Top 30 Ratan Tata Quotes

The economic situation, the high cost of undertaking manufacturing, the supply chain – which is, by the way, dying out also as manufacturing undergoes hardship – make the U.K. not the first place you would look at to make a manufacturing investment.

Jardine is the largest dealer of Mercedes in the world. They also sell cars for two or three Japanese makers.

I followed someone who had very large shoes. He had very large shoes. Mr. J. R. D. Tata. He was a legend in the Indian business community. He had been at the helm of the Tata organization for 50 years. You were almost starting to think he was going to be there forever.

After I retired, it seemed to me that there was a whole new world out there, which was a digital world driven by a marketplace, basically, which had a huge potential driven by handheld devices, which would one day become the virtual retail store of India.

There’s a lot of interest in Nano outside India.

I have been constantly telling people to encourage people, to question the unquestioned and not to be ashamed to bring up new ideas, new processes to get things done.

Flying, I continue to be involved with. I love flying, and I hope to keep doing it so long as I can pass my medicals and stay proficient.

What I would like to do is to leave behind a sustainable entity of a set of companies that operate in an exemplary manner in terms of ethics, values and continue what our ancestors left behind.

There has to be a drive to make the U.K. competitive in the motorcar industry or in the engineering industry. To do that, you have to give attention to the manufacturing sector.

I am interested in what I earn; I am interested in my growth.

A founder who is in for the short run, or has no passion for the sector he is in, doesn’t give me a great deal of comfort.

I am in favour of disinvestment. But if a disinvested company has to tie up with a government company for its livelihood, there is a problem.

People of great power wield great power, but people of lesser power or people who have fallen out of power go to jail without adequate evidence, or their bodies are found in the trunks of cars.

When you see in places like Africa and parts of Asia abject poverty, hungry children and malnutrition around you, and you look at yourself as being people who have well being and comforts, I think it takes a very insensitive, tough person not to feel they need to do something.

I’m the non-executive chairman of nine or so major companies, and on the nine companies, it’s a little trying because you jump from one industry to another, as the case might be. But one had the reasonable knowledge of those nine activities, and it’s been an exciting job.

Banana republics are run on cronyism.

Telco is totally committed to commercial vehicles, where it is bound to remain a major player. What may well happen in the future is we may split the company into two business units.

There has not been a conscious view of re-energising manufacturing. So, in some form, someone has to wave the Union Jack in the area of manufacturing.

Fiat has assembly plants in Brazil and Argentina.

I think there are many honest businessmen.

I quite frankly enjoy the touch and feel of a store, so I am a big bookshop person. Or, I go to an electronics store; Best Buy and Croma are places I could spend a lot of time in.

I may have hurt some people along the way, but I would like to be seen as somebody who has done his best to do the right thing for any situation and not compromised.

If I were to look in the United States or in Europe, in some of the garages, you would have a Bentley or two Bentleys or a high-end Mercedes, and you may find a Smart also in that same garage because that person thinks it’s a fun extra car to have. He may have four cars but also have a Smart because he thinks it is cute.

There are many things that, if I have to relive, maybe I will do it another way. But I would not like to look back and think what I have not been able to.

I have always been very confident and very upbeat about the future potential of India. I think it is a great country with great potential.

I can tell you in all honesty that I am highly connected to my family, my wife, and my three children, though I don’t get to spend dollops of hours with them.

The day I am not able to fly will be a sad day for me.

Challenges need to be given to an organization.

I came seriously close to getting married four times, and each time I backed off in fear or for one reason or another. Each occasion was different, but in hindsight when I look at the people involved, it wasn’t a bad thing what I did. I think it may have been more complex had the marriage taken place.

I’ve often felt that the Indian tiger has not been unleashed.