HE VALUED LEADERSHIP WITH TRUST

A titan has left us. Although Ratan Tata never had the reputation outside of India that he should have had — and richly deserved — he was the dominant figure in Indian business for more than three decades.

- MORGEN WITZEL

Like many great leaders, he did not at first aspire to a position of leadership. He once said that in a perfect world, he would have become an architect.

Nevertheless, as JRD Tata's leadership of the Tata Group drew to its close in the late 1990s, it was clear that Ratan was the only obvious choice to succeed him, the only man who could hold the group together. The “satraps” who aspired to succeed JRD were divisive figures, but Ratan was a unifier. His first real test as a leader came when he was appointed as chair of TELCO, later Tata Motors, at a time when a vicious strike had brought the Pune plant nearly to a halt. Ratan’s method of resolving the strike was typical of his later leadership style.

He went down to the shop floor, talked to the few remaining workers, listened to their grievances and promised to do his best for them. These workers talked to their striking colleagues and told them that Ratan was a leader they could trust. Gradually, the strikers began returning to work, leaving the leaders of the strike isolated.