The Last Rajah Ratan Tata Case Study

Among Asias business titans, Ratan N. Tata stands out for his modesty. The chairman of the Tata Group Indias biggest conglomerate, with businesses ranging from software, cars, and steel to earphone service, tea bags, and wristwatches usually drives himself to the office in his$12,500 Tata Indigo Marina wagon. He prefers to spend weekends in solitude with his two dog sat a beachfront home he patterned himself. And disdainful of pretense, he travels alone even on long business trips, eschewing the retinues of aides who typically coddle corporate chieftains.But the 69-year-old Tata also has a hothead streak. An avid aviator, he often flies a corporate Falcon 2000 jet around India. And in February he caused a sensation at the Aero India 2007 airshow by co-piloting Lockheed (LMT) F-16 and Boeing (BA) F-18 fighter jets. Tatas business dealings reflect the bolder side of his personality. In the past four years he has embarked on an investment binge that is building his host from a onc e-stodgy regional player into a global heavyweight. Since 2003, Tata has bought the truck unit of South Koreas DaewooMotors, a stake in one of Indonesias biggest coal mines, and steel mill around in Singapore, Thailand,and Vietnam.It has taken over a slew of tony hotels including New Yorks Pierre, the Ritz-Carlton in Boston, and San Franciscos Camden Place. The 2004 purchase of Tyco Internationals(TYC) undersea telecom cables for $130 million, a price that in hindsight looks manage a steal,turned Tata into the worlds biggest carrier of international phone calls. With its $91 million buyout of British engineering firm Incat International, Tata Technologies now is a major supplier of outsourced industrial design for American auto and aerospace companies, with 3,300 engineers in India, the U.S., and Europe.The crowning deal to date has been Tata Steels $13 billion takeover in April of Dutch-British steel giant Corus Group, a target that would corroborate been unthinkable just a few years ago. In one swoop, the move greatly expands Tata Steels range of finished products, secures access to automakers across the U.S. and Europe, and boosts its capacity tail fin fold, with mills added in Pennsylvania and Ohio. Now, a new gambit may catapult Tata into the big leagues of global auto manufacturing The company is said to be unhurriedness a bid for Jaguar Cars and Land Rover, which Ford Motor Co. (F)wants to sell. On top of all this, the group plans $28 billion in capitalinvestments at home over the next five years in steel, autos, telecom, power, chemicals, and more.We rescaled our thinking in terms of growth, Tata says over tea at Bombay House, the groups headquarters since 1926, a placid oasis with well-worn marble floors, a vast collection of modern Indian art,and staffers who circulate with bowls of vanilla ice cream every solar day at 3 p.m. We just forced and cajoled our businesses to make this happen.The forcing and cajoling has worked brilliantly.The market value of the 18 listed Tata companies has swelled to $62 billion, from $12 billion,since 2003. Group sales and profits declare doubled, to $29 billion and $2.8 billion, respectively.