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The Brand Custodian: My Years with the Tatas
| LONGLISTED FOR THE TATA LITERATURE LIVE BUSINESS BOOK OF THE YEAR AWARD 2019 |
| LONGLISTED FOR THE TATA LITERATURE LIVE BUSINESS BOOK OF THE YEAR AWARD 2019 |Immediately upon completing his DPhil degree, young Mukund Rajan came back to India and joined the Tata group as Ratan Tata's executive assistant. Over the next twenty-three years, as he worked closely with Ratan Tata, he got an inside view of the ups and downs, the controversies and achievements of the Tata group. In this book, his memoirs, he talks of what really went on during those turbulent times and how the Tatas pulled through each of these situations. Along with that, this book offers a close portrait of the enigmatic Ratan Tata from his longest-serving executive assistant. The Brand Custodian is a study of the Tata group's evolution and explains the relevance of the conglomerate to the world we live in.
| LONGLISTED FOR THE TATA LITERATURE LIVE BUSINESS BOOK OF THE YEAR AWARD 2019 |Immediately upon completing his DPhil degree, young Mukund Rajan came back to India and joined the Tata group as Ratan Tata's executive assistant. Over the next twenty-three years, as he worked closely with Ratan Tata, he got an inside view of the ups and downs, the controversies and achievements of the Tata group. In this book, his memoirs, he talks of what really went on during those turbulent times and how the Tatas pulled through each of these situations. Along with that, this book offers a close portrait of the enigmatic Ratan Tata from his longest-serving executive assistant. The Brand Custodian is a study of the Tata group's evolution and explains the relevance of the conglomerate to the world we live in.
317 pages, Kindle Edition
Published February 18, 2019
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Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
July 29, 2019
The brand Custodian : My years in Tatas
Author : Dr Mukund Rajan
Recently there was a report published in the social media on how long the corporate houses survived post-independence in India. The Living Company by Arie De Geus who cites a research report that says average life expectancy of a large corporate (Fortune 500) is about 40 years. On the Similarly lines, Rahoul Joshii an Indian scholar studied Indian corporates starting from post-independence and his study, available in LinkedIn, showed that 50% of 1950 companies were wiped out of top 20 in 1990. 75% of 1990 top companies wiped out by 2016. The only company or corporate that could make it consistently on the top from 1951 till today is TATA – Leadership with Trust.
Many of the small town / rural guys dream is to work in Tata’s, and mostly it’s because of the brand and respect it carries. Today the large corporates have the treat not from the rival competitors, but from the small entrepreneurs, who establish themselves in a small garage with brilliant concept and technology. The future business Is driven by two key attributes
1. Great Brand where the customer has complete loyalty and trust
2. Companies that drive great Technology
Others needs to critically do something to sustain.
The brand custodian : My years in Tatas, I call it as an autobiography of Mukund Rajan – who was the first brand custodian of Tata brand. The author takes his twenty three years of service working with Ratan N Tata and Cyrus Mistry as they headed the Chairmen of Tata Group. The author has broadly classified the book into three major chapters – Part I - The budding Manager, Part II – Coming into my own, Part III – From success to influence and part IV – Conclusion.
When reading Part I and II, the author showcase the working with RNT and his thoughts. The reader gets an essence it’s all about Ratan Tata’s work, culture, influence and corner office. People who admire Ratan Tata would love reading these parts as the author has diligently affirmed the actions, aspirations and leadership attributes that made the Tata group touch 100 billion company.
Part III is all about the moving the ladder, influence, politics and horizontal, vertical growth from TAS to becoming the first brand custodian. It touches the ethos and values the group inherited and the passion to give back to society and Mukunds roles and responsibilities that he successfully sail across with great insights. This chapter touches every aspect of business and social responsibility engaging employees for volunteering, innovation, engaging etc.
Part IV is a thought on the future on employment opportunity, technology disruption, climate change etc. This chapter touches some of the initiatives that Cyrus Mistry has group chairmen had his vision. Whether it will wither or not time can only convey.
