From the archives (2013) | How Ratan Tata was different from JRD Tata

(NOTE: This article was originally published in the India Today issue dated February 4, 2013)
JRD Tata had led the Tata Group largely through his charisma and personality, even though shareholdings of the Tatas were very low in some of the Tata companies. I remember at one point, the Birlas held more shares (6-7 per cent) in Tata Steel than the Tatas’ 5 per cent stake. Yet, every year, G.D. Birla would send the voting papers to JRD Tata before the annual general meeting.
When Ratan took over, there were four or five well-entrenched satraps in the Tata Group who started making noises, suggesting that the companies they led did not belong to the Tata Group. Ratan had a hard time in the first three to four years. He had to challenge the authority of these people. Compared to JRD, who enjoyed going out and speaking to people, Ratan was an introvert.
The situation made him realise the importance of ownership, and he started painstakingly raising the ownership of the Tatas in the companies, establishing the right of the Tata Group to manage them.
In parties, while JRD liked talking to all kinds of people and enjoyed their attention, Ratan would ideally have his dinner with a select group. In fact, given a choice he would prefer eating alone. He never liked partying. He had a problem talking in public or communicating with a large group of people-he was more comfortable with a smaller group.
He has improved on this front over the last two decades though. Even on a break from work, Ratan preferred to go to the Tata Group’s Lake House in Pune. JRD, in comparison, would often come to Jamshedpur and visit all kinds of people, in tribal welfare societies and hospitals. During such visits, there would be many requests from people who wanted to meet JRD.
I would organise small conference-type settings where JRD, who enjoyed such chats, could talk to 10-15 people at a time. Every 10 minutes or so, I’d usher in a new set. This way, a lot of people got to talk to JRD. Though Ratan, too, was ready to meet anyone who wanted to talk to him, he liked a different setting.
Both JRD and Ratan were licensed pilots. In the earlier years it meant they had to come to Jamshedpur and log flying time to keep their licences up-to-date on the two planes Tata Steel owned at that time. Ratan started the flying club in Jamshedpur during his early stint in Tata Steel as a junior officer.
In fact, it became such a fad that Russi Mody got his flying licence at the age of 50 and people asked me why I hadn’t got one myself. Aviation was what interested JRD the most. For Ratan it was Telco or Tata Motors. Air India (AI) was always JRD’s favourite company while he headed it, up to the late 1970s. Ratan, too, became AI chairman for a brief period.
The biggest similarity was that both of them were simple and down-to-earth, and did not like a retinue of people following them. Both lived in homes rented by their companies for most of their lives.
I remember travelling with JRD and trying to pick up his bag from the carousel at the airport. He smartly smacked me on the wrist and said: “I will ask for your help when I need it.” Later, when I travelled with Ratan extensively across Europe and the Far East to raise funds for Tata Steel in the ’90s, he would never insist on any special treatment as chairman.
During these trips, Ratan would always make his point politely, and if the senior executives had a different view, he would not have a problem relenting. He would never try to thrust his views on us. I got to know him when he was heading Nelco in the early ’70s.
Later, when he came back as a board member of Tata Sons-maybe in the early ’80s-he had not changed. He has this ability to go into the detail of any matter and it is very difficult to bluff him. He also has a great advantage-his elephantine memory.
Ratan Tata operated in a different era from JRD. In JRD’s time, the government used to tell us how much to produce, when to produce and who to sell to. Economic liberalisation started around the time Ratan took over as group chairman. But, ethical business practices were something both of them adhered to. It is there in JRD’s biography that he felt if Tatas could follow practices common in Indian business, they could have been twice as big, but this was the only way he would have it. And Ratan Tata would also always say that he would not do anything that would disturb his sleep at night.
—Jamshed J. Irani is a former MD, Tata Steel (As told to Suman Layak)
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