Compassionate leader, ethical businessperson

How Ratan Tata became a lodestar for the nation and future generations

- Thomas Mathew

Writing anything about Ratan Naval Tata can be both easy and daunting. It is easy because if you list out the qualities that a good man should possess, most likely, you would find all of them in him. Difficult it would be because there are very different layers of personality traits in the man that are tough to segregate. But their aggregate makes him unique, for his persona housed characteristics of opposing polarities that integrated seamlessly: For instance, compassion and aggression (in business).

Perhaps, Winston Churchill's description of the erstwhile USSR – "a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma" – may be appropriate to describe the titan, though not in the pejorative sense it was used by the British statesman.

The impression of being an imperceptible personality stuck to him as unlike other leaders, political or industrial, Ratan Tata was a very reticent man. It both worked to his disadvantage and advantage. His detractors dismissed him as an unknown entity because he was not as boastful as leaders generally are. But most criticisms against him withered away in the overwhelming exuberance of loyalty and admiration he earned, not commanded.

The CEO of a company whose family has been running a dealership of Jaguar and Land Rover in New York since 1938 shared with me his interesting perception of Tata. In his telling, the Indian business leaders was often dismissed as a shy individual. He was different from the typical heads of multinationals who are "hard-charging go-getters, fast-paced and a kind of removed, cold guys." But Ratan Tata was far from being "removed" or "cold." He was more effective and successful than his contemporaries, he added.

Ratan Tata was empathetic, compassionate, polite and kind; particularly so with employees. His concern was not, however, fettered by geographical considerations.