Jehangir Tata - Believing in perfection

Jamsetji Tata, a great visionary, on his death bed took a vow from Dorab, his son, and Ratan, his first cousin..

"I have envisioned a dream for the great country of India.. The country is yet to have its best in technical expertise.. I want to fill that void.. India needs a world-class educational institution, a one-of-a-kind hotel, steel power and hydroelectric power.. Even if you are not able to spread the wings of the Tata family, please make sure that you bring my 4 dreams to life.. And whatever be the case, do not compromise on ethicality.. Keep knocking on the doors until it is opened.. You should show the world how a business can be done and should be done.. A good entrepreneur never gives up"..

'The Father of Indian Industry' passed away in 1903..

The 4 things which he said are the best in India now.. Namely the Indian institute of Science, Bangalore.. The Taj Mahal Hotel in Mumbai, Tata Steel and Tata Power, the largest in India..

If creating them is tough for the two cousins, then managing them profitably for years to come is an even bigger mountain.. A mountain to climb every possible day only to realize that there is no end for this mountain.. Such a mountain needs no ordinary man, no ordinary soul.. but a conqueror.. A conqueror who can pull people along with him to progress.. The world was awaiting his arrival..

A year passed.. And then came 29 July 1904..

The climate was at its eternal best in Paris, France.. Suzzane Tata, or Sooni(meaning "Gold") Tata as she is popularly known, was in the hospital for the birth of her first son.. A son who would spread his magic to unknown terrains, put India on the world map, set very high ethical standards, give new definitions for management, be a great philanthropist, and at last end as the conqueror of the world.. Suzzane appropriately named him "Jehangir", which means " Conqueror of the world".. He is fondly called JRD or Jeh.. Jeh was born to Ratanji Dadabhoy Tata, who was the cousin of Jamsetji..

JRD spent the initial stages of his life in Paris, Yokohama and Bombay using the sea route to link them.. He knew about the Tata legacy but never knew he would be taken into its wings at such an early age.. Just like an ordinary kid he was waiting to know his passion.. In Paris, the house next to his was Louis Blériot, an aviation pioneer.. Flights used to fly and land from the airstrip which was near to his house.. He had found his fire.. He was so engrossed with aviation that he wanted to start a new company on it!! He was ready to do everything for his passion and he became the first person to get the pilot's driving license in India.. He wanted to go deep into it when destiny knocked at his door.. He was taken into the Tata conglomerate as an unpaid apprentice in 1925 .. He learnt the nuances of trade and also concentrated on aviation..

With his repeated pleas with the Indian government not bearing fruit, he urged the Tatas to make their entry into aviation.. he was totally convinced that the future of the World was aviation and early entries would make it big on the long term.. After a lot of convincing with the Tata shareholders, his passion for flying was fulfilled with the formation of the Tata Aviation Service in 1932.. He started with delivering mails..

In 1938, at the age of 34, JRD was elected Chairman of Tata & Sons making him the head of the largest industrial group in India. Jeh dint have enough knowledge in every field that the Tatas were diversified.. So he wouldn’t interfere in the working affairs of the company and was the consensus man.. when asked he would say "the trained employees know what is good for the company.. I m here just to manage them.. Unless I know about a topic, I wont interfere in the daily affairs"..

He created new rules for his companies which were adopted in the whole of India as Labor acts.. Most important of all he was able to maintain his family tradition of 'Trust'.. As years passed by, Jeh crossed many milestones and I can assure you that this post is not enough for that.. So I will skip that part..

His crowning achievement was in Tata airlines, which was later converted to our national air carrier 'Air India'.. He was very peculiar in its running and used to pay maximum attention to even the smallest of things.. One interesting incident was when he was travelling to Geneva with his friend, Jeh was missing for a long time.. When he came after an hour, his friend asked what was the reason for his coming late.. Jeh told that the restroom dint have the proper amenities and the screen for the window was not matching the interiors.. He was such a perfectionist.. I m sure he would have blood coming out of his eyes n ears if he sees the current plight of Air India..

Many projects which that the Tatas had envisaged were rejected by Indian govt.. One prime example was the Mercedes Benz technology in the 1960's.. Jeh requested funding from the government for importing Benz technology to India.. But the people at that time rejected this saying that Tatas would become too powerful if that happened n even went to the extent of blaming the then Prime minister with prejudice.. Those short minded ministers only thought that as Tata's progress but not that of India's.. Tata's even went to the extent of giving a few cars to the ministers to use for a year and to tell them if they received any complaints... the complaints never came n so was the reply from the government.. So it was eventually dropped.. Plenty of stories like this..

Jeh famously used to tell that "if I had wanted to exploit the Indian laws the current state of Tata's would be 5 times bigger than now.. But I would not like that.. What is good for the country is good for the company"..

Another stellar example for Tatas was the construction of 'Jamshedpur', named after Jamsetji.. Once it was confirmed that Jamshedpur was going to be their destination for Steel, they planned every minute thing for it.. Right from sanitation to artificial lakes to sewage to planting trees to temples to labor safety to accommodation to company functioning.. The share holders accused Dorab and Ratan that they were not using the funds to build the company but spending it in a wasteful manner.. Their reply was "We are not building a company but a community".. Today 3/4 th of Jamshedpur is Tata's and it is India's first fully planned city..

Jeh was the finest of Chairmen that the Tata's ever had and certainly the best.. But he was always modest enough to pass that honor to Jamsetji whom he felt was the reason behind everything he did..

Jeh started with 14 enterprises under his leadership, and half a century later on July 26, 1988, when he left, Tata & Sons was a conglomerate of 95 enterprises.. Under Jeh's chairmanship, the number of companies in the Tata Group, grew from 14 to 95. Assets of Tata group grew from `62 crores to over `10,000 crores. Under his stewardship the Group had expanded to cover a range of power, engineering, hotels, consultancy services, information technology, consumer goods, consumer durables and industrial products. His trust also established Asia's first cancer hospital, Tata memorial.

He was conferred the Bharat Ratna in 1992 for his phenomenal contribution to the Indian peninsula and selfless humanitarian endeavors..

Jehangir passed away in Geneva, Switzerland on November 29, 1993 at the age of 89. On his death, the Indian Parliament was adjourned in his memory - an honor not usually given to persons who are not Members of Parliament.

The legacy stays on beyond the last blue mountain.. Happy Birthday hero!!

P.S My sincere thanks to R.M.Lala for writing a biography on Jeh and sharing his life.. Got many inputs for this post from his book.. I have not read many biographes but I would rate it as one of the best..

P.P.S I wanted to keep a long story short.. But I couldn’t.. I wanted to write more and more about one of my greatest inspirations but had to restrain myself from doing so owing to the time constraints.. May be will make up for it sometime later..