long time The late businessman Ratan Tata, who led Tata Sons until 1975, felt that his half-brother Noel Tata needed more experience to succeed him. This was said in a recently released book. Noel Tata was recently appointed as the chairman of Tata Trust after the death of Ratan Tata. This trust indirectly controls the US$165 billion Tata Group. In March 2011, when several candidates were interviewed to find Ratan Tata’s successor, Noel Tata was also among them. Ratan Tata had decided to stay away from the selection committee formed to find the successor. According to Ratan Tata’s biography – ‘Ratan Tata A Life’, he later regretted this decision. This book is written by Thomas Mathew and published by HarperCollins Publishers.
There were many candidates from within the Tata Group
The book said that Ratan Tata stayed away from the selection committee because there were several candidates from within the Tata group, and he wanted to give them the assurance that a collective body would recommend one of them based on a unanimous decision. The second reason for staying away from the selection committee was personal, as it was widely believed that his half-brother Noel Tata was the natural candidate to succeed him. Noel Tata was considered ‘one of our own’ amid pressure from Parsis and community traditionalists in the company.
What mattered was the individual’s talents and values
According to the book, however, for Ratan Tata, only a person’s talent and values mattered. According to the author, Ratan Tata did not want Noel to be seen as his opponent if he was not elected. According to the book, Ratan Tata said, “To compete successfully for the top job, Noel would have had to have more experience than he has.” Ratan Tata had said that even if he had a son, he would He would have done something so that he would not have been able to become his successor on his own.
