Back against the wall

Taking over from JRD as group chairman in 1991 didnt resolve matters either, even though it was a Tata Sons board decision to make him group chairman.Tata Group historian R M Lala recalls speaking with JRD some 10 days after the announcement and asking whether Ratan had been chosen because of his integrity.Oh no, I wouldnt say that; that would mean the others did not have integrity, JRD replied. I chose him because of his memory. Ratan will be more like me.JRD may have seen his own reflection in his successor but others, both inside and outside Bombay House, did not, at least initially. Who expected Ratan Tata to become such a towering figure in his own right. The first three or four years were engaged in struggles with the satraps, says Lala.Individual company heads were larger than life personalities in their own right, and had ruled these satraps for decades Russi Mody at Tata Steel, Darbari Seth at Tata Chemicals, Ajit Kerkar at Indian Hotels, and Nani Palkhivala at ACC. Getting them to toe a group line and work in tandem with other companies was next to impossible.

It didnt help that they were more experienced and, many believed, more deserving than Ratan to head the group. Indeed, in an interview a few years ago, Ratan recalled his surprise on hearing of his appointment he had thought Palkhivala and Mody to be neck and neck in the race for the top post.As it happened, Palkhivalas political views and Modys clashes within the group worked against them. Mody, though, continued to be a thorn in the flesh of both JRD and Ratan. His battles with Ratan were loud, acrimonious and conducted in full public view, which went against the ethos of this low key business house an inside joke at the time was that Russi Mody had become Rude i Mody. JRD finally dismissed him in 1993.