Two statements introduced me to the house of Tata. The first was – “Juta Bata da, Truck Tata da,” this means you should always buy shoes made by Bata and a truck built by Tata. This statement has been much more than a sales pitch for decades; it was a statement of trust. Whether it is your feet or business, trust was the core in the late sixties and early seventies. Our parents always took us to a Bata store and my father did buy a Tata truck when he was considering getting into the trucking business in the early sixties. It is the second statement which touched my heart and stays there permanently, it was in the early nineties, a colleague mentioned “Tata ka naam matlab pura itminaan,” and this means if any product carries the name Tata, that product has quality assurance embedded.
There is a lot of Tata in my family and my life, even today. One of the cars our family owns and I drive is a Tata Car, a Tata Nano. I trust Titan watches and consider them best value for money. My family only trusts Tanishq as their jewelers. Tata Sky is the favorite DTH service for our family. The only mutual fund I could trust is Tata Mutual. Tata photon gives me the back-up internet and Tata Teleservices is trusted by me for bringing good internet to my offices. I do my all personal shopping at Westside. Our all latest electronic purchases have exclusively been at Croma Stores run by the Tata’s and I must mention my favorite dinner plates are from Tata Ceramics. There is nothing about the house of Tata’s which doesn’t fascinate me. Like millions my heart also broke when Mr. Tata’s name came up in the infamous Radia Tapes scandal. My respect and regard for Mr. Tata and the house of Tata’s did come down a shade because of that, but then Tata’s do so much for general good, that my faith and trust remained intact.
The question in my mind is that with Mr. Ratan Tata stepping down and Mr. Cyrus Mistry taking over would that trust remain intact? This question leads to another question; can I trust Mr. Tata’s wisdom of handing over the name Tata to Mr. Mistry? My answer is an emphatic yes! I would trust Mr Mistry as much as I trusted Mr. Tata. Mr. Mistry can only bring my faith and trust down if he chooses so.
For me Mr. Mistry would be the new Mr. Tata. I am going to trust his companies in the same manner, so for all practical purposes there is no goodbye Mr. Tata.
