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This gave Tata access to Tetley's
international markets, besides pocketing an
international beverage brand. At that time, Tetley
was bigger in size than Tata Tea. (David
swallowing Goliath? You bet!) Tata Engineering had
also tied up with MG Rover of Brtian to brand and
sell Indicas as Rovers in the UK.
But it was 2004 that saw the real Global Tata.
Ratan Tata went to chaebol town and returned with
the heavy commercial vechicle division of the
beleaguered Daewoo Motor Corporation. The price
tag was $125 million. The move helps the Tata
group to enter Daewoo's markets and beef up its
own truck-making division at Tata Engineering.
In an interview in September 2004, Ratan Tata
told a leading newspaper: "A company does not
become global by simply participating in
geographic markets around the world. The objective
of globalization is to become globally
competitive, leverage global opportunities and
have the required global capabilities. It implies
an organization, which employs talented people
without reference to nationality. We are in the
process of acquiring such a competitive position
and global capabilities."
The next in Ratan Tata's global radar was
NatSteel of Singapore. On August 17, Tata Steel
acquired the steel business of the Singapore steel
major for $486.4 million (approximately Rs 1,313
crore) in an all cash transaction. NatSteel owns
steel mills in China, Thailand, Vietnam,
Phillipines and Australia and has a capacity of 2
million tonne per annum. The NatSteel acquisition
provided Ratan Tata with access to key Asian Steel
markets including China. NatSteel brought 2MT of
steelmaking capacity. Added to Tata Steel's 5MT at
its Jamshedpur steel plant, Tata is now a 7MT
steel giant. Tata Steel is already world's
cheapest producer of steel. The company also has
plans to start another steel mill in Orissa, and
may be in Chhattisgarh too.
But Ratan Tata's acquisition hunger is not over
yet. In a recent press conference, Tata Steel
maaging director B Muthuraman said the company is
looking at another overseas acquisition. More
steel, more muscle!
 The year also saw the opening of IndiOne, the
budget hotels from Indian Hotels Company (Indian
Hotels is the hospitality firm run by Tatas, which
own the Taj hotels). IndiOne is managed by Roots
Corporation, a subsidiary of Indian Hotels. Ratan
Tata hates to call them budget hotels. Smart basic
hotels, he lovingly calls them.
The first IndiOne was opened in Whitefield, off
Bangalore. The room rates at IndiOne hotels are as
low as Rs 850/night for a single room and Rs 900
for a double room. Tatas claim that the hotel gets
upmarket clients too. The idea is to create a new
category of hotels €“ signifying simplicity,
convenience, informality, style, warmth, modernity
and affordability.
Unveiling the first indiOne, Ratan Tata said,
"Last year, Indian Hotels celebrated the
centenary of its flagship hotel in Mumbai. One of
the challenges identified then was to innovate and
to lead. This spirit of innovation is evident
through the indigenous development of indiOne and
is a giant step forward for Indian Hotels. It is
only apt that we unveil this important initiative
in a year when the Tata Group is paying tributes
to the lives and times of JN Tata, JRD Tata and
Naval Tata."
 Among a string successes, the only laggard
seems to be Tata Teleservices. So far, the company
has been unable to make the kind of splash that
Reliance Infocomm, Airtel or BSNL has made. Some
of this could be attributed to the initial
confusion on the Tatas' part on what technology
platform to follow: GSM or CDMA. Tatas had
conflicting interests in the cellular market with
stakes in IDEA, which is a GSM operator and
Indicom, a CDMA venture. This indecision could
have held up investents a bit. But the confusion
has cleared with the arrival of Unified licence,
and Tata teleservices is set on the CDMA path. The
company recently announced Rs 9000 crore
investment in its telecom venture. Indicom
currently has only a limited national footprint;
Tata plans to take the brand across the country
now.
But Ratan Tata's love for the automobile
remains undying. After the blockbuster hits of
Indica and Indigo, Tata Engineering unveiled
Indigo Marina, the station wagion version built on
the Indica platform. Unlike others in its class,
the statin wagon rolled in with a price tag less
than that of its estate cousin. Tata officials
said that the manufacturing costs of the estate
and the station wagon are not much different;
hence the price similarity. Compare this to Opel
Swing and Baleno Altura, which are priced way
above their standard models! At the launch of
Indigo Marina, When asked about the failure of
station wagons in India, Ratan Tata cheekily said
that even their base models were not successful --
whereas Tata was determined to take the Indica
success places.
The year also saw Ratan Tata reaffirming his
next dream - a car for Rs 1 lakh. The ideal
people's car, Tata says that it will not be a
stripped-down passenger car or a glorified
auto-rickshaw, but a proper car-car. He says the
Rs 1-lakh car will meet all safety and emission
norms and conform to global standards. The car, he
says, is still under development and will roll out
in 3 years time. Can Ratan Tata keep the Rs 1-lakh
promise? Let us wat and see! (Meanwhile, read our
exclusive story about Rs 1 lakh Tata car here)
Maruti has already pooh--poohed the 1-lakh claim
-- all the more reason you can expect Tata to turn
his dream to reality!
The much-awaited Tata Consultancy Services IPO
also bore fruit in 2004. Many have accused Tata of
using Tata Consultancy as a cash cow for Tata
Sons, and missing the tech IPO bus in 2000. See
Ratan Tata's take on this: "We are not really
sorry that we didn't go public some years ago,
because those issue prices that investors would
have paid for at that time would be eroded by
about 70 per cent today." The Rs 1 billion
IPO took the stock market by storm and boosted the
market capitalisation of the Tata group.
Year 2004 marked the pinnacle in Ratan Tata's
career at the helm of the country's most respected
industrial house. He penned the Tata Strategic
Plan in the 80s (which was rejected then), took
the group chairman's mantle in 1991, (amid a lot
of scepticisim) consolidated the group through the
years, battled established satraps, (India Today
called him The Insecure Tata) conceived the Indica,
(people sold Telco shares) made TCS India's
biggest name in IT consultancy, turned around Tata
Engineering, Tata Steel and many other Tata
companies, stabilised Tata Finance in post-Pendse
days and succeeded in an environment of constant
and hostile change. For turning India Inc to India
International, and still remaining the People's
Tycoon, Ratan Tata is DWS Man of The Year.
BY JM
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Ratan Tata - The people's tycoon
