Ratan Tata who built an empire on trust

‘If you have trust, nothing else matters, if you do not trust, nothing else matters’

Almost fifteen years back I was at Pune airport to catch a flight early morning and I saw an elderly man in a suit pushing a trolly with a couple of suitcases. I looked at his familiar face and realized he was ‘Ratan Tata’! I had never met the man but had seen so much of him in the media, it was hard not to recognize the reasonably tall man. Oh my God, no one to help him carry his luggage, a billionaire in the true sense whereas small successful twits especially tiny tweeny politicians have ten cronies around them. What good will Elon Musk be, dancing around and even fooling around with a truck full of dollars?

Every batch of my MBA students coming from different cities of the country, in the opening address I used to ask a straight question ‘How many of you trust Tata brand?’. All hundred hands would shoot up in the air like an arrow - resounding yes. This is the kind of trust this one man built. The world lost him but he left a brand built to last may be forever.

People trust Tata

You can pick up salt or steel with this brand with your eyes shut and you will never regret it.

Building trust of that magnitude is the culmination of, hard work, humility, unquestionable integrity, consistency, compassion caring for people and loving your nation- people watch. ‘What is good for India is good for Tata’ it says on the group’s website. The Tatas aim not to profit, but to serve.

In an environment- a global environment where trust deficit is at its lowest, to remain afloat requires a godly DNA. When I first visited Jamshedpur to deliver a talk to officers of Tata Steel this wind of trust and well-being hit me in the face. OMG, an Oasis in the Sahara Desert; yes, it is. To run an industry that required a little over 1,500 acres, the Tatas went on to manage a city of 15,000 acres. It can put the best of the best cantonments on the backfoot in terms of cleanliness- everything is spotlessly clean and shining. It is a treat for the soul to visit, like a pilgrimage. One has to experience it to believe it. Tata culture is palpable.

As a teacher, I would urge all young managers to visit Jamshedpur to see what good can be done if you have the intent.

I was giving a talk at a forum in Pune, on Emotional Intelligence and mentioned that Tata as a group is very ethical and a good environment for people to work. At the end of the session, a gentleman got up and said ‘Sir, I retired last year after working for Tata for forty years and I pray to God, that in my next birth, I should get a job with Tata again’.

Once I asked a very senior executive from Tata who is a close friend as to why he has been in this company for such a long time when he could get double the money elsewhere. He said ‘They respect me, I have freedom to work my way and above all they don’t ask me to do anything wrong or illegal’.

Trust travels at the speed of light

Tatas set up a plant in Malaysia and the business didn’t pick up and the company could not repay loan on time. A person from the bank came to the Mumbai office and gave an ultimatum- pay or windup. The CEO gave a one-page letter on his ‘letterhead’ promising to return the money at the earliest and asked for some more time. The banker wondered what this piece of paper was worth and asked ‘Deutsche Bank’ in Germany who had been bankers to the Telco JV with Daimler Benz and he was told that a letter signed by a CEO of Tata on his letter head is worth more than a bank guarantee! This is the trust Tata built.

Another friend who worked very closely with Mr. Ratan Tata said that it was a ritual that the Chairman’s award was given to the winners by Ratan Tata himself. My friend was organising this function in an east Asian country and Mr. Tata told him that he would try to come which surprised him. But he did come all the way from Mumbai and had his entire leg was bandaged, limping and walking with a stick, still carrying his own briefcase said ‘You know, my surgery was scheduled close to this date and I was not sure if my doctor will permit me to travel, hence I could not commit earlier’. He stood for the entire duration of the award distribution to hand over the certificates though in pain. This is some character.

A man with a golden heart and love for animals

Back in 2018, Prince of Wales, held an event to honour Ratan Tata with a Lifetime Achievement in recognition of his outstanding philanthropic efforts. The event was scheduled at a Buckingham Palace .

Tata declined to attend as one of his dogs, had become seriously ill. “I can’t leave him and come,” he insisted.
He used to drive his own car and go to his tailor to give measurements for his clothes. Ten tailors would have lined up at his home to do this but these are different people of different kind- very rare to find- especially today.
Whether you leave behind four thousand crores or one lakh Crores, it doesn’t matter- you go empty handed and leave behind a name which would be remembered with respect.

How many rich and mighty industrialists would get the honour of being wrapped in the national tri colour and have the flag at half mast, I wonder?

Author of the article has written a book TQ- TRUST QUOTIENT - A force multiplier you cannot ignore