And for a Friday on the sad bereavement of Ratan Tata, some thoughts….. some musings…..
I started my career as a Management Trainee in Tatas in 1974, specifically in Tata-Fison Pesticides and my early posting was at Ralli House at 16, Hare street, Calcutta. Incidentally, many Tata offices were also located in the same Tata building. One was NELCO at which Mr. Tata too was posted in his induction period. In the early eighties, I moved to Mumbai to company HQ at Ralli House, Raveline Street, which was bang opposite the Tata Palace where Ratan Tata was born. My career progressed very well and I was one of the youngest General Managers. But the late eighties saw a period of strife and divisions in Tatas. The triumvirate of Darbari Seth, Rusi Mody and Kelkar were powerful satraps in their own fiefdoms within Bombay House and Mr. Ratan Tata had to maneuver strongly against the divisive forces. The period when JRD withdrew and Ratan Tata had not established within the Tata empire, was a tough period for some of us who believed in the ideals of highest levels of Ethics and Governance for which Mr. Ratan Tata and the House of Tatas had steadfastly stood.
A barrage of fast moving events and many twists and turns, finally resulted in my moving out of Tatas in 1988 to Searle India which was the Indian subsidiary of American company G D Searle and also located in Ralli House. The move had the blessings of Ratan Tata. My career ofcourse had another big change in 1996 with the shift to the German MNC, BASF where I took over as CMD and Head of South Asia. I retired in 2015 to join various Boards as Independent Director. But my fundamentals of value based management, adherence to transparency and good governance and a commitment to fight corruption at all levels against all odds were greatly influenced by my Tata management grounding and the guiding principles that Ratan Tata symbolised in his early days. Ofcourse in the nineties, once Ratan Tata had full control, the House of Tatas were back to its highest standards again.
I am a great supporter and believer in the TATA brand in general. My humble Pranams to Mr. Ratan Tata for installing in me that fearless capacity to go whole hog for the principles I believed, the honest way, the transparent way, the SEEGOS way.