AGENTS OF CHANGE: RATAN TATA, Chairman, Tata Group

Ratan Naval Tata is the Chairman of the Tata Group, India's largest conglomerate with revenue of $62 billion and equivalent to about 5.6% of the India's Gross Domestic Product (GDP).

Ratan’s last five years have been marked by some landmark achievements which included the showcase of the much awaited People’s Car at a dream price of just Rupees One lakh (about $2,500), a promise he made to the people of India and delivered it by unveiling the world’s cheapest car ‘Nano’ in the New Delhi Auto Expo, India’s premier Automobile sector exhibition, in January 2008. Nano, which is expected to be formally rolled out in to the market in the first quarter of 2009, has the potential to change not only the Indian but the entire global car market.

The other feather in Ratan’s cap is the acquisition of U.K.’s top steel maker Corus Group Plc by the group company Tata Steel Ltd after intense auction proceedings with rival Brazilian steel company, Companhia Siderurgica Nacional (CSN) for about $12 billion in January 2007, which marked the arrival of Indian companies on the stage of global mega-merger & acquisition (M&A) activities. Although many Indian companies had been active in acquiring assets across the globe even earlier, the scale of the Corus’ acquisition was unprecedented and even unthinkable for Indian companies till that time.

Ratan Tata not only managed to acquire a company five times bigger than Tata Steel, but also integrated the two entities very smoothly. Ratan has led from the front in making the acquisition a profitable proposition for Tata Steel, contrary to the apprehensions among analysts.

It was now the turn of Tata Motors Ltd, India's largest passenger automobile and commercial vehicle manufacturing company to mark its arrival on the global platform with the acquisition of two iconic brands Jaguar and Land Rover, the U.K. based iconic marques owned by Ford Motor Company, the U.S. based world’s third largest automaker in 2008 from Ford Motor, the second largest U.S. automaker.

If the Tata Group has transformed itself in to a global conglomerate, the credit goes to the efficient leadership of Ratan Tata. The group was at the top of India’s industrial skyline even in 1991, when he took the mantle from legendary Jehangir Ratanji Dadabhoy Tata. But he transformed the group in to a globally competitive power house from being a high-cost-low-productivity bunch of companies.

He has been honoured by numerous awards, including Padma Bhushan, the third highest civilian decoration and Padma Vibhushan, the second highest civilian decoration by the Government of India. He was named among the 25 most powerful persons in the field of business by the Fortune Magazine in November 2007 and among the world’s 100 most influential persons in 2008 by the Time magazine.