MUKUND    RAJAN

The Brand Custodian: My Years with the Tatas by Dr. Mukund Rajan ; Published by  Harper Business; Pages 225  ; Price Rs.599/-

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The author of the book under review is one of the “ Celebrated  Rajans”. Who are the Rajans? Let the author answer---“ We are four—three brothers and a sister. Between us, we have a bagful of academic qualifications—three doctorates, six master’s degrees, three masters’ of business administration( MBAs) and four bachelor’s  degrees. My Delhi-based sister, Jayashri straddles worlds as  far apart as nutrition and teaching French. My brother Raghuram is an engineer who has become one of the finest economists of his generation, teaching finance at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business. And my Toledo-based brother working with First Solar, Shrinivas, was the best engineer amongst us three Indian Institute of Technology ( IT)  alumni brothers, going on to have a successful career in R & D. During our formative years, we kept changing schools and were exposed to different cultures and languages—across India, Indonesia, Sri Lanka and Belgium. From sarees to miniskirts and from Tamil to French, the exposure we had was very diverse !.”

Immediately upon completing his Doctorate ,  Mukund Rajan  joined the Tata group as  Executive Assistant of Ratan Tata. Over the next twenty-three years, as he worked closely with Ratan Tata, he got an inside view of the ups and downs, the controversies and achievements of the Tata group.

Rajan  became  the   Managing Director of Tata Teleservices (Maharashtra) Ltd,  and Brand Custodian of the Tata group.

In this book, his memoirs, he talks of what really went on during those turbulent times and how the Tatas pulled through each of these situations. He also offers a fascinating close portrait of the enigmatic Ratan Tata. The Brand Custodian is a study of the Tata group's evolution and explains the relevance of the conglomerate to the world we live in.

 Dr. Mukund Rajan, 49, is a corporate strategist, liberal thinker, and entrepreneur. He held a number of senior executive positions  with the Tata group, including Chief Ethics Officer of the Tata group, head of the foreign offices of Tata Sons, Chair of the Tata Global Sustainability Council, Member of the Group Executive Council at Tata Sons, Head of Private Equity at Tata Capital, and Managing Director of one of the group's listed telecom businesses. The World Economic Forum honoured Dr. Rajan  in 2007 as a Young Global Leader.

Dr. Rajan graduated from the Bachelor of Technology program at the Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi in 1989. He received a Rhodes Scholarship to study at Oxford University, where he completed a Masters and Doctorate in International Relations. His doctoral dissertation titled "Global Environmental Politics - India and the North-South Politics of Global Environmental Issues" was published by Oxford University Press in 1996.

 Tata group’s turnover increased  in ten years from $10 billion to over $100 billion during Ratan Tata’s chairmanship. Currently, the top four companies alone are valued at over $111 billion. The Tata Trusts include the Sir Dorabji Tata Trust and the Sir Ratan Tata Trust—which together have funded some of India’s most respected institutions in sectors such as education, healthcare, arts and culture. These include IIISc in Bengaluru, the TISS,TIFR,the Tata Memorial Hospital and the National Centre for Performing Arts in Mumbai. These Trusts are dedicated to giving away wealth gathered in their hands for public good and to support deserving social causes.

The book  takes us inside the workings of this giant conglomerate  with over a hundred operating companies ranging from salt to steel and from tea to timepieces—and how that success story was crafted.

‘This book was written shortly after I left the Tatas. I wanted to capture my thoughts before age and memory started playing tricks with my recollections! It is essentially a contemporary history of the Tata group through the lens of my own career, during which I worked in proximity to Ratan Tata and Cyrus Mistry. It covers key episodes of the past three decades while offering observations about the challenges the group will face in the future. It will be of interest for students, business-school faculty, corporate governance experts and, indeed, anybody wanting to learn more about the Tatas,’  Rajan  covers key episodes including his love-hate relationship with the media, 2G controversies, and on how a boss should know when to hang up his boots.

 Rajan witnessed first-hand how Ratan Tata had to contend with the so-called satraps, leaders of large businesses within the group whose loyalties lay with J.R.D.Tata and who were not always very welcoming towards a new boss a couple of decades younger than themselves. He describes how Ratan Tata dealt with them and then took various measures to consolidate the different businesses; how he created a brand identity for the group and gave it high visibility; how he formed a centralised group structure and documented the values and business philosophy of the Tatas in the Tata Code of Conduct; his move towards internationalisation with the acquisition of companies such as Corus, Tetley and Jaguar Land Rover; and other steps that have made Tata the brand it is today. After 2007, when Tatas acquired JLR and Corus, Ratan Tata’s stature became even bigger. He was no longer just an Indian corporate leader, but regarded by the world as an international business leader and statesman. Besides, some of the innovative stuff that was happening simultaneously like developing the Nano added to the aura.

According to Rajan when  when Ratan Tata first became Chairman, he was surrounded by the so-called satraps — people like Darbari Seth, Nani Palkhiwala, AH Tobaccowala, FC Kohli and for a while Russi Modi. These were all stalwarts who enjoyed JRD Tata’s confidence and had proven themselves as business leaders. In fact, Ratan Tata was the youngest of them all. Over a period of time, after the satraps exited or were pensioned off as per the new retirement policy, he became the unquestioned Supremo. Those subsequently appointed to the board of Tata Sons turned out to be people who had earlier reported to him or were hired as his direct reports, such as Krishna Kumar, Ishaat Hussain, Gopalakrishnan, etc.

Mukund Rajan has not neglected to include  the controversies the group has been involved in, such as the one regarding the Tatas’ alleged dealings with ULFA, the maverick managers who didn’t play by the rules, the Niira Radia tapes and the conflict between Ratan Tata and Cyrus Mistry, and what transpired thereafter.

A bit of his own story is given ---his  progress within the group—from executive assistant to a director on the boards of VSNL and TTSL; from managing director of Tata Teleservices (Maharashtra) Ltd to founding managing partner of the Tata Opportunities Fund; from becoming the first brand custodian to his last role as chief ethics officer.

Rajan, who was caught in the crossfire in a 2016 feud between Ratan Tata and Tata’s successor Cyrus Mistry, has written about the battle that culminated in  Mistry being eased out of  the Chairmanship  of the holding company, Tata Sons.

Rajan recounts the tragic story of Dilip Pendse and  Tata Finance eventually culminating in his suicide.Tata Finance was shut down. We have cameo portraits of C.Sivasankaran –the South Indian Ambani and the games played by Niira Radia.

Mukund Rajan had become the Managing Director and C.E.O of TTML and the first Brand Custodian of Tata entailing responsibility for the Tata corporate brand owned by Tata Sons and oversight of corporate communications at the Tata Group

Mukund Rajan  is currently working in telecommunications, on a multi-brand auto retail platform, and on environmental sustainability.

 Rajan  writes , “It is lonely at the top” — especially if you are head and shoulders above the others in terms of stature, and maybe you don’t always get the right advice and have the right people speaking up. At some point, I think, Ratan Tata might have reason to feel he has been let down by some of his advisors.

The Group had problems with Media—which  started with the leaked transcripts of tapes that sections of the media carried in the context of the Tata Tea-ULFA episode in Assam .

Rajan writes with pain on the  tragic spat between Ratan Tata and Cyrus Mistry .Both had the same kind of ambition, the same vision, and the same concerns around protecting the brand.

This book is an eye-opener on the House that Tata built which his successors nourished from strength to strength and at times behaved like “mere mortals”—haughty, petty and peevish.

P.P.Ramachandran.

24/03/2019.