Ratan Naval Tata: Importance of his multifaceted legacy

Circa 2003: Around the time Ratan Naval Tata (RNT) began blueprinting his potentially game-changing plan to launch the country’s most affordable car—the Nano would be launched six years later—there was excitement brewing in another significant quarter of the Tata group. Not at Bombay House, the headquarters, but roughly a kilometre away in Mumbai’s financial district of Nariman Point, on the 11th floor of Air India building. The till-then-low-profile Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) was gearing up to go public, with Tata Sons set to dilute a slice of its holding in what would be India’s largest initial public offering (IPO).

Analysts and the media went to town speculating the valuation of the most profitable company in the group and the biggest contributor to Tata Sons, by far. Around ₹60,000 crore or even ₹110,000 crore were some numbers touted. The man at the wheel of Tata Sons—widely known to be passionate about the group’s automotive business and closely involved with flagships like Tata Steel and Tata Chemicals—was also keeping an eagle eye on the IT services hidden gem.

Some 18 months before TCS went public in July 2004, I got the opportunity to meet RNT for a feature on the S Ramdorai-helmed company. “The primary driver is that you can use stock as a currency to grow inorganically. It could be advantageous to the Tata group as well,” Ramadorai had told me.

RNT for his part was mindful of the value locked within TCS. Reminiscing fondly on a six-month stint at the then-two-year-young IT services fledgling in 1970, he said: “TCS is a jewel that needs to be fully supported. It is the flagship, in terms of earnings and profits, and is a global company. When market conditions are right, we will be able to unlock significant value.” 

When TCS first crossed the $200 billion market capitalisation landmark in 2022, the jewel perhaps had never shone brighter. RNT would have approved in his usual understated way.