Ratan Tata, chairman of the Tata group, who recently went on a restructuring exercise, was conferred the XLRI Fellow in Management award by the Xavier Labour research Institute (XLRI) in march this year. Tata Tea too made a history when it made the biggest acquisition by an Indian company, the Tetley group of the UK for pounds 271 million.

While in the 1930s and 1940s, the Tatas had led the nation in industrialisation, now they are following others, and in many cases losing market share. This has forced the Tatas to refocus, restructure and pay attention to the needs of their customers.

Besides being the chairman of Tata Enterprise, a conglomerate of 82 companies in 11 different and service sectors,, Mr. Tata is also a trustee of various trusts such as the Tata Charitable Trust and the Ford Foundation. He is also a member of the International Council of the Prince of Wales Business Leaders Forum, the International advisory Committee of the Chase Bank, the IBM Asia-Pacific Board and the board of governors of the East-West Centre.

Tata Industries has also for the first time joined hands with the equally legendary Aditya Birla group and AT&T to form one of the largest domestic telecom businesses in the country. The proposed merge is supposed to combine the strengths of the three organisations to provide the consumer the best in wireless communication.

Born in Mumbai, Mr. Tata has a Bachelor of Science degree in architecture with structural engineering from Cornell University. He has also done an advanced management programme from Harvard University. The Tatas entered into new areas relating to oil industries, telecommunication equipment and information technology after economic reforms were introduced in 1991.