Comment by jacquesm | Hacker News Reader

Comment by jacquesm | Hacker News Reader

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If there is one guy on the planet that has absolutely deserved to rest on his laurels for a bit it is Ratan Tata. I've been reading quite a bit about him in the last few weeks and compared to most western CEOs that I'm familiar with this guy is much more ethical and a fascinating person.

He reminds me of Ray Anderson (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ray_Anderson_%28entrepreneur%29).

They say that nice guys finish last, in a world where a saying like that gets a lot of traction it is great to see a man like Ratan Tata prove that not only can nice guys finish first, they can do so coming from a substantial disadvantage. Imagine, Tata bought out Corus steel (which in turn had bought out Hoogovens Steel), one the worlds largest steel factories.

Buying out a first world competitor is a pretty good move from a 3rd world country.

If you feel like reading some interesting stuff you could do worse than typing 'Ratan Tata' into google and digging in, definitely recommended.

> Buying out a first world competitor is a pretty good move from a 3rd world country

You just called India a 3rd world country ? sigh

The etymology of the phrase "3rd world country"[1] is interesting, and isn't directly related to economic strength. According to the original definition, India is indeed a 3rd world country.

A second definition of 3rd world is "developing countries" [2]. India still falls into this definition, but it's rapidly approaching "developed country" status.

[1]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Third_World#Third_Worldism

[2]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Developing_Countries

I have read these articles before. But these definitions are from a different time and have an unnecessary stigma attached to them (How did non aligned countries end up meaning poor ?).

I don't think India is a developed (what does this even mean anymore) country, nor will it be one in the near future. But I think calling one of the largest economies (4th in PPP, 9th in nominal gdp) as third world a bit simplistic..

Thats funny because there are so many third world countries, with higher per capita incomes, better infrastructure and far better legal systems than India.

By the same measure, there are may be a dozen countries ahead of USA. So what is your point ?

My point is that there are third world countries (and they are universally regarded so) which are better than India in a lot of respects. I am indian, I have travelled to some of the other third world countries and have seen it myself.

So basically, India is not even the better one among third world countries.

India is a third world country. You are welcome to provide any evidence to suggest otherwise.

I am willing to have a conversation as long as you understand who the burden of proof lies with.

@jacquesm, When you say read a lot, I hope you are referring to non-indian sources...If so, can you point me to some

Google will do all the pointing you need and then some, there is a lot of material about him on the web.

And a lot of the Indian sources are in fact in English.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ratan_Tata

Lots of good links there too.

https://www.google.com/search?q=ratan+tata+biography

https://www.google.com/search?q=ratan+tata

https://www.google.com/search?q=tata+steel

The most interesting parts to me are how he managed to leverage his starting position (definitely not at 0) to the point where he made a play for international expansion.

@jacquesm, I appreciate your links below. But I don't see much critical analysis in those links. For example, in the wikipedia article, there are no details about what he did from 1962 to 1991. What projects did he handle during this time, any crisis, etc. Did he fail anywhere or was it midas touch everywhere? A CEO of $100B empire has no controversies?

Btw, the article conveniently skips 2G scam that happened in India and how his company got a good price on the spectrum. I am not saying he did wrong stuff...but its not entirely overboard.

However, I agree with you, that he definitely leveraged is starting position and made for international expansion.

Btw, if you have $1B starting money, whether you are in first world or third world doesn't matter...you can buy companies anywhere.

Tough crowd.

These are starting points, use them to pull up more information, put it back into google, rinse, repeat.

It won't be long and you'll be drowning in critical analysis, such as the time when the farmers whose land was to be vacated for the Nano factories revolted.

I can't do your research and reading for you.

As for the takeover of corus/hoogovens, that was a $13 Billion deal, getting from $1B to the point where you can do a buy-out at that level is a fairly impressive affair, it was the largest international take-over by an Indian company in history.

That alone makes it exceptional and I think you're underestimating the magnitude of that achievement.

Oh, and you don't need to do the @username thing here it's not twitter.

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