Ratan Tata
Chairman, Tata Sons, India
For decades, Tata Sons was the archetypal conservative Indian conglomerate: honest and solid but risk-averse. Yet in the past five years, the group has been shaken out of its torpor by its chairman, 66-year-old Ratan Tata. It’s that late-career spurt of dynamism that makes Tata a star — and could catapult his 136-year-old company into the global big leagues.
Tata, realizing that India was changing, has scoured the globe for acquisitions to help the company expand its horizons. In 2000 he shelled out $435 million for Tetley Tea, making Tata the world’s No. 2 tea company. Two years later he paid $530 million for a 46% stake in VSNL, India’s state-owned international telecom carrier. This past March, he bought Daewoo Motor Co.’s truck unit, Daewoo Commercial Vehicle Co., for $120 million. In July, the company will make another splash: the initial public offering of Tata Consultancy Services, expected to raise $1.1 billion.
“Our aim is to make Tata an international company with a global workforce and global delivery,” says Tata. Last year profits at four of the group’s biggest listed companies — Tata Motors, Tata Steel, Taj Hotels, and Tata Tea — grew 178%. Share prices at all four have more than doubled, making them among India’s best performers last year.
Despite his family ties to the group, Tata worked his way to the top. He cut his teeth at Tata Steel’s blast furnaces, then moved on to management stints at Tata Motors, Tata Consultancy Services, and the think tank Tata Industries. After becoming group chairman in 1991, he pushed out the old guard and ushered in youthful managers. “Nothing inspires me more than a challenge,” he says. Now, thanks to him, Tata Group is as solid as it ever was, but risk-averse no more.
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