The Revolutionary Change Manager

The simple but elegant office belies the power Ratan Tata wields.  Arguably, one of the most powerful men in the realm, Ratan Tata is also some kind of an electronics 'aficionado'. His private lobby, at Bombay House, has only electronics magazines. At 53, Tata, chairman of Tata Sons, is responsible for retaining the group's #1 status in India. Ratan Tata started his career with Nelco-an electronics company of the Tata stable and has always been considered 'technology friendly. Today, as many as nine Tata companies are involved with computers and software. Ratan Tata has forged alliances with companies like AT&T and OKI to spearhead the group's foray into the telecom sector. In an exclusive interview with DATAQUEST Managing Editor. Shyam Malhotra and Editor, L Subramanyan, Ratan Tata discussed his vision of holding on to the Tata hegemony in the technology race. And the future of Tatas in information technology Excerpts:

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Given the fact that India is opening up, what are the bottlenecks that still need to be looked at, specially in the IT Industry? 

"I believe, we should really try at this stage to make the Indian industry price competitive as the Indian IT industry has to become globally competitive. I think all tariffs on all components and peripherals should be reduced further so that we are really able to source components at international prices.

But wouldn't this hurt the existing manufacturing units in India?

This would appear somewhat unfair to those who have set up manufacturing facilities in India. But I would counter that by saying that I would not be opposed to removing tariffs from finished products, except to the extent of compensating excise duty or sales tax so that the end product is also cheaper. Ultimately, the end-user should also have the opportunity to source (even end products) from elsewhere.

Don't you feel that this liberalization process, which came a little after TISL was conceived, has had some adverse Impact on the company?

Well, adverse impact... now, again you need to define what your business is going to be. I think it would be a very narrow description of your business if you set out to manufacture hardware. A more accurate definition would be that you want to build the company that will provide solutions, that is, IT solutions for your (Indian) industry. I think that solution should be the best price and the best quality solution. (Once you have that) you can then divide it into software and hardware...and creativity.