[vinay kamath]

Feel very uncomfortable to having to bid farewell to him . every CEO's role model and Icon.

Ratan Tata still has a lot of great ideas and the trust and love of all Indians. He could lead India in his next innings and nurture every dream of Indians into a reality - work for an India thats more efficient , admired , clean, hardworking, powerful and a welfare state ( TATA style ). and better than current giant China in future !

[chennai-indian]

Ratan Tata is one of the rare industrialists that I admire. I had a brief chance of interacting with him and I was blown away by his humility and grace. Though he is officially retiring, I'm sure that his counsel will be sought by Mr Mistry and also by others in and out of Tata group.

[rsidd]

This article appeared a few days ago, I haven't seen it discussed on Team-BHP. Summary: back in 1999, supposedly, Ratan Tata was interested in selling the car business to Ford, and discussions in Mumbai were productive but when they went to Detroit they got "humiliated" by the Ford management, who said they would be doing a "favour" to Tata by buying out the car business. A few years later, the Tatas ended up buying JLR from a struggling Ford, which Bill Ford acknowledged as a "favour", and turned it around. The source is one Pravin Kadle, a "Tata Group veteran" who now heads Tata Capital. I find it rather surprising since the Indica got record bookings soon after its release in 1999 (was this supposed discussion before or after the release of the Indica?) and always sold quite well, despite reported niggles in the first generation. [edit - technically the Indica was launched on the last day of 1998, so it must have been after launch.]

Maybe the 1999 discussion was about a tie-up and not a buyout, and something got lost in translation? (The speech was mostly in Marathi, according to the report.)

[saket77]

Originally Posted by rsidd

The source is one Pravin Kadle, a "Tata Group veteran" who now heads Tata Capital. I find it rather surprising since the Indica got record bookings soon after its release in 1999 (was this supposed discussion before or after the release of the Indica?) and always sold quite well, despite reported niggles in the first generation. [edit - technically the Indica was launched on the last day of 1998, so it must have been after launch.]

Quite right and I agree with you. Will take the news with a pinch of salt though. It is highly doubtful that Mr. Ratan Tata, who was so passionate with the development of Indica would go to Ford to sell TML just after the launch of Indica. Esp. when the Indica did receive a good number of bookings and was never a commercial flop. In fact, that was the first time in history when Maruti slashed the prices of its then best seller 800 by a huge margin, bringing it under 2 lacs!

I remember reading back then as a teenager that how much enthusiastic Mr. Tata was himself with the Indica - He said that its like watching a baby being born...limb by limb. Also remember one of his urges that how he wanted to tap the window of an Indica owner and ask him "How do you like it?"
I really doubt that Mr. Tata had plans to sell TML at that juncture at least with so much passion behind the then new passenger segment car.

[srishiva]

Really sad that for someone who is so passionate about cars and having good resources, could not create a successful car. He should have acquired people from other companies instead of relying on people within Tata. Especially for design, production etc.

[saket77]

Originally Posted by srishiva

Really sad that for someone who is so passionate about cars and having good resources, could not create a successful car.

Irony of the business!
Just for the sake of comparison, would you believe that Honda was founded in 1948, 3 years later to TELCO/ TML and without the backing of someone as huge as Tata Group and still there is such a vast difference in the quality & perception?

Originally Posted by srishiva

He should have acquired people from other companies instead of relying on people within Tata. Especially for design, production etc.

Tata did go to International car designing institutes like IDeA. I guess production and after sales were the main issues. Poor quality control in the production process and part acquisition from vendors is probably what made them dwindle.

[chncar]

Originally Posted by saket77

Irony of the business!
Just for the sake of comparison, would you believe that Honda was founded in 1948, 3 years later to TELCO/ TML and without the backing of someone as huge as Tata Group and still there is such a vast difference in the quality & perception?

True, and Hyundai etc entered the biz much later. However this isn't really something that can be blamed on Tata, the problem lies with socialism and the license raj. At least Tata hasn't gone the way of HM etc.

[directinjection]

Originally Posted by rsidd

This article appeared a few days ago, I haven't seen it discussed on Team-BHP.

It was discussed on Team Bhp:

http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/indian...ndigo-ecs.html

Read posts 52-54.

[atnyia]

Originally Posted by chncar

True, and Hyundai etc entered the biz much later. However this isn't really something that can be blamed on Tata, the problem lies with socialism and the license raj. At least Tata hasn't gone the way of HM etc.

Agree on the point actually.
Historically speaking Tata and some other big business houses of that time wanted a free/protected run in India. So foreign companies were barred from doing business here.
Things turned on its head during late 60s when everything was nationalized/confiscated by government in the name Gareebi Hatao!

[Engine_Roars]

Always liked him, his personality. A very ground to earth man. A legend, a true visionary. Respect

He has been appointed as head of Indian Railways Kaya Kalp Council.

[shortbread]

Originally Posted by srishiva

Really sad that for someone who is so passionate about cars and having good resources, could not create a successful car. He should have acquired people from other companies instead of relying on people within Tata. Especially for design, production etc.

