The Tata battle for legacy

Peter Casey has presented the dispute between Ratan Tata and Cyrus Mistry from the group patriarch's point of view

The Story of Tata: 1868 to 2021

Author: Peter Casey

Publisher: Penguin Random House

Pages: 228

Price: Rs 535

The bitter public dispute between Ratan Tata, patriarch of the Tata companies, and the late Cyrus Mistry, whose four-year stint as chairman of Tata Sons ended with his dismissal in October 2016, has fuelled stacks of books, reams of newsprint and server-heating loads of articles. Informed by arguments and supporting documents presented by both sides to the courts where the matter landed up, most writings have the basic facts down. Of these, though, none seem to have had the last word.

As such matters are, the Tata-Mistry clash between value systems is open to any kind of slant. Even-handedness would strip the dispute of emotion. This can happen only when the dispute becomes non-newsy.

This book, too, is not the last word. Appearing perhaps later than other books on the issue, this one, by Irish-American entrepreneur Peter Casey, is authorised by the Tatas. So, the book has inputs from Noel Tata, as well as group insiders N Chandrasekaran and R Venkataramanan, besides others, including, most importantly, Ratan Tata.

We are told Mistry had a “conflict of interest” as a major stakeholder in the Mistry companies, to which he is said to have given Tata contracts. He also is said to have made decisions as chairman without taking the board into confidence. Nor did he submit meaningful plans for the coming years. More or less, this information has appeared elsewhere. The book does go further.

The book, through direct interviews with Ratan Tata, explores his values as seen in the group companies’ operations – a society-centred approach, an employee-centred approach, as evidenced through case studies, for one a refusal to fire people during the lockdown and a recounting of the philanthropic work of the Tata Trusts (the owners of the companies). Another value, explored in depth, is risk-taking. The distinct conviction that Tata group companies create not only profits but also national assets is deployed perhaps to justify the high-cost and risky overseas acquisitions Ratan Tata made. This is underlined by mentioning his abhorrence of the status quo no less than 11 times. These risky business moves were a major bone of contention between Tata and Mistry. It is common knowledge: Mistry balked in retrospect at Ratan Tata’s overseas acquisitions of Jaguar Land Rover (JLR), Corus Steel, his plans for AirAsia, and other initiatives that were not successful, including Tata Nano.

To quote: “One of his [Ratan Tata’s] chief criticisms of Cyrus Mistry was what Ratan called his mindset of ‘I can’t run this. Sell it. Close it down.’ This, Ratan explained, isn’t what Tata has been about... ‘[W]e make a damn good effort to turn them back into profit. See, we’ve always been somewhat closer to national assets...’.”

The phrase “national assets”, it is explained, draws on the legacy he inherited from his predecessors, including Jamsetji Tata and JRD Tata, who created heavy industries or prestige industries. (This, it strikes you, though it isn’t mentioned in this book, explains his acquisition of loss-making Air India. An emotional feeling for a “national asset”, much like the Taj Mahal hotel, which contributes far less profit to Tata Sons than the company behemoths do.)

Besides preserving values, we are told, the “protector” has to make the group grow, and if not, stave off negative growth. “[I]t is unlikely,” says the author, “that he [Mistry] would qualify as a protector of the flame”.

Speaking of legacy values: we are given a pacy account of the origin of Tata businesses, profiles of Jamsetji Tata, his philanthropic sons Dorabji and Ratanji, of JRD Tata and of Ratan Tata. A few key Tata executives, non-family members, too, are profiled. Their philanthropic vision is mapped out comprehensively. Ratan Tata’s vision for his companies, in particular, and how it plays out in today’s economy, is also described.

The publicly known facts about the Tata-Mistry dispute appear in a non-authorised book written by business journalist Deepali Gupta, Tata vs Mistry: The Battle for India’s Greatest Business Empire. It also mentions these -- Corus, JLR, Tata Nano, AirAsia -- as Ratan Tata’s big moves, which Cyrus Mistry was less than enthusiastic about sustaining. Reading that book might make you speculate, as I did, that these were Ratan Tata’s attempts to leave a legacy as a postcolonial Indian businessman expanding his company internationally, moves that were questioned and perhaps sought to be reversed by Cyrus Mistry.

Where Gupta’s book differs from this one is in its dispassionate analysis of these moves as flashpoints for the Tata-Mistry quarrel. In so doing it airs Mistry’s grievances, too.

This book, though, being an authorised version, makes efforts to publicise the Tatas’ side of the argument. It seeks to mend the image of the Tata group and Ratan Tata, perhaps as a prophylactic. That’s why we are given the recapitulation of Tata group values and philanthropy stemming from Jamsetji’s time, and the glowing tributes paid to past leaders, most of whom are Tatas. The case is made that Tata companies embody what the author calls “capitalism with compassion” for being owned by charitable trusts.

Reading both books, Peter Casey’s and Deepali Gupta’s, would perhaps flesh out in a fuller way the personal, more psychological dimensions of this tragic dispute.