Last Man Standing!!

The huge expectation and burden works as a barrier for any human being when one goes on to succeed  another great man. That’s why it is said that ‘avoid Stepping into a Great Man's Shoes’. However, there are some who like to take it as challenge and stride on to achieve the goal that expected form him or her. When the great man late J. R. D. Tata entrusted the mantle of Tata Empire to Ratan Tata, the situation was the same. But he appeared from the shadow of JRD and surge forward. Ratan Tata, having the lethat combination of as a great human being and as well as is an excellent CEO. Let me put little light on his life while within short period he is going to entrust the mantle of Tata Empire to Cyrus Mistry.

Ratan Naval Tata, born in 28 December 1937, in Mumbai. Ratan is the grandson of Tata group founder Jamsedji Tata.

Tata started his schooling at Campion School and finished at Cathedral and John Connon School both in Bombay. Ratan Tata completed his B.S. in architecture with structural engineering from Cornell University in 1962, and the Advanced Management Program from Harvard Business School in 1975.

Tata began his career at the Tata empire in 1962; he initially worked on the shop floor of Tata Steel, shovelling limestone and handling the blast furnace. In 1971, he was appointed the Director of National Radio and Electronics, which was in dire straits when he came on board: with losses of 40% and barely 2% share of the consumer electronics market. However, just when he turned it around from 2% to 25% market share, the Emergency was declared. A weak economy and labour issues compounded the problem and Nelco was quickly near collapse again.

For his next assignment, in 1977 he was asked to turn around the sick Empress Mills, which he did. However, he was refused a Rs 50 lakh investment required to make the textile unit competitive. Empress Mills floundered and was finally closed in 1986.

In 1981, JRD Tata stepped down as Tata Industries chairman, naming Ratan Tata as his successor. He was heavily criticized for lacking experience in running a company of the scale of Tata Industries.

In 1991, he was appointed group chairman of the Tata group. As group chairman, he has been responsible for converting "the corporate commonwealth" of different Tata-affiliated companies into a cohesive company. He has been responsible for the acquisition of Tetley, Jaguar Land Rover and Corus, which have turned Tata from a largely India-centric company into a global business, with 65% revenues coming from abroad. He also pushed the development of Indica and the Nano. He is widely credited for the success of the Tata Group of companies, especially after the liberalization of controls after the 1990s.

In August 2007, Ratan Tata lead Tata Group's acquisition of British steel maker Corus. At that time, this was the largest takeover of a foreign company by an Indian company, and resulted in Tata Group becoming the fifth largest steel producer in the world.

When Mumbai along with Hotel Taj was attacked by the terrorist, he was the man who stood by the victims and many of them were not even belongs to the Tata Groups.

Among many other honours accorded him during his career, Tata received the Padma Bhushan, one of India’s most distinguished civilian awards, in 2000 and Padma Vibhushan in 2008 and Lifetime Achievement Award awarded by prestigious Rockefeller Foundation in 2012. He has also been ranked as India's most powerful CEO. In 2009, Tata was knighted as a Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire (K.B.E.).

Ratan Tata is set to retire in December 2012 to be succeeded by Cyrus Mistry.

   

!!!Ratan Tata, is last man standing? Hope Cyrus Mistry going to prove it wrong.!!!