Being an MBA student, it is a mandate for all of us to be constantly motivated, our institute makes sure that all of us are constantly motivated especially in times like these. Our Institute organizes “Ted Talk” lectures every Saturday. Each talk motivates us, by listening to the stalwarts of the industries that we aspire to get in. Today I am describing the learnings from the Ted Talk given by Mr. Ratan Tata.
Mr. Tata had done his studies in an architectural course from the USA and after 10 years he came back to India, he had no idea that one day his uncle will declare him as the Chairperson of the TATA group there were more contenders from his uncle’s team but he had been chosen, Mr. Tata was extremely nervous to take up the profile that came his way unannounced.
He basically faced two problems one was the actual market scenario and the second was internal organizational problems and he knew that there are employees who didn’t want change in the organization but Mr. Tata tried to convince them by money or by his words to create a healthy and adaptable environment and he did that very smoothly. Although he is a very shy person who communicates less to the people but he has great leadership skills.
Mr. Tata has shared his considerable experience and learnings during the journey the first one was the rationalization of the business, TATA was facing issues regarding the generation of profits, as before Mr. Tata was promoted to the chairperson TATA had diversified its business in various segments and the company was facing losses, so he concluded that they should shut down their soap and detergent business for generating profits due to this he also faced various repercussion. The second experience he shared was the case of Indica that no one believed in, including his friends, his view to penetrate the market with Indica, but he didn't lose his confidence that time he stayed to his plan and rest we know how Indica performed.
He also shared one of his emotional experiences that the company wanted to enter in the aviation sector but they didn't want to undertake any kind of bribery so they dropped their plan, they stood on their ethics and gave up emotions for ethics.
He shared a story of Tetley and Jaguar's acquisition in the foreign market, at that time people were having the mindset that Indian companies can't acquire any foreign companies but TATA did that. The last experience he shared was the failure of TATA Nano and the lessons learnt from its failure.
Mr. Tata spoke about CSR activity undertaken by the TATA group. He shared that India is a diversified country with the presence of the wealthiest ones and also those who live below the poverty line. Mr. Ratan Tata believes in reducing this gap by doing CSR. TATA group spends 4% of the net profit on CSR and he believes that every company has to do this for the communities around which they operate.
As a student, I got to know so many things from this motivational session that I will always remember like, never give up attitude, the importance of leadership skills and interpersonal skills, and most importantly how to make a balance between Ethics and business.
Mansi Jaiswal
MBA 2nd Year
Jaipuria Institute of Management
Indirapuram, Ghaziabad
