Ratan Tata's demise is a big loss for the entire country, but startups will miss him the most. He invested in several startups like Upstocks and Car Dekho. He has invested in around 45 companies, many of which have become unicorns.
Notably, they invested in startups when they were not leaders in their sector and were facing a cash crunch. These include names like Urban Company, Cashkaro, Bluestone, Car Dekho and Traxon. Apart from this, he also made personal investments in companies like Lenskart, which is a competitor of his company Titan.
5 Business Lessons from Ratan Tata
1. Risk taker
- Ratan Tata took the risk of investing in new businesses like luxury car company Jaguar Land Rover. Also acquired Europe's second largest steel company, Corson. This investment took the Tata Group to new heights of success.
- Tata acquired Tata, the world's second largest tea producer, in 2000. At that time this company was three times bigger than Tata T. After the acquisition, it became one of the largest tea companies in the world.
2. Decision Maker
- When Ratan Tata announced its decision to build passenger cars in the 1990s, it drew a lot of criticism. Over the next few years, he single-handedly modernized the company. Today Tata is one of the most successful car companies in the country.
- In 2007 Tata decided to acquire the European steel company Corus. It took his team a year to submit the bid. By then the price had gone up, but he went ahead with it anyway. This benefited the company.
3. The Ideator
- Ratan Tata's idea was to launch a car for 1 lakh rupees. In 2009 he launched Tata Nano. It was discontinued in 2019 after failing on the sales front, but Tata's idea was highly appreciated.
- The Tata Indica, launched in 1998, was India's first indigenously designed and manufactured car. It was Ranat Tata's idea to make it. Also the Tata Safari, India's first SUV launched by a telco (now, Tata Motors).
4. Leader
5. The innovator
- When Ratan Tata was in full charge of the Tata Group, he gave cars like the Indica to the Nano to India. Ratan Tata says that the future of any startup can be good only when new innovations are made in it.
- New experiments increase the startup's guarantee of success. Ratan Tata invests in startups that innovate more. He has investments in companies like Ola Electric, Lenskart, Paytm.
Image Credit: (Divya-Bhaskar): Images/graphics belong to (Divya-Bhaskar).
