Jamsetji Tata: New book explores Tata group's adherence to his vision

Jamsetji Tata: Powerful Learnings For Corporate Success

Author: R Gopalakrishnan & Harish Bhat

Publisher: Penguin Business

Pages:232

Price: Rs 599

 

As the authors make it clear up front, this book is not a biography of Jamsetji Tata, founder of the Tata group. It is about his business philosophy and tenets that are embedded in the Tata group even now after so many generations.

 

Apart from documenting his business and management philosophy, the authors seek to answer another question. Why has the Tata group largely managed to adhere to Jamsetji’s broad principles even as in many other companies that were started by enlightened entrepreneurs the founder’s philosophy has been discarded within a generation or two?

 

The co-authors probably know the Tata group as well as anyone can claim. R Gopalakrishnan had a storied career in Hindustan Lever (now Hindustan Unilever), rising to its vice-chairman before he joined the Tata group as executive director of Tata Sons, the holding company of the conglomerate, and was also on the board of several major Tata companies. Harish Bhat joined the Tata group in 1987 as an officer of the famed Tata Administrative Service (TAS) and rose rapidly. An avid marketer, he was, at different points, the brand custodian of the Tatas, chief operating officer of Titan, and managing director of Tata Global Beverages, apart from serving as a director on many group company boards.

 

Both are prolific writers — this is Mr Gopalakrishnan’s 20th book and Mr Bhat’s seventh. The former is a deep thinker on management matters and the latter is an acknowledged expert in marketing and branding. Both also believe in deeply researching any subject before they start writing anything.

 

And this is precisely why this reviewer felt that this book is a letdown and does not reflect the insight of the authors. There are places where the book shines. Among them are some of the stories about Jamsetji, his son Dorabji, and the brilliant people Jamsetji picked and entrusted with critical tasks or when the co-authors talk about JRD. The book is also useful to an extent because it gives some glimpses into the thinking of the foremost pioneer of Indian industry.

 

But as a whole, it is a disjointed narration — almost as if the co-authors worked on separate portions of the book and then decided to merge them together without bothering to view it as a comprehensive whole. Mr Gopalakrishnan tries to fit Jamsetji’s philosophy in his own concept — the sustainable, honest, enlightened (SHE) enterprise. Mr Bhat devotes several pages on a personal essay of how he joined and rose in the Tatas.

 

Many books and works are referenced, but the authors often assume that the lay reader should automatically know what they are talking about.

 

At the same time, the book is not satisfactory reading for those who have more than a passing knowledge of the Tata group’s evolution from JRD Tata’s era to that of Ratan Tata and beyond. This is because the book selectively picks examples of all that is good about the Tatas but carefully avoids mention of the more unpleasant events, including the ungraceful sacking of Cyrus Mistry, Ratan Tata’s handpicked successor as chairman of Tata Sons who fell out of favour after a short stint. And while celebrating JRD Tata’s ability to pick amazing lieutenants — Darbari Seth or Russi Mody — the authors skirt their fall from grace when Ratan Tata took charge. The only unpleasant episode picked up by the authors is the Tata Finance scandal involving the ~500 crore fraud in which the then head of the company, Dilip Pendse, was implicated. Even in this episode, the co-authors stick to the positives — about how Ratan Tata ensured that not one depositor lost money and how the mess was swiftly cleaned up and measures put in to ensure that such things do not happen in the future. It avoids the more sordid details, including Pendse’s suicide.

 

The book could have benefited from a good editor. For example, the same anecdote is repeated on pages 19 and 29 — of journalist Rajiv Mehrotra asking JRD Tata in 1987 whether the Tatas were socialist or capitalist. On page 19, the authors say JRD answered that the Tatas could be considered Socialist-Capitalist. On page 29, the book says  JRD responded by saying he didn’t know.

 

Similarly, when talking about Thomas Watson of IBM, the authors fail to say whether they are referring to the father or the son. Both Thomas Watson Sr and Thomas Watson Jr led IBM during its glory days. The tale in the book is about Watson Sr but this could have been made clear to readers instead of assuming that they would automatically know.

 

Eventually, the authors picked a fascinating theme but failed to write an interesting book.

 

The reviewer is former Editor of Businessworld and Business Today, and founder of Prosaic View, an editorial consultancy.