A good story telling and beautifully articulated book to read about Tata’s and especially about the corner office, as the author worked with the chairmen, then into board and then rose to becoming youngest MD during the telecom industry. Further he narrates the politics, scams and controversies during his time in Tatas, including his surprise on the board cope on Mistry.
Author : Dr Mukund Rajan
Recently there was a report published in the social media on how long the corporate houses survived post-independence in India. The Living Company by Arie De Geus who cites a research report that says average life expectancy of a large corporate (Fortune 500) is about 40 years. On the Similarly lines, Rahoul Joshii an Indian scholar studied Indian corporates starting from post-independence and his study, available in LinkedIn, showed that 50% of 1950 companies were wiped out of top 20 in 1990. 75% of 1990 top companies wiped out by 2016. The only company or corporate that could make it consistently on the top from 1951 till today is TATA – Leadership with Trust.
Many of the small town / rural guys dream is to work in Tata’s, and mostly it’s because of the brand and respect it carries. Today the large corporates have the treat not from the rival competitors, but from the small entrepreneurs, who establish themselves in a small garage with brilliant concept and technology. The future business Is driven by two key attributes
1. Great Brand where the customer has complete loyalty and trust
2. Companies that drive great Technology
Others needs to critically do something to sustain.
The brand custodian : My years in Tatas, I call it as an autobiography of Mukund Rajan – who was the first brand custodian of Tata brand. The author takes his twenty three years of service working with Ratan N Tata and Cyrus Mistry as they headed the Chairmen of Tata Group. The author has broadly classified the book into three major chapters – Part I - The budding Manager, Part II – Coming into my own, Part III – From success to influence and part IV – Conclusion.
When reading Part I and II, the author showcase the working with RNT and his thoughts. The reader gets an essence it’s all about Ratan Tata’s work, culture, influence and corner office. People who admire Ratan Tata would love reading these parts as the author has diligently affirmed the actions, aspirations and leadership attributes that made the Tata group touch 100 billion company.
Part III is all about the moving the ladder, influence, politics and horizontal, vertical growth from TAS to becoming the first brand custodian. It touches the ethos and values the group inherited and the passion to give back to society and Mukunds roles and responsibilities that he successfully sail across with great insights. This chapter touches every aspect of business and social responsibility engaging employees for volunteering, innovation, engaging etc.
Part IV is a thought on the future on employment opportunity, technology disruption, climate change etc. This chapter touches some of the initiatives that Cyrus Mistry has group chairmen had his vision. Whether it will wither or not time can only convey.
A good story telling and beautifully articulated book to read about Tata’s and especially about the corner office, as the author worked with the chairmen, then into board and then rose to becoming youngest MD during the telecom industry. Further he narrates the politics, scams and controversies during his time in Tatas, including his surprise on the board cope on Mistry.
August 1, 2020
The Tatas and their way of doing business in a socially conscious way are unique in many aspects. Rarely has a Business group has been so influential and contributed for more than a century towards society and nation building, as done in India. The brand ‘Tata’ has a footprint in almost all business areas and many of the organizations are quite successful in their streams. In contrast to the public image of the Tata Group, the holding company ‘Tata Sons’ is discreet in nature and out of the public limelight. Hence a book from a Tata Sons Insider certainly generates some curiosity for a peek-in.
The author does justice to his story with the Tatas in the book enumerating his start and various positions he held within the group. The author’s career with the Tata coincides with an important phase of the Tata Group where the global footprint was expanded, with many successes and some not-so-successful and internal corporate battles. However the book is not a biographical sketch of the Tata Group and that’s an important distinction to note for the readers.
The author covers many of the important events that took place and, in most cases, takes a balanced view and provides his views succinctly. In many of the scenarios like the Tata’s foray into Telecom sector, the author was involved to a large extent and he provides a ring side view of the same. Few of the activities like ‘Investing and Building the Tata Brand’, ‘Moving towards an integrated Tata group’, the ‘Sustainability and Ethics of the Tata Group’ where the author again played a pivotal role are given the required focus and importance in the book. The author again strikes a balance between degenerating the book into a ‘tell-all’ but yet providing some behind-the scenes information which may not be easily known earlier.
