Sir Ratan Tata: What Endures Beyond a Lifetime!

Businessmen make very poor leaders, though the business press and public relations industry that equates CEOs with leadership may beg to differ. Most CEOs are selected and not elected to the job. Leaders are chosen by their peers and juniors. CEO’s serve a company, and leaders serve society even if they work in business. 

It's almost impossible to chase legacy while making money. The two goals are difficult to achieve simultaneously. Therefore, most businessmen fuse them into one: their wealth is their legacy. This makes the goal tangible and achievable and aligns well with all their stakeholders.

Wealth vs. Wisdom: The Limitations of Legacy Buying

Wealth can and does buy some legacy, especially if it's deployed well for larger goals of societal impact. But it's difficult to be a leader or businessman and leave a legacy. In my lifetime of following business leadership, I know only a few such people.

Legacy is rarely about what the paid wordsmiths say about you. Legacy is also not about slick presentations on social media crafted by several brilliant editors. Legacy is reflected in how you made people feel—spontaneous outpouring of loss by even people who had the most fleeting moment with you.

It's difficult for businessmen to achieve this, which is why Ratan Tata did not consider himself one; he called himself an industrialist. This allowed him to look beyond the immediate needs of the business to shape the narrative for an industry or many industries.

His actions captured the Zeitgeist of its time and boosted other businesses to think bigger and better. His global acquisition foray may have been inspired by LN Mittal, but it inspired even the Birlas to look abroad.

When companies become very large one man or many men at even a board level can't keep a check on their dealings. This is where leadership becomes far more important as it creates and drives a culture.

This is what endures a culture of values, ethics, and duties. This is what inspires even cynical CEOs to excel beyond the immediate Excel sheet numbers. This is what most business owners aspire to create a team of achievers who can go beyond the immediate. Such motivation is impossible to sustain if all you are hoping to achieve is the biggest this or the largest that or the wealthiest me. This does not inspire brilliant and capable people for long, it does some but not all. But it does not create leadership, and see the breadth and depth of leadership at Tata group of companies.

Businessmen need to be industrialists in the truest sense of the word. Their business conduct has to be exemplary to create a culture that will endure beyond their lifetime. It's an impossible ask, but Ratan Tata did make it possible. And that's his legacy.