TATA WILL GAIN FROM SINGUR

In November 2007, Ratan Naval Tata, Chairman of the Tata group, India’s largest conglomerate, was listed among the 25 most powerful people in business by Fortune magazine. In January 2008, he was awarded the Padma Vibhushan, India’s second highest civilian decoration. In May 2008, Ratan Tata made it to the Time magazine’s 2008 list of the world’s 100 most influential people. Tata was hailed for unveiling his tiny Rs 1 lakh car Nano, which led to him being described as “one of the most powerful personalities ever who stood by his promise”. But now, production of that very Nano has led to the creation of a whole host of issues and stoked the agriculture versus industry debate. No matter how and which way the Singur crisis is resolved, will the handling of issues attached to it have a negative or positive impact on Ratan Tata’s enviable rating? Will it delay the launch of his dream car which has now also become the dream car for the common man? Ratan Tata and the Tata group of companies will actually gain much more than they’ll lose from the Singur stand-off, especially in the long term. And the Nano will be delayed so marginally as a result of the Singur happenings that it won’t really cause anguish to all those many people eagerly awaiting its arrival in the market. But the Nano is only one part of the much bigger canvas spread out by Ratan Tata — a canvas that will continue getting bigger as he keeps up the momentum to take his conglomerate into newer and sometimes unexpected directions and businesses. For example, he surprised many by going into bio-tech and more surprises are in store even for experts watching the markets. And as he enters new areas, his contribution to the growth of high-tech sectors will continue to increase, both in India and abroad.

In India, however, in the wake of Singur will this growth be slower than it could have been on account of land acquisition — a problem that has already cropped up in a couple of States other than West Bengal? To an extent, yes, with political and procedural factors playing a greater though less visible role than local displacement. But here again, Ratan Tata will adopt a tough stance, willing to cut his losses, with pull-outs being a very real option for him, as he has demonstrated already in some projects [and companies] that could not fit into the corporate vision or failed to yield requisite results. In fact, in times to come, rapid growth and those two words — “requisite results” — will be the key areas in Ratan Tata’s strategies both at conceptualisation and at ground level.

Apart from going global faster and bagging more orders from overseas, Ratan Tata will be focusing more on acquiring foreign companies. And yet, despite all the new additions in his achievement portfolio, plus his numerous philanthropic activities, Rata Tata is likely to face increasing criticism in the months ahead on two counts. One, on not being aggressive enough, with people citing the almost meteoric rise of Lakshmi Mittal and his acquisitions as a comparison point. Two, on not devoting enough effort to building a future cadre of leadership. On both these counts, while not all of Ratan Tata’s strategies will click, he will overall certainly strengthen his position as a promoter of new ventures in high-technology businesses and his image of nurturing processes imbued with many qualitative characteristics. He will step up his global thrusts and eye and acquire businesses on a more ambitious scale than before. Nano will be a dream fulfilled, and replaced by more dreams