I believe the 1st generation Indica is quite a successful car, especially considering its Tata's initial proper small car effort. Albeit, its overstayed its welcome but Tata has spawned a million odd cars from the platform.

The execution of the second generation Indica is an altogether different and sorry story.

Originally Posted by saket77

Irony of the business! Just for the sake of comparison, would you believe that Honda was founded in 1948, ........

True but there's always an even more successful story to learn from, for eg.

Hyundai Motors which was founded a good 2 decades after Honda, is today a more prosperous company than the Jap giant.

OR

Suzuki that started making cars in 1937 and is nowhere near as successful as Tata, Honda or Hyundai!!


Tata Motors is still India's most successful Auto company by far!

For some reason most on team bhp have this tunnel vision in judging Tata Motors solely on the success of its domestic passenger car operations.

Tata Motors is a far more profitable company than the entire Suzuki Corporation, Mahindra Motors and Ashok Leyland put together!

Despite the economic downturn and resulting flagging sales Tata's money maker in India is still and perhaps always will be its Commercial Vehicle operations. I believe when the economic recovery gains speed followed by more infrastructure investment, the turnaround for Tata's trucking division will be highly positive.

Let's not forget Tata owns the fastest growing luxury car maker out there in JLR. With simply a 6 car model line up at present and the back to back launches lined up in the near future the potential of this company is huge. Ratan Tata deserves all the appreciation he can get for sticking his neck out and going ahead with the JLR purchase, when almost every analyst out there said its risky and a misfit. It doesn't stop there even, the massive investments Tata put into JLR during the economic downturn means it has been able to reap the huge rewards now.

Let's not forget what has exactly happened after the Indian economy opened up. Tata was a very late and new entrant to the passenger car market. No doubt it could have done a lot of things differently and also executed their plans better. But at least it wasn't stagnant and ultimately disappeared like HM or Premier. Tata andMahindra are still the only ones flying the national flag as Indian carmakers.

Ratan Tata has successfully helped Tata evolve from a domestic maker of MCVs, into a maker of a far larger portfolio of vehicles with a global foot print. The challenges ahead for Tata Motors are many, but it can easily turn around and look back at its achievements so far with pride.

[sgiitk]

Now let us hope that he does a real good job in fixing the railways. Ratan Tata and Suresh Prabhumake an excellent pair.

[GrammarNazi]

On 17th March, Sir Ratan Tata & Cyrus Mistry inaugurated the Largest National Automotive Innovation Center in Europe.

LINK

The National Automotive Innovation Centre will be the largest automotive research centre of its kind in Europe. Jaguar Land Rover, Tata Motors, and WMG have made an investment of £150m in the capital building and research activities, with £30m capital costs funded by the Government's Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE). The 33,000m2 complex will provide space for 1,000 engineers, designers and academics to work together, from apprentices to senior managers. Teaching facilities will support the education of tomorrow’s engineers with the Centre being open to students from the WMG Academies for Young Engineers to work on real world applications.

The high tech research facilities will include: a design and simulation space creating innovative automotive solutions: an Advanced Propulsion Research Laboratory which will address the national requirement to position the UK as the leading innovator in advanced propulsion systems; the world’s most adaptable and advanced fully immersive drive-in car simulator. There will be close working on collaborative research projects with the research councils and the department of Business Innovation and Skills. Jaguar Land Rover and Tata Motors will also use the NAIC to take forward autonomous vehicles research through a £19m Autodrive UK project.

Hope the innovation eventually trickles down to Indian Auto Market.

Although it may happen only over time & at a premium, atleast it'll be in competition with Amrita Automotive Research & Technology Center.

Them TATA's fight hard !

[DHABHAR.BEHRAM]

Originally Posted by saket77

I remember how much enthusiastic Mr. Tata was himself with the Indica. He said that its like watching a baby being born, limb by limb. I also remember one of his urges that how he wanted to tap the window of an Indica owner and ask him "How do you like it?"

Dear Saket77 - thank you so much for sharing the golden words "how do you like it?" on the forum. You have given me a very effective tool which can be used as an internal benchmark! Wow, this is indeed great! .

Dear Shortbread - your comment, "Tata's money maker in India is still and always will be its Commercial Vehicle operations", the commercial vehicles business may not be as glamorous as the passenger car business but we work quietly, we know what we do, why we do it and how it touches, benefits and ultimately enriches the lives of our dear customers of light, medium, heavy and very heavy commercial vehicles!

There is "something" in the core of the CV business, a sort of "goodness" or "niceness", which is very difficult to put into words and very intangible, and "I'm lovin' it"! I guess I'll just end this sentence by saying that "this cannot be understood by many other companies". .

Best regards,

Behram Dhabhar

[saket77]

Originally Posted by DHABHAR.BEHRAM

Dear Saket77 - thank you so much for sharing the golden words "how do you like it?" on the forum. You have given me a very effective tool which can be used as an internal benchmark! Wow, this is indeed great! .

Behram Sir, I read an interview of Mr. R. Tata in an auto magazine some good 14-15 years ago, and the words displayed so much passion and emotion of the man that it just stuck in my head. Indeed with your creativity, the words can be used for self assessment & self-benchmarking

Regards,
Saket