Assignment No.

1/CO6I(B)

Assignment No. 01
Title: Submit a profile summary of a successful entrepreneur indicating
milestone achievements.

Mr. Ratan Naval Tata

Ratan Naval Tata (born 28 December 1937) is a Parsi Indian businessman, philanthropist and
former chairman of Tata Sons. He was a chairman of the Tata Group from 1990 to 2012, and
interim chairman from October 2016 through February 2017. He continues to head its
charitable trusts. In 2008, he received the Padma Vibhushan, the second highest civilian honour
in India, after receiving the Padma Bhushan, the third highest civilian honour in 2000.

Mr Ratan N Tata was the Chairman of Tata Sons, the holding company of the Tata group, from
1991 till his retirement on December 28, 2012. During his tenure, the group’s revenues grew
manifold, totalling over $100 billion in 2011-12. After retirement, Mr Tata has been conferred
the honorary title of Chairman Emeritus of Tata Sons, Tata Industries, Tata Motors, Tata Steel
and Tata Chemicals.

Mr Tata was the chairman of major Tata companies, including Tata Motors, Tata Steel, Tata
Consultancy Services, Tata Power, Tata Global Beverages, Tata Chemicals, Indian Hotels and
Tata Teleservices. He is also associated with various organisations in India and overseas. Mr
Tata is on the international advisory boards of Mitsubishi Corporation and JP Morgan Chase.

He is the Chairman of the Sir Ratan Tata Trust and Allied Trusts, and the Sir Dorabjee Tata
Trust and the Allied Trusts. He is the Chairman of the Council of Management of the Tata

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Institute of Fundamental Research. He also serves on the board of trustees of Cornell University
and the University of Southern California.

Mr Tata joined the Tata group in 1962. After serving in various companies, he was appointed
Director-in-Charge of the National Radio and Electronics Company in 1971. In 1981, he was
named Chairman of Tata Industries, the group’s other holding company, where he was
responsible for transforming it into a group strategy think tank and a promoter of new ventures
in high-technology businesses.

Mr Tata received his bachelor of architecture degree from Cornell University in 1962. He
worked briefly with Jones and Emmons in Los Angeles before returning to India in late 1962.
He completed the Advanced Management Programme at Harvard Business School in 1975.

The Government of India honoured Mr Tata with its second-highest civilian award, the Padma
Vibhushan, in 2008. He has also received honorary doctorates from several universities in India
and overseas.

Ratan Tata is also a prolific investor and has made numerous investments in several startups.
Tata has invested in over 30 start-ups till date, most from his personal capacity and some via
his investment company.

Early Life
Ratan Tata was born in Bombay, now Mumbai, during the British Raj, into a Parsi Zoroastrian
family, on 28 December 1937. He is the son of Naval Tata, who was born in Surat and later
adopted into the Tata family, and Sooni Tata, the niece of Tata group founder Jamsetji Tata.
Tata's biological grandfather, Hormusji Tata, was a member of the Tata family by blood. In
1948, when Tata was 10, his parents separated, and he was subsequently raised and adopted by
Navajbai Tata, his grandmother and widow of Ratanji Tata. He has a younger brother Jimmy
Tata and a half-brother, Noel Tata, from Naval Tata's second marriage with Simone Tata, with
whom he was raised.

He studied at the Campion School, Mumbai till the 8th class. After which, he studied at
the Cathedral and John Connon School in Mumbai, the Bishop Cotton School in Shimla, and
the Riverdale Country School in New York City, which he graduated from in 1955. After
graduating from high school, Tata enrolled in Cornell University, from which he graduated

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with a bachelor's degree in architecture in 1959. In 2008, Tata gifted Cornell $50 Million,
becoming the largest international donor in the university's history.

Career
In the 1970s, Tata was given a managerial position in the Tata group. He achieved initial success
by turning the subsidiary National Radio and Electronics (NELCO) around, only to see it
collapse during an economic slowdown. In 1991, J. R. D. Tata stepped down as chairman of
Tata Sons, naming him his successor. Initially, Tata faced stiff resistance from the heads of
various subsidiaries, who had a large amount of operational freedom under the senior Tata's
tenure. In response, Tata implemented a number of policies designed to consolidate power,
including the implementation of a retirement age, having subsidiaries report directly to the
group office, and requiring subsidiaries to contribute their profit to building the Tata group
brand. Tata prioritised innovation and delegated many responsibilities to younger talent. Under
his leadership, overlapping operations between subsidiaries were streamlined into company-
wide operations, with the group exiting unrelated businesses to take on globalisation.

During the 21 years Tata led the Tata Group, revenues grew over 40 times, and profit over 50
times. When he took over the company, sales overwhelmingly comprised commodity sales, but
at the end of his tenure, the majority of sales came from brands. He had Tata
Tea acquire Tetley, Tata Motors acquire Jaguar Land Rover, and Tata Steel acquire Corus.
These acquisitions repositioned Tata from a largely India-centric group into a global business,
with over 65% of revenues coming from operations and sales internationally.

He also conceptualized and spearheaded the development of the Tata Nano car, which helped
put cars at a price-point within reach of the average Indian consumer. Tata Motors has since
rolled out the first batch of Tigor Electric Vehicles from its Sanand Plant in Gujarat, which
Tata has described as "fast-forward[ing] India's electric dream."

