The masters who build India Inc - Ratan Tata
The Financial Express — December 28, 2004

Ratan Tata Chairman, Tata Sons
The House of Tatas somehow was too secure in the market, they dominated so many areas, with not much competition...Tell me the mantra, what caused the turnaround?

One, I have to say with humility, the turnaround in the economy that improved the demand, improved the total volumes we had. But we were a leaner group, there were greater demands on our managers, there was a demand for ownership and performance.

Did you do things that Tatas wouldn’t have done in the past?
Absolutely. One, for example, we reduced manpower, we right-sized... things we wouldn’t have done before. It was taken for granted that they had lifetime employment. Then, we took to cost-cutting. In Telco, I think we took Rs 500 crore out of costs.

Tell me the three most reformist things you did in terms of structural changes.
I kept saying, please question the unquestionable. I tried to tell our younger managers just don’t accept something that was done in the past, don’t accept something as a holy cow...go question it. That was less of a problem than getting our senior managers not to tell the younger managers look young man, don’t question me.

Describe to me some moments when you introspected the losses.
The losses were not because of the (Indica) car. The project was accused of the losses, but it was the downturn in the truck industry. One of the early problems in the car, a silly one, was a defective pulley that we were buying from the market... .

But you never contemplated abandoning the project?
Never once.