For Ratan Tata profit was secondary: Jyotiraditya Scindia on ‘risk-taker’ tycoon’

Union Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia delved into his relationship with the chairman emeritus of the Tata Group, Ratan Tata, following his death on Wednesday night at the age of 86. As the entire country paid homage to the titan of the Indian industry, Scindia called Ratan Tata a “wonderful human being” for whom profit was always secondary.
Ratan Tata took over as the chairman in 1991 when the Tata Group found itself in a rather precarious position, with a revenue of just $5.8 billion. However, the company expanded its reach and diversified its interests under his leadership, with revenues soaring to over $100 billion by 2011-12, reiterating his towering and unexampled impact on the Indian conglomerate.
In an exclusive interview with India Today News Director Rahul Kanwal, Scindia described Ratan Tata as a fierce “risk-taker” as he spoke about his family’s generations-old relationship with the Tatas.
During the conversation, the Union Minister described the passing of Ratan Tata as a “personal loss”, adding that his association with the late business tycoon began when he first met him at the age of 10.
“My association with him goes back almost about 40 years. I first met with him when I was 10 years old with my father, and it’s a very old family relationship going back three generations. My great-grandfather, Madhav Maharaj I, was very close to Jamshedji Tataji when he set up Tata Steel, and in fact it was the Scindias who funded Tata Steel at that point of time,” Scindia said.
He further said that enumerating Ratan Tata’s accomplishments was easier than replicating them, although the sheer number would make anyone think that both are infinitely impossible.
While describing the former Tata Group chairman as a “risk-taker”, Scindia spoke about the Nano project, a true brainchild of Ratan Tata. Scindia said that a project like that could’ve only been undertaken by someone who valued the feedback of the customer more than the prospect of making a profit.
“He had the ability to take risks where no one would dream of venturing, whether it was the Tata Nano project, whether it was the acquisition of Tata Tepley, the acquisition of Corus, JLR, and then finally taking Air India back into the Tata fold from where she had initially sprung. He was someone who was always obsessed with quality of service, obsessed with customer feedback, obsessed with satisfying every single customer that the Tata group interacted with,” the Union Minister for Communications stated.
“And he was very clear on the notion that profits are secondary, satisfying every customer,” Scindia added.
He said he introduced Ratan Tata to the “next generation” when he invited the business tycoon for a meal with his family at his home in Mumbai.
Talking about Ratan Tata’s love for animals, Scindia mentioned how every stray dog was taken care of and was welcome at the Bombay house, the head office of the Tata Group.
“He’s going to be missed because not only was he the head of a huge multi-billion dollar enterprise, but the heart of it,” he concluded.