Ratan Tata

Former chairman, Tata Group

Net worth: US$1 billion

Ratan Naval Tata, GBE (born 28 December 1937) is an Indian industrialist, investor, philanthropist and former chairman of Tata Sons. He was the chairman of Tata Group, a Mumbai-based global business conglomerate from 1991 till 2012 and again from 24 October 2016 for an interim term, and continues to head its charitable trusts. He is the recipient of two of the highest civilian awards of India–Padma Vibhushan (2008) and Padma Bhushan (2000).

He is an alumnus of the prestigious Cathedral and John Connon School, Bishop Cotton School (Shimla), Cornell University & Harvard Business School.

Tata began his career in the Tata group in 1961. He started on the shop floor of Tata Steel, shovelling limestone and handling the blast furnace. He could not turn around group companies, NELCO and Empress Mills, which he was given charge of in the 70s. In 1991, J. R. D. Tata stepped down as chairman of Tata Sons, naming him his successor. When he settled down into the new role, he faced stiff resistance from many company heads some of whom had spent decades in their respective companies and rose to become very powerful and influential due to the freedom to operate under JRD Tata. He began replacing them by setting a retirement age, and then made individual companies report operationally to the group office and made each contribute some of their profit to build and use the Tata group brand. Innovation was given priority and younger talent was infused and given responsibilities. Under his stewardship, overlapping operations in group companies were streamlined into a synergised whole, with the salt-to-software group exiting unrelated businesses to take on the onslaught of globalisation.

During the 21 years he led the Tata Group, revenues grew over 40 times, and profit, over 50 times. Where sales of the group as a whole, overwhelmingly came from commodities when he took over, the majority sales came from brands when he exited. He boldly got Tata Tea to acquire Tetley, Tata Motors to acquire Jaguar Land Rover and Tata Steel to acquire Corus. All this turned Tata from a largely India-centric group into a global business, with over 65% revenues coming from operations and sales in over 100 countries.^[9][15] He conceptualised the Tata Nano car. As he explained in a recent interview for the Harvard Business School's Creating Emerging Markets project, the development of the Tata Nano was significant because it helped put cars at a price-point within reach of the average Indian consumer.

Ratan Tata relinquished all executive power in the Tata group on 28 December 2012, on turning 75, appointing as his successor, Cyrus Mistry, the 44-year-old son of Pallonji Mistry of the Shapoorji Pallonji Group, the largest individual shareholder of the group and related by marriage. On 24 October 2016, Cyrus Mistry was removed as the Chairman of Tata Sons and Ratan Tata was made interim chairman. The decision went through intense media scrutiny that made many scrutinize the root causes of the sudden removal, and the resultant crisis. On 12 January 2017 Natarajan Chandrasekaran was named as the Chairman of Tata Sons, a role he will assume in February 2017.

Recently, he invested his personal savings in Snapdeal - one of India's leading e-commerce website and in Jan 2016 made an undisclosed funding in Teabox — an online store selling premium Indian Tea and CashKaro.com — an online discount coupons and cashback website. Ratan Tata has been making small investments in both early and late stage companies in India. He made investments of INR 0.95 Cr in Ola Cabs and INR 1 Cr in Paytm. In April 2015, it was reported that Tata had acquired a stake in Chinese smartphone startup Xiaomi, with specific terms undisclosed. In October 2015, he partnered with American Express in investing in Bitcoin venture Abra. In Jan 2016, it was reported that Ratan Tata invested in an online Pet care portal called Dogspot.

2016: Commander of the Legion of Honour

2015: Sayaji Ratna Award

2015: Honorary Doctor of Automotive Engineering

2014: Honorary Doctor of Laws

2014: Honorary Knight Grand Cross of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (GBE)

2014: Sayaji Ratna Award

2014: Honorary Doctor of Business

2013: Honorary Doctorate

2013: Honorary Doctor of Business Practice

2013: Ernst and Young Entrepreneur of the Year – Lifetime Achievement

2013: Transformational Leader of the Decade