Ratan Tata wanted the world to remember him ‘As somebody who’d never…’

On October 9, Ratan Tata, the chairman emeritus of the Tata Group, the largest conglomerate in India, passed away. He was eighty-six years old.

Tata was moved to the intensive care unit (ICU) after being admitted to Mumbai’s Breach Candy Hospital earlier this week for age-related conditions.

The business tycoon had stated that, because of his advanced age and associated medical conditions, he was going through routine medical investigations amid reports of his failing health.

A little over a century ago, his great-grandfather established the enormous conglomerate that Tata took over as chairman of the Tata Group in 1991. Although he was no longer actively involved in day-to-day group operations, the leadership frequently sought his opinion on important choices.

Tata would frequently state in interviews and other conversations that he wished to be known as a person who was able to effect change and worked in the best interests of business.

“I would like to be remembered as somebody who had never hurt others and done work to the best interest of business,” Tata said in 2014 at an interaction organised by Ladies Study Group of Indian Chamber of Commerce in Kolkata.

In addition to being highly regarded for his business savvy and visionary leadership, Tata was also well-known for his charitable endeavors and for his humility, according to his profile on the Tata Sons website.

“I would like to be remembered as a person who made a difference. Not anything more not anything less,” Tata is heard telling Suhel Seth in in interview on CNBC in February, 2018.

“…..As a person who is able to make a change, who is able be responsible for some change in the way we looked at things,” Tata said in another interview in May 2021.

Ratan N. Tata was born on December 28, 1937, into the Tata family. He attended Cornell University to study structural engineering and architecture, and then Harvard Business School to finish his management degree.