Tuesday, October 31, 2006

Ratan Tata's Vision

I've always been an admirer of The Tata group. I could quote several reasons. No one in my family or close circle has worked for the group, so this opinion is not biased. I have heard and read a million good things about the conglomerate. Their way of business, employee friendliness, non-bureaucratic work culture are few of the examples. The Vice chairman of GM operations in Europe quit GM to join TELCO. That is a testament of the company's quality. Contrary to all the the positive things about the group, their software consulting arm has a 'bad' reputation amongst the employees. That apart, I'm all in awe of the Tata sons. A 5.6 billion dollar bid for Corus Steel. No one ever had predicted that an Indian company would make such a valiant bid, irrespective of the sector. I should rather say a successful bid. Now the combined firm is trying to buy Brazil's biggest steel firm CSN. I still remember reading Ratan Tata's interview when he offered to buy Corus. He had mentioned that one of the major issues for the steel industry would be the availability of iron ore. To back his comments, he has offered to buy CSN which owns the world's largest iron ore mines. Corus had unsuccessfully attempted to buy CSN but now the combined Tata-Corus conglomerate will make a second attempt. Unlike some business zealots like Larry Ellison, Ratan Tata has made it clear that his group will not make a hostile bid. That's his vision. He has successfully used the cash from TCS in building one of the world's largest steel producing entity. He may look at other sectors and work towards M&A's in making the Tatas a more visible global brand. Way to go Sir.