Ratan Tata's demise is a big loss for the entire country, but startups are going to miss him the most. He invested seed money in many startups like Upstox and Car Dekho. He invested in about 45 companies, many of which have become unicorns.
The special thing is that they invested in startups when they were not leaders in their sector and were struggling with money crunch. These include names like Urban Company, CashKaro, Bluestone, Car Dekho and Traxon. Apart from this, he also personally invested in a company 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 Corus, Europe's second largest steel company. This investment took Tata Group to new heights of success.
- Tata acquired Tetley, the world's second largest tea manufacturer, in 2000. At that time this company was three times bigger than Tata Tea. After the acquisition, it became one of the largest tea companies in the world.
2. Decision Maker
- When Ratan announced his decision to make passenger cars in the 1990s, there was a lot of criticism. Over the next few years, he single-handedly modernized the company. Today Tata is among the most successful car companies of the country.
- In 2007, Tata decided to acquire European steel company Corus. It took his team a year to submit the bid. By then the price had increased, but he went ahead with it anyway. The company benefited from this.
3. Ideator
- It was Ratan Tata's idea to launch a car for Rs 1 lakh. In 2009 he launched Tata Nano. Even though it was discontinued in 2019 after failing on the sales front, this idea of Tata was highly appreciated.
- The Tata Indica, launched in 1998, was India's first indigenously designed and manufactured car. The idea of making it was Ratna Tata's. Also Tata Safari, India's first SUV which was launched by a telco (now, Tata Motors).
4. Leader
- Ratan Tata is a great team leader because he inspires people. He has a very clear vision for the company. This motivates employees to work towards this vision.
- Always being with the employees in their bad times makes him a great leader. Ratan Tata once reached the Friends Society in Pune from Mumbai to meet a former employee who was unwell for the last two years.
5. Innovator
- When Ratan Tata had full responsibility of Tata Group, he gave cars like Indica to 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 guarantee of success of a startup. Ratan Tata invested in those startups in which maximum innovation has been done. He has investments in companies like Ola Electric, Lenskart, Paytm.
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Graphics Source: VaskarAssets