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Ratan Tata (right) in Bangladesh, 2005

Upon turning 75, Ratan Tata resigned his executive powers in the Tata group on 28 December
2012. An ensuing leadership crisis over his succession drew intense media scrutiny. The board
of directors and legal division of the company refused to appoint his successor, Cyrus Mistry,
a relative of Tata and the son of Pallonji Mistry of the Shapoorji Pallonji Group, which was the
largest individual shareholder of the Tata group. On 24 October 2016, Cyrus Mistry was
removed as chairman of Tata Sons, and Ratan Tata was made interim chairman. A selection
committee, which included Tata as a member, was formed to find a successor. On 12 January
2017, Natarajan Chandrasekaran was named as the chairman of Tata Sons, a role he assumed
in February 2017. In February 2017, Mistry was removed as a director for Tata
Sons. The National Company Law Appellate Tribunal later found in December 2019 that the
removal of Cyrus Mistry as the chairman of Tata Sons was illegal, and ordered that he be
reinstated. On appeal, India's Supreme Court upheld the dismissal of Cyrus Mistry.

Tata has also invested in multiple companies with his own wealth. He has invested
in Snapdeal – one of India's leading e-commerce websites. In January 2016, he invested in
Teabox, an online premium Indian Tea seller, and CashKaro.com, a discount coupons and
cash-back website.] He has made small investments in both early and late stage companies in
India, such as INR 0.95 Cr in Ola Cabs. In April 2015, it was reported that Tata had acquired
a stake in Chinese smartphone startup Xiaomi. In 2016, he invested in Nestaway an online real-
estate portal that later acquired Zenify to start the online real-estate and pet-care
portal, Dogspot. Tata also launched India's companionship startup for senior citizens,
Goodfellows, in a bid to encourage intergenerational friendships."

Philanthropy

Tata is a supporter of education, medicine and rural development, and considered a leading
philanthropist in India. Tata supported University of New South Wales Faculty of
Engineering to develop capacitive deionization to provide improved water for challenged
areas.

Tata Hall at the University of California, San Diego (UC San Diego) is a state-of-the-art
research facility that was opened in November 2018. The building is named after the Tata

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Trusts, who donated $70 million to UC San Diego in 2016 to establish the Tata Institute for
Genetics and Society (TIGS), which is housed within the building.

Tata Hall is a 4-story building that spans over 128,000 square feet and houses research facilities
for the biological and physical sciences. The building has state-of-the-art laboratories, offices,
and meeting spaces that are designed to foster collaboration and innovation among researchers.
It is a LEED-certified building, which means it is designed to be environmentally sustainable
and energy-efficient.

Tata Hall at UC San Diego is a research facility focused on biotechnology and houses the Tata
Institute for Genetics and Society, which conducts research on genetics and disease control. It
is named after the Tata Trusts, who made a $70 million gift to UC San Diego in 2016 to
establish the Tata Institute for Genetics and Society. The Tata Institute for Genetics and Society
at UC San Diego is a joint initiative between the Tata Trusts and UC San Diego. It aims to
address some of the world's most pressing problems, such as the spread of infectious diseases
and the need for sustainable food sources. The research conducted at the institute focuses on a
range of topics, including gene editing, stem cell therapy, and disease control.

Tata Education and Development Trust, a philanthropic affiliate of Tata Group, endowed a
$28 million Tata Scholarship Fund that will allow Cornell University to provide financial aid
to undergraduate students from India. The scholarship fund will support approximately 20
scholars at any given time and will ensure that the very best Indian students have access to
Cornell, regardless of their financial circumstances. The scholarship will be awarded annually;
recipients will receive the scholarship for the duration of their undergraduate study at Cornell.

In 2010, Tata Group companies and Tata charities donated $50 million for the construction of
an executive center at Harvard Business School (HBS). The executive center has been named
Tata Hall, after Ratan Tata (AMP '75), chairman emeritus of Tata Sons.[46] The total
construction costs have been estimated at $100 million. Tata Hall is located in the northeast
corner of the HBS campus, and is devoted to the Harvard Business School's mid-career
Executive Education program. It is seven stories tall, and about 155,000 gross square feet. It
houses approximately 180 bedrooms, in addition to academic and multi-purpose spaces.

Tata Group, under the leadership of Ratan Tata formed the MIT Tata Center of Technology
and Design at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) with a mission to address the
challenges of resource-constrained communities, with an initial focus on India.

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Boards Memberships and affiliations

Ratan Tata was the interim chairman of Tata Sons. He continues to head the main two Tata
trusts Sir Dorabji Tata and Allied Trusts and Sir Ratan Tata Trust and their allied trusts, with a
combined stake of 66% in Tata Sons, Tata group's holding company.

He has served in various capacities in organizations in India and abroad. He is a member of

Over the years Tata has served on the Cornell University Board of Trustees, personally
advising the school's administration in matters of international involvement, particularly
regarding projects connected to India. More broadly, Tata has served on the board's Academic
Affairs, Student Life, and Development Committees. In 2013 he was named Cornell
Entrepreneur of the Year.

He is a director on the boards of Alcoa Inc., Mondelez International[58] and Board of Governors
of the East–West Center. He is also a member of the board of trustees of University of Southern
California, Harvard Business School Board of Dean's Advisors, X Prize and Cornell
University. He is a member on the board of International Advisory Council at Bocconi
University.

He is also a member of the Harvard Business School India Advisory Board (IAB) since 2006
and previously a member of the Harvard Business School Asia-Pacific Advisory Board
(APAB) 2001–2006.

He is on the advisory board of Hakluyt & Co, an international consultancy company. In 2013,
he was appointed to the board of trustees of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.

In February 2015, Ratan took an advisory role at Kalari Capital, a venture capital firm founded
by Vani Kola. In October 2016, Tata Sons removed Cyrus Mistry as its chairman, nearly 4
years after he took over the reins of the over $100 billion conglomerate, Ratan Tata made a
comeback, taking over the company's interim boss for 4 months. On 12 January
2017, Natarajan Chandrasekaran was named as the chairman of Tata Sons, a role he assumed
in February 2017.

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Awards

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