No Goodbye for this TATA

The Asian edition of Newsweek magazine has a cover story on the resurgence of the TATA group (This link is working only in IE, I was unable to open it in Firefox. Is this because MSNBC/Newsweek is part of Microsoft?). Statistics says that most family businesses cease to exist beyond the third generation. But the TATA Group seems to be a clear exception. Newsweek (for the benefit of their international audience) says that the TATA Group is something like the GE of India. They went one step further and said that TATA Group is much more than GE as the Tatas use about 60% of their profits for community development work. Newsweek also draws parallels between TATA Sons (the holding company) and Berkshire Hathaway (Warren Buffett’s firm). Let’s hope that the much awaited Rs. 1 lakh car (Ratan Tata’s pet project) comes out soon.

[Pic Courtesy: Newsweek Asia Edition]

Succession issues

Although Ratan Tata is 67 years old, he looks more like somebody who is in his late 40’s / early 50’s. The Million Dollar Question on everybody’s mind is who will succeed Ratan Tata? Now that Ratan Tata’s tenure has been extended for a few more years, this talk will subside for some time.