Zitat des Tages von Ratan Tata:
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 most expensive part of any manufacturing unit is the paint shop.
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.
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.
Some entrepreneurs talk of a high burn rate, high advertising rate, and so on, with no outcome, so it doesn't impress me. But an entrepreneur who has that kind of a feeling of responsibility towards his investors is somebody who will have all my support.
Indian car buyers have not really been exposed to customer care in a competitive environment.
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.
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 have two or three cars that I like, but today, Ferrari would be the best car I have driven in terms of being an impressive car.
What are the crumple zones on scooters? The helmet is the only crumple zone I can think of.
I've often felt that the Indian tiger has not been unleashed.
I am interested in what I earn; I am interested in my growth.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Since I got involved in Telco, we first developed the first modular truck, the 407, then the 709, and now the 2213. These trucks broke away from the old face of Telco trucks. I was also just as much involved with the Safari, but nobody talks about the Safari. My involvement has been there with all Telco's projects -somehow the car has got hyped up.
Fiat has assembly plants in Brazil and Argentina.
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.
I buy a lot of electronics, some which I never take out of the box!
The early Rockefellers made their wealth from being in certain businesses and remained personally very wealthy.
I always felt that Nano should have been marketed towards the owner of a two-wheeler because it was conceived giving the people who rode on two wheels with the whole family an all-weather safe form of affordable transportation, not the cheapest.
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.
If a founder has passion and innovation, he needs to be supported. I am more intuitive than a numbers person, and I recognise that not all investments are going to be positive. Some may fail, and some may have problems for other reasons. That is life.
If we dispense with some of our self-made boundaries, India can really take its place in the world as an economic power. It hasn't happened because we, sadly, don't look at ourselves as Indians but as Punjabis or Parsis, unlike the Americans. Don't make such boundaries.
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.
The - the early Rockefellers made their wealth from being in certain businesses and - and remained personally very wealthy. Tatas were different in the sense the future generations were not so wealthy. They - they were involved in the business, but most of the family wealth is put into trust, and the family did not, in fact, enjoy enormous wealth.
I would say that one of the things I wish I could do differently would be to be more outgoing.
There's a lot of interest in Nano outside India.
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.
India needs to come out of its socialist pattern of doing things on a rationing basis.
Banana republics are run on cronyism.
If it stands the test of public scrutiny, do it... if it doesn't stand the test of public scrutiny then don't do it.
