TheOriginOf.com

Tata Group

The story of the Tata Group of business unfolds with the birth of its founder Jamshedji Tata in the small town of Navasari in Gujarat in 1839. He breathed his last in 1904 in Germany. His parents were Nuseerwanji and Jeevanbai Tata. Nusserwanji was the first businessman in a family of Parsi Zorastrian priests. Destiny called him to Bombay where he started trading. Jamshedji joined him at the tender age of fourteen. He took admission in Elphinstone College and while still a student he married Hirabai Daboo. Jamshedji graduated in 1858 and joined his father’s trading firm.

 Those were turbulent times. The British had just managed to ruthlessly crush the 1857 Revolt. Since the age of twenty-nine Jamshedji continued to work in his father’s firm. In 1868 he started a trading company on his own with a capital of Rs.21, 000/- His first step was to acquire a bankrupt oil mill and convert it into a cotton mill which he renamed Alexander Mill. Two years later he sold it with a good margin of profit. With this he set up a cotton mill in Nagpur in 1874. Queen Victoria had just been declared the Empress and in keeping with the times Jamshedji named it Empress Mill. Jamshedji was a unique personality. He did not just think of innovative ways of manufacturing textiles but he devised new labor practices that would satisfy the workers. In this way he was far ahead of his times. It was not just his own personal success but also of those who worked for him and his group. Jamshedji was in close contact with revolutionary thinkers and nationalists like Dadabhai Naoroji and Pherozeshah Mehta and strongly influenced by them. He came to the conclusion that economic self-sufficiency should go hand in hand with political independence. The former should be the base of the latter. Jamshedji had three key ideas in mind. He wanted to set up an iron and steel company, world class learning institution and a hydroelectric plant. Unfortunately during his lifetime none bore fruit but he had planted the seed, which later took roots and spread its branches under the care of his successors. The only achievement that he lived to see was The Taj Mahal Hotel. It was completed in December 1903 for a princely amount of Rs.4, 21, 00,000/-In this too he was inspired by nationalist thinking. In those days the locals, that is Indians, were not allowed into the best European Hotels. Taj Mahal Hotel was a befitting reply to this discrimination.

Tata Group is a private conglomerate with headquarters at Mumbai. The present Chairman is Ratan Tata who took over from J.R.D. Tata in 1991. A member of the Tata family is always the Chairman of the group. Its operations covers many fields related to industry and allied activities concerned with know-how and its application engineering, information technology, communications, materials, automotive, chemicals energy, telecommunications, software, hotels, steel and consumer goods.
The statistics and figures of Tata Group speak for themselves. Its revenue touches $967,229 million or $21.9 billion in 2005/06. This is equal to 2.8% of India’s GDP. There are about 246.000 employees in the Tata group as per records of 2004. Market capitalization figure is $57.6 billion. There are ninety-six companies operating in seven business sectors. Only twenty-eight of the ninety-six in Tata Group are publicly listed. Tata operates in more than forty countries across six continents. It exports products and services to one hundred and forty nations. The Charitable Trust of Tata holds 65.8% of the ownership of Tata group TISCO now called Tata steel set up in 1907 India’s first iron and steel plant in Jamshedpur, which is often called Tatanagar. Production actually started in 1912. It produces steel at the lowest cost in the world. This is mainly because it is assisted by group member concern that deals with the supply of raw material like coal and iron. In 1910 was set up Tata Hydro-Electric Power Supply Company. In 1917 the Tata group made its debut in the field of consumer goods industry with the setting up of Tata Oil Mill dealing in soaps, detergents and cooking oil. 1932 saw the establishment of Tata airlines. Tata Chemicals made its appearance in 1939. Telco now known as Tata Motors started to manufacture locomotive and engineering products from 1945.

January 2007 is a watershed in the history of Tata Group. Tata steel made a successful bid for UK based Corus Group, which was one of the world’s leading steel and aluminum producers. After an unprecedented nine rounds of bidding Tata finally clinched the deal. Tata offered to buy 100% stake in Corus at 608p per share (all cash) totaling to a value of $12.04 billion. It has turned out to be the biggest acquisition by any Indian company.

Tata Power is one of the largest private sector companies in India and supplies power to Mumbai and parts of New Delhi. Then there are Tata Chemicals and Tata Pigments. In the service sector there are Tata companies dealing with hotels, general insurance and life insurance. Tata offers management, economic and financial consultancy services. Tata is one of the best names in the world of investments and shares. In the area of education Tata’s publishing house of Tata McGraw Hill is a renowned name. Many renowned public sector companies and research organizations like Indian Institute of Science, Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Tata Energy Research Institute and Air India (Tata Airlines) owe their origins to the name of Tata. Other educational institutes are Tata Institute of Science now Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, Tata Institute Of Fundamental Research deemed University, Tata Management Training center, Pune, Tata Institute Of Social Science deemed University and National Centre for the Performing Arts

The name of Tata is linked to consumer durables like tea, watches (Titan) Tata Trent (Westside) to Tata Sky and even gold and diamonds like Tanishq brand of jewellery. In information systems and communications the Tata name comes with Computational & Research Laboratories, INCAT, Nelco, Nelito Systems, TCS and Tata Elxsi. There are software companies Tata Interactive Systems, Tata Infotech, Tata Technologies Ltd, Tata Teleservices, Tatanet etc. Tata acquired VSNL, the Indian telecom giant from Bermuda based Canadian company named Teleglobe in 2005.

The aim of Tata Group is to improve the quality of life in the society by virtue of integrity, understanding, excellence, unity and responsibility. The entire family known as the Tata Group shares these values. Tata’s contribution to India’s education, science and technology has been widely documented and respected.

The blue colored log of Tata speaks for fluidity as well as fountain of knowledge. It can also be seen as a tree under which all are welcome to take refuge.