By Sanjeev Kumar Patro
Bhubaneswar: Business leader, transformer and a philanthropist to the core, late Ratan Tata had once said, “I, for one, am not the kind who loves dwelling on the ‘I’.
Ratan Tata believes in team and team work. He steadfastly adheres to the concept of ‘WE’. This demure industrialist tycoon, who had left a legacy of doing business for public good, had left to the heavenly abode today.
A firm believer in team, late Ratan met failure in love – be it with lady love or his love for rolling on road the cheapest Lakhtakia car concept – Nano. He fell in love about four times, but it never worked out.
RATAN LOVE DAYS
In an interview to Simi Garewal in 2012, when Ratan Tata passed the baton of Tata Sons to Cyrus Mistry, he said, “A whole series of things stopped me from marrying – timing, my absorption in work at the time. I came close to getting married sometimes, but it didn’t work out."
Probably, Ratan Tata had hinted in the interview why the rleationship between Simi Garewal and Ratan Tata didn't clicked. Simi had then termed it as lack of fortune's grace.
He further admitted in the talk show that he had fallen in love about four times and came close to marriage, but it never quite worked out.
"There are many times that I feel lonely about not having a wife or a family, and sometimes I long for it. Sometimes I enjoy the freedom of not having to worry about the feelings of someone else or the concerns of someone else. On other times, it does get a little lonely," he admitted
Recounting his first love, Ratan Tata said, "It was in Los Angeles that I fell in love and almost got married. But at the same time, I had made the decision to move back, at least temporarily, since I had been away from my grandmother, who wasn’t keeping well, for almost seven years. So I came back to visit her and thought that the person I wanted to marry would come to India with me, but because of the 1962 Indo-China war, her parents weren’t okay with her to move, and the relationship fell apart.”
NANO LOVE AFFAIR
Ratan Tata had always been a man who thinks of togetherness. It is for this togetherness, his passion and longing for Nano germinated on a rainy day.
It was a wet day. He was travelling when he came across a man riding a bike while toting his entire family of four. Ratan’s heart goes out for the Aam Admi. He visualized how much difficulty the man would be facing riding his motorcycle when the skies have opened up pouring down heavily.
It this incident that sparked the idea in Ratan Tata to make a car that was economical and big enough for small families whose means of transport is two-wheelers.
Working out on it, his objective was to create a safer motorbike. He designed two-wheeled bicycles and one with a safety cage around it, but none of them looked practical. He even considered building a car without doors and using safety bars in their place, but then nobody would want to purchase a half-car.
Ratan finally met success by conceptualizing on an automobile that merely contained the necessities after numerous design failures.
Meeting success in design, planning and investigation, he discovered that the cost of producing this car is approximately Rs. 1 lakh. Ratan Tata then shared his plan. A group of engineers dreamed up the name Nano, a vehicle that complied with all automobile safety regulations.
He was then accused numerous times of producing the cheapest car in the world, but he persisted with his plan.
Ratan Tata’s Nano was marketed for the middle-class and lower middle –class. It was the most ambitious venture of the brand. The cheapest car had a steel body, small light weight sans luxury features, no power steering, air bags et al. The marketing strategy was to showcase it as anaffordable car of the masses. It was marketed as a safer alternative to bike or scooter. And the funky colours of the Nano, even, thrilled many modern families.
RATAN TATA, NOT A MARKETING HONCHO?
Ratan Tata stayed faithful to see Nano vrooming fast on the roads. He did so by July 2009, when Nano was launched. The requests for the car were first astronomical. But the demand thinned month after month. Marketing experts blamed the Nano’s failed love affair with Indian middle class on Tata’s vehicle’s marketing strategy.
As per experts, the prime reason behind Nano’s fall out in love with buyers is the perception. They explained a car, back then, was a luxury to own, and not a commodity to use. Branding Nano as the “Cheapest car” had killed that entitlement that was supposed to come with it. People didn’t find it worth buying.
Even, Ratan Tata had then said, “I always called it a people’s car. It was the media who branded it as the ‘cheap car’.
HAVARD STUDY ON TATA NANO’S ‘BIG’ HURT
A Havard study blamed Nano’s failure on invalid marketing strategy of the Tata Company. The reasons are given below. The study brings out to fore Business tycoon Ratan Tata’s emotional side more, than a great marketer.
- Their emotional attachment didn’t let them to conduct a proper marketing analysis.
- Tata’s thought car was necessity, but it was not.
- Car is seen as a luxury.
- The lakhtakiya – 1 lakh – car backfired.
- Technical glitches in Nano engine and headlines Nano catches fire.
The BOTTOMLINE here is Ratan Tata seems to be a more emotional and caring businessman than a hardcore type. He is man of emotion, not a marketer – be it love or business life
