Ratan Tata felt Noel needed more exposureto succeed him: Book

PTI New Delhi: Ratan Tata, the late Chairman Emeritus of Tata Sons, felt that his half-brother Noel Tata needed greater exposure and experience in handling difficult assignments to succeed him as the head of the principal investment holding firm and promoter of Tata companies, according to a recently released book. Noel Tata, recently appointed as the Chairman of Tata Trusts a collective of charities that indirectly controls the USD 165-billion salt-to-software conglomerate after the death of Ratan Tata, was among several candidates interviewed in March 2011 when a search for his successor was underway. Ratan Tata had decided to stay away from a selection committee to find his successor despite many wanting him to be a part of it a decision he would later regret, according to a biography of the late veteran industrialist and philanthropist Ratan Tata A Life authored by Thomas Mathew and published by HarperCollins Publishers.

One of the reasons for Ratan Tata to stay away from the committee was that there were many aspirants from within the Tata Group, and he “wanted to give the contenders the comfort and confidence of knowing that a collective body of equals would recommend one of them based on a unanimous decision, or if not by a majority, and not on account of the Chairman’s preference”. The second reason was more personal as there was the “overwhelming view that his half-brother Noel Tata was the ‘default candidate’ to succeed him” amid a push from the Parsis in the company and the traditionalists in the community as they considered him to be one of them. However, according to the book, for Ratan Tata, only “the talent and the values of the person mattered”, with religion, community or the region contenders came from were hardly relevant.