Business Case Studies, Leadership Case Study, Tata Group,Ratan Tata

Code : LDS0001

Year : 2004

Industry : Conglomerates

Region : India

Teaching Note:Available

Structured Assignment : Not Available

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Introduction: When Ratan Tata took over the reins of the Tata Group on March 25th 1991, little did industry observers expect the manifold growth that Tata Group would post in the decade to come. Even for Ratan Tata, being placed at the helm of a Rs 10,627 crore company, whose diverse businesses ranged from tea to automobiles (Annexure I), was a daunting task. Particularly, the Indian market was just opening up for foreign investments and multinational companies were mushrooming on the Indian soil. Since then, the Tata Group transformed under the leadership of Ratan Tata to become one of India’s most respected corporate houses and accounted for 2.4% of the country’s GDP4 . By the decade that ended in March 2002, Tata Group’s turnover had leapfrogged to Rs 49,456 crores5 – a fourfold growth since Ratan Tata became the group’s Chairman.

Specifically, this rise of Tata Group was credited to the vision of Ratan Tata whose focus on globalizing automobiles and information technology offered global opportunities for the group companies. Talking about the Tata Group’s plans, Ratan Tata said, “Tata should become an entity of the world. It has always been my view that we should go abroad, that we have not done enough.”