had the last laugh when Ford, in the wake of the great economic meltdown of 2008, was in dire straits and started looking for buyers to sell part of its business. Out came Tata with an offer of $ 2.3 billion to buy ‘Jaguar’ and ‘Land Rover’, two iconic brands from the Ford stable. There was poetic justice of sorts when the Ford Chairperson thanked him for buying JLR and ‘doing a favour’ to his company in doing so. That was Ratan Tata for you!
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The Tata Sons patriarch will be remembered as much for his pioneering business ventures as his philanthropic activities. Under his stewardship, Tata Trusts spent thousands of crores in improving healthcare., nutrition and education standards among the underprivileged classes in underdeveloped areas. No wonder Odisha, which lagged behind other states in these areas, was a major beneficiary of his benevolence. In a Facebook post with a picture of a smiling Tata interacting with children during a visit to Gopalpur in the mid-1990s the morning after the business icon’s death, good friend Ambika Prasad Nanda recalled the question the legend asked after the interaction. “Are we doing enough for them?” he asked. That sums up the love and empathy the great man had for the less fortunate sections of society.
His empathy, however, was not just restricted to human beings. Even more than humans, it’s the stray animals that are going to miss his benign, loving and caring presence. His love for pet animals, dogs in particular, is legendary. He once skipped a ceremony at the Buckingham Palace, where he was to be honoured with a Lifetime Achievement Award by (then) Prince Charles, for nothing more important than the fact that his pet dog Tito had fallen sick!! His love for animals, however, went far beyond his own pet and extended to all animals, even stray dogs. He conceived the opening of India’s first state-of-the-art pet hospital with 200 beds and 24X7 emergency care services in Mumbai at a cost of Rs 165 crores on July 1 this year. In an act that is hard believe, he decreed in 2018 that a shelter with all required facilities be opened at Bombay House, the Tata group’s headquarters, for all stray dogs. “In fact, they are the only denizens who can walk in without an access card,” says the group’s website!!
Asked in an interview in 2018 how he would like to be remembered after his death, the great industrialist-philanthropist had said; “I would like to be remembered as a person who made a difference. Not anything more, not anything less.” And that is precisely how millions of Indians would like to remember him.
“You did make a difference after all, Ratan Tata”!!
(DISCLAIMER: This is an opinion piece. The views expressed are the author’s own and have nothing to do with OTV’s charter or views. OTV does not assume any responsibility or liability for the same.)
