Short Biography
Ratan Tata was born on 28-12-1937 in Mumbai in the state of Maharashtra, India as Ratan Naval Tata. He is an Indian Businessperson, Investor, Philanthropist, Industrialist, Chairperson & Author.
Ratan Tata Complete Bio & Career
Ratan Naval Tata is one of the most successful Indian industrialists, philanthropists, investors, and former chairman of Tata Sons. He went to Bishop Cotton School and Cathedral and John Connon School for his schooling. He attended Cornell University for his Bachelor of Architecture in structural engineering. Later, he went to Harvard Business School and completed Advanced Management Program.
He started his career on the Tata Steel floor in 1961. He handled blast furnaces and learned to shovel limestone. He was given charge of turning around the group companies Empress Mills and NELCO, but he failed there. He was appointed as Chairman of Tata Sons after J.R.D Tata stepped down from the post in 1991. Many company heads, who were working there for decades and already having strong influential positions, resisted him. But he replaced them by introducing the age for retirement. New talent was given priority. He streamlined the overlapping operations of his group companies into a synergized one.
He led the Group to a new height. During his leadership, the revenues and profits increased significantly. Under his leadership, Tata Tea took over Tetley, Tata Steel acquired Corus, and Tata Motors took over Jaguar Land Rover. All these efforts resulted in the Group becoming a largely India-centric group in the business world globally. The group earned more than 65% of its revenues from sales and operations in over 100 countries. He introduced the budget car for an average Indian customer ‘Tata Nano’.He stepped down from the post in 2012 and appointed Pallonji Mistry’s son Cyrus Mistry as his successor. But in 2016, he was again appointed as an interim chairman after the removal of Cyrus Mistry from the post by the group. The news was scrutinized by the media. In 2017, Natarajan Chandrasekaran was appointed as a new Chairman of Tata Sons.
He is known for his investment skills and is often seen investing a small amount in both companies, in the early and late stages in India. He had investments in one of India's leading e-commerce websites ‘Snapdeal ‘, an online store selling superior Indian Tea ‘Teabox ‘and an online discount coupon and cashback website ‘CashKaro.com’.He had also investments in Paytm and Ola Cabs. He had also purchased a stake in the Chinese smartphone’ Xiaomi’.
He strongly believed in giving back. He is known for perceiving philanthropic endeavors. Reports state that 60 to 65 percent of his earnings from companies are used for rural development, medicine, and education for people. He received the 2 highest civilian awards from India, Padma Bhushan, and Padma Vibhushan.
