The redoubtable Ratan Tata is a scion of India’s largest private business empire. Steel, technology, energy, communications, chemicals, hotels, tea, trucks, heavy commercial vehicles and cars have made his family and their company, Telco, one of the most formidable forces in Asia, and now they have turned their attention to Europe.
Anyone sceptical of Ratan Tata’s determination to take India’s car industry into the global sphere should remember that he built his state-of-the-art factory for the Indica model by dismantling a former Nissan plant in Australia and shipping it back to India in 800 containers.
In Pune it was re-assembled at a cost of €20 million and a team of 700 engineers - none of whom had worked in a car assembly - built the prototype. The Indica model has sold in huge numbers and now forms the base of the new small Rover due out next year.
Mr Tata is honest about his company’s shortcomings. The following is a fairly typical example of what he has to say to employees in the company’s in-house publications: "I would say that we as a group have a lot to change in terms of how we treat our customers. I find it difficult to understand why all our managers and officers cannot be courteous at all times to all people. We should be treating customers in the same way as we would want to be treated as customers. I think we have a lot to learn on this front and a lot to change."
His "customer as king" business philosophy may be a little cliched, but he has a very clear understanding of what he wants his companies to achieve:" Any electronic product I buy is a Sony, because there are so many things about the company’s products that I admire or respect. If someone brings out something that Sony do not make I will probably wait until they do before I buy it. And Sony is not even contacting me. That’s customer retention.
"You cannot afford to have a customer say: ‘I made a mistake - I’ll never buy another product from this company.’ You cannot even afford to have him say he is merely happy with your product. It has to go further than that. He has to say: ‘The next product I buy will be a Tata product’."
Well, it seems to have worked in India. Europe may be a different matter, however.