Ratan Naval Tata - the man who turned a business house into global conglomerate celebrates his 81st birthday on December 28. One of the astute businessmen in the country, his name commands respect. Here's a look at the man's life
Ratan Tata. Pic/AFP
Ratan Naval Tata - the man who turned a business house into global conglomerate celebrates his 81st birthday on December 28. One of the astute businessman in the country, his name commands respect. Here's a look at the man's life.
- Born with the proverbial silver spoon, Ratan Naval Tata was born on December 28, 1937, into a wealthy and famous family of Mumbai. His parents Naval and Sonoo separated in the mid-1940s when Ratan was ten and his younger brother, Jimmy, was seven years old. Both of them were raised by their grandmother.
- Ratan Tata began his schooling in Mumbai at the Campion School and finished his secondary education at the Cathedral and John Connon School. He has a degree in architecture with structural engineering from Cornell University Advanced Management Program from Harvard Business School.
- Since, the Tata's owned a family business, Ratan began his career in 1961 but what makes that more commendable is that he rejected a job offer from IBM. He initially started on the shop floor of Tata Steel, shovelling limestone and handling the blast furnace. In 1991, when J. R. D. Tata (his uncle) stepped down as Chairman of Tata Sons, he named Ratan as his successor. He became the group's fifth chairman.
- He is an astute businessman and under his leadership, the Tata Group successfully acquired Jaguar, Corus, Land Rover and Tetley which turned an Indian company into global business players. Now, Tata Sons Ltd owns more than companies in 7 sectors viz consumer goods, services, chemicals, energy, materials, engineering and metallurgy, NTIC. He propelled Tata into international market. The foreign affiliations of Ratan Tata include international advisory boards of the Mitsubishi Corporation, Booz Allen Hamilton, the American International Group and JPMorgan Chase.
- Ratan Tata was named as Forbes' Asian Businessman of the Year in 2005.
- Ratan Tata made 'owning a car' dreams of many into reality by launching Tata Nano in 2008. It was introduces as the cheapest car in the world.
- Ratan Tata is known to encourage young entrepreneurs so much that he has even invested his personal wealth into many young organisations to promote their ideas.
- Ratan Tata has been honoured with many awards during his career including highest civilian awards like 'Padma Bhushan' in 2000 and 'Padma Vibhushan' in 2008.
- Ratan Tata retired from all executive responsibility in the Tata group on December 28, 2012, his 75th birthday.
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