Tata Sons Chairman Emeritus Ratan Tata has been in the news recently after an old video of his surfaced in which he is recounting the time he confronted a gangster who was targeting Tata Motors. The incident happened in the early 1980s when Ratan Tata was the chairman of Tata Sons.
The confrontation with gangsters is not the only interesting anecdote in Ratan Tata's illustrious life as an industrialist. Tata, who was recently conferred with the first ever ‘Udyog Ratna’ award by the Maharashtra government, has shared several interesting events in his life that many are unaware of.
Ratan Tata studied architecture and structural engineering at Cornell University in the United States, and those years in America from 1955 to 1962 influenced him tremendously. In fact, he travelled the country and got so charmed by California and that West Coast lifestyle that he was ready to settle down in Los Angeles.
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However, when Ratan Tata's grandmother Lady Navajbai’s health deteriorated, he was forced to return to a life in India that he thought he had left behind. “I was in Los Angeles and very happily so. And that was where I was when I left before I should have left,” Tata had said in a 2011 media interview.
When Ratan Tata was back in India, he had a job offer from IBM. However, then Tata Group chairman JRD Tata wasn’t amused by this. “He called me one day and he said you can’t be here in India and working for IBM," Ratan Tata once recalled.
If you are someone who is guilty of making your resume on your work computer or laptop, it might be fascinating to know that Ratan Tata did the same. "I was in [the IBM office] and I remember he (JRD Tata) asked me for a resume, which I didn’t have. The office had electric typewriters so I sat one evening and typed out a resume on their typewriter and gave it to him,” Ratan Tata has said.
According to Tata Group official website, the resume shared by Ratan Tata with JRD Tata was how the beloved industrialist came to be offered a job in 1962 with Tata Industries, the promoter company of the group. Ratan Tatan then went on to spend six months at Telco, now Tata Motors, before joining Tisco, now Tata Steel, in 1963.
Ratan Tata took over as Chairman when JRD Tata passed away. He has shared that when he was appointed as the Chairman of the Tata Group in 1991 by JRD Tata, the decision drew backlash. “But I let my silence and my actions talk. Ever since my life has been about creating an impact,” said Ratan Tata.
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. Effective December 29, 2012, he has been conferred the honorary title of Chairman Emeritus of Tata Sons, Tata Industries, Tata Motors, Tata Steel and Tata Chemicals. At present, he chairs the Tata Trusts.