by Nick Ford

Created on: August 24, 2010

Ratan Naval Tata is the current chairman of the Tata Group. The Tata empire includes Tata Steel, Tata Motors, Tata Power, Tata Consultancy Services, Tata Tea, Tata Chemicals, The Indian Hotels Company and Tata Teleservices.

Ratan was born into a family of industrialists in Bombay on 28 December 1937. His forebears were Parsi priests. His great grandfather was Jamsedji Tata who founded the business. His parents were Soonoo and Naval Hormusji Tata.

Ratan grew up in a life of luxury but did not grow up with his parents. They separated when he was aged seven. Ratan and his younger brother, Jimmy were brought up by their grandmother, Lady Navajbai. He lived in the white Baroque revivalist building, the Tata Palace at the heart of Bombay. He had a retinue of fifty staff and was driven to school in a Rolls Royce. At the age of 13 he was formally adopted by Lady Navajbai.

Ratan Tata studied architecture at Cornell University., He graduated in 1962. He thought seriously of joining IBM in America but was persuaded to join the family firm on the advice of his uncle J.R.D. Tata who was also the chief executive. In America one of his best friends was Amar Bose who made a fortune from the Bose sound system. Ratan started at the bottom of the organisation. He worked on the shop floor among the blast furnaces of Tata Steel at Jamshedpur.

In 1971 Ratan achieved his major career break. His uncle, J.R.D. Tata, put him in charge of The National Radio & Electronics Company Ltd (Nelco) which had been part of the Tata empire since 1940. Nelco was struggling. Ratan persuaded J.R.D. to develop high tech products in preference to consumer electronics. By 1975 Nelco has improved market share and stemmed its severe losses. In 1975 politics intervened. Indira Gandhi declared a state of emergency, India entered a recession and in  1977 there was labour unrest. Ratan tried to confront the unions, faced up to a strike and a lockout but failed to save the business. It was a formative experience.

In 1977 Ratan was given charge of another ailing firm. This was the Empire Mills cotton factory. He improved the finances and even declared a dividend. He also realised that without investment it could not compete with less labour intensive rivals. Ratan argued the case that Tata should invest in the Mills but was overruled before the recovery program could be completed. The Empire Mills were closed down in 1986.

In 1981 Ratan was given the task of developing strategy at Tata Industries. His interest

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