The Tatas: How a Family Built a Business and a Nation

Tata group was founded by Jamsetji Tata who's a nationalist having an ambition to create social wealth in country through business. The same culture has been abided by the Tata group for over 150 years, putting nation and employees first over their business.<br /><br />True inspiration for countrymen.

Was the book sponsored by the Tatas? Almost looked like it. Not one word of criticism or critical analysis of any kind. Actually scratch that, the book is reverential toward the Tatas. The author elevates the Tatas to a status akin to some demigod.<br /><br />Don’t get me wrong. The Tatas are a great industrial house, one which every industrialist worth his salt, admires and envies in equal measure. Lest this review be construed as a gutter inspector’s report, the book is episodically exhaustive, tracing the Tata family history from the beginning. But the largest industrial house in the country, has not one bad apple. Not one controversy. Not one negative issue worth elaborating upon? Even episodes in popular memory like the Nira Radia controversy or the Mistry-Tata fight are passingly mentioned, as if they were issues not worth the reader’s time. <br /><br />In conclusion, pick the book up only if you want to read some grandstanding eulogy of the Tata Sons.

I always appreciate reading about Tata - True business house in India. Recently someone gifted me a book about Tata in Marathi language. I thoroughly enjoyed reading about Tata and their businesses. The book is very focused on business and growth of Tata Group. Author has handled all the details very well. It is written in a simple language. This book gives information from Nursewanji Tata, founder of Tata empire till Ratan Tata, who retired recently and now Mr. Cyrus Mistry is heading Tata group. <br /><br />Tata always had amazing business sense, but they never focused only on profit. For all leaders from Tata group put people first. They always considered all their employees as their family. Always treated janitor and CEO with the same warmth. Tata's were always ahead of time in their business decision. For investors in Tata companies, Tata is equal to trust. Sometimes Tata spent from their own pocket to retain that trust of investors. <br /><br />Entire business community had faith in Tatas. It is very rare that entire family shares the same passion and vision for business as the founder. Tata is one of them. <br /><br />Truly inspiring book. <br />

For a person like myself who has only a vague idea about the role the Tatas play and have played for more than a century in building Indian corporate culture, industry, society and so much else, this book was a good primer. But I found it way too flattering, lacking any critical approach to controversial issues that the conglomerate faced at different stages of its evolution. Always claiming that they conducted all their business with the utmost perfection, whereas everyone else is mired in scandals and corruption, well, this was not really always convincing, and it actually detracted from the admiration one might feel for a company that has been a major pillar in Indian history. Still, a good book with plenty of interesting details.

This is an excellent book written on Tata. This book expresses complete life story of JRD. In this book, we can see how the great man work and style of life.<br /><br />

The Tatas traces the 200 year old legacy of India’s one of the biggest business families. Right from the birth of Nusserwanji in 1822 to the present chairman Natrajan Chandrasekaran, this book encapsulates the journey that the Tatas have undertaken. Parallel to the story of the Tatas runs the story of India, so that the book depicts how the building of a business impacted the building of a nation.<br /><br />The book begins by capturing the toddler steps taken by Nusserwanji, then moving on to the pace and firm grounding provided by Jamsetji and finally the long strides taken by JRD Tata and Ratan Tata. The account of the family and its business skills presented here in this book is awe-inspiring. Rising from the regional to the national and finally to international level amidst the occasional crisis arising from within the group and sometimes without, the Tatas represent the power of conviction.<br /><br />I was not sure about this book and I thought it would be boring because of being all-facts. But I was wrong. The book is a page-turner and one feels like watching a movie or a documentary on the subject. And that makes me say that the translation (from the original Marathi) has been done brilliantly. It always felt as if I were reading an original work.<br /><br />There are several bits of information about the Tata family and personal lives of the famous Tata figures. These peeps into the lives of the members of the Tata family formed an interesting part of the narrative and sought to break the monotony of what is otherwise an historical account. The book is written within a broad chronological framework but the author does move to and fro in time and space within the chapters, which worked really well for me.<br /><br />I feel the author’s account of the history was objective to a large extent, especially the period before JRD Tata. However I feel that in the later period, that is, the contemporary times, the Tatas were being presented in an all-good-and-always-good light. I maybe wrong but this is what I felt. Besides that I feel that had there been more of personal stuff, the book would have been even more interesting. Nevertheless it was a great read for me and I enjoyed it thoroughly.<br /><br />My Rating: **** (4/5)<br /><br />~Originally published on <a target="_blank" rel="noopener nofollow" href="Https://booksnmyself.wordpress.com">Https://booksnmyself.wordpress.com</a>

The Tatas, known as the most ethical enterprise in India, had always been something I found hard to believe. Nevertheless, this book has completely erased my speculations with logical and core facts. The grandeur of visionary ideas that transformed economic shape of post Independent India had never been compromised with moral values that Tata companies honoured. Although, political crisis was very often stumbled upon them but this didn't deter the Tatas. Tatas are the only Indian name taken in stalwarts of management studies like Harward, standford and Britain often confuses Tata to be their home company. The difference between Tatas and other businesses is that social wealth is the cause and not the effect of establishing any business here. The institutions like IISc, TISS, TIFR, numerous trusts, etc dates back to days when CSR was not a compulsion. A large credit to economic superiority of our country, I believe, goes to the Tatas, thanks to their ever expanding missions and visions.

A decent start to get a historical perspective of the Tata group and it’s growth. The only good thing about the book is the informational value from the chronicling of events in the Tata history. Leaves a lot to be desired in terms of critical analysis of events, especially the controversial ones, the role of religion in the family’s choices, larger impact on economy etc.

Rtc

'Tatayan' is complete story of Tata Family. From Jamashedji Tata ; who was the founder of Tata Empire (he was contemporary to Rockefeller, a business tycoon from US who establishes the petroleum industry) to Ratan Tata ; who recently retired from the chair of president of Tata group in 2012. There is kind of negative feeling in common public against industrialist in India. especially after Independence , in nehruvian era there was a complete socialist hangover because of it everything which is capitalist is bad was the common notion in the society.<br />Tata industry is always exception to this. Without Tata group of Industries it was impossible to fulfill the dream of Pundit Nehru of modern India. Tata family is bounted freely with the vision of technology and innovations.<br />Today Tata has occupied every house of India from slum to multi storied towers. you can see the Tata products. Tea, Salt, Steel, Watch, Car , Truck, Mobile in every household and list is never ending. <br />Apart from this productions noteworthy thing of Tata family is they had never forget their roots and social responsibility. Their contribution in the establishment of Indian Science Institute, Atomic research center, Tata institute of Social science and so many is very much Important. <br />this complete saga of Tata's is beautifully narrated by author Girish Kuber (editor of Loksatta). According to best of my knowledge this is only book which can depict the story of TATA family among all Indian Languages.<br />