All through out the book, Ratan Tata as the author forthrightly mentions looms large in the book as a dominant personality. The author seems to have presented a fair picture of the luminary and the reader definitely gets some more insights into the minds and working of the person itself.
The book is definitely a must read for anyone interested in the working of the Tata Group and the author’s journey is quite eventful with its own highs and lows, with many lessons for Leadership and management that can be definitely uncovered.
The author does justice to his story with the Tatas in the book enumerating his start and various positions he held within the group. The author’s career with the Tata coincides with an important phase of the Tata Group where the global footprint was expanded, with many successes and some not-so-successful and internal corporate battles. However the book is not a biographical sketch of the Tata Group and that’s an important distinction to note for the readers.
The author covers many of the important events that took place and, in most cases, takes a balanced view and provides his views succinctly. In many of the scenarios like the Tata’s foray into Telecom sector, the author was involved to a large extent and he provides a ring side view of the same. Few of the activities like ‘Investing and Building the Tata Brand’, ‘Moving towards an integrated Tata group’, the ‘Sustainability and Ethics of the Tata Group’ where the author again played a pivotal role are given the required focus and importance in the book. The author again strikes a balance between degenerating the book into a ‘tell-all’ but yet providing some behind-the scenes information which may not be easily known earlier.
All through out the book, Ratan Tata as the author forthrightly mentions looms large in the book as a dominant personality. The author seems to have presented a fair picture of the luminary and the reader definitely gets some more insights into the minds and working of the person itself.
The book is definitely a must read for anyone interested in the working of the Tata Group and the author’s journey is quite eventful with its own highs and lows, with many lessons for Leadership and management that can be definitely uncovered.
May 23, 2019
A good book about important events in the history of Tata group. It covers personality aspects of Cyrus and Ratan Tata.
Also explains the backstory behind key episodes
- VSNL
- CDMA vs GSM
- Singur Episode
- Corus and Jaguar
- Vistara
- Tata Finance story
- Tata Indica story
- Volunteering and TATA STRIVE
Also explains the backstory behind key episodes
- VSNL
- CDMA vs GSM
- Singur Episode
- Corus and Jaguar
- Vistara
- Tata Finance story
- Tata Indica story
- Volunteering and TATA STRIVE
January 2, 2021
A book by Dr Mukul Rajan on his years with the Tatas - most of the time as its Brand Custodian (a new role, made when Tata Sons decided to take a percentage of the profits from companies using the Tata Name and use it for promoting the Tata Brand). Having been a lifer at the Tatas, the book resonates well with me. Insightful read into the workings of the Tata Management at its highest levels,
June 17, 2023
The author, through his journey with the Tata Group, provides us a ringside view of the Company, its ethos and values, approach to business. He also provides a ringside view of Ratan Tata’s tenure as also Cyrus Mistry’s brief tenure. The book provides a great perspective on the Tata Group.
April 21, 2019
Very well written and a balanced account.
May 23, 2019
Decent read. Personal account.
Primarily targeted to clear the air around Mistry Tata spat. Author has presented the facts from neutral standpoint while suggesting his opinion.
Primarily targeted to clear the air around Mistry Tata spat. Author has presented the facts from neutral standpoint while suggesting his opinion.
June 29, 2019
A glimpse / sneek peek story by Mr Mukund Rajan about the most respected and biggest organisation that Every Indian is associated in some or the other way called TATA sons.
May 18, 2020
Enjoyed the read..being an admirer of the Tatas and reading about them from an insider and equally admired person was totally worth it.
November 16, 2019
Written like a personal memoir, Mukund Rajan has done a good job of chronicling his days with Ratan Tata. Honest, and a completely insider view of the happenings at the premier group, by someone who had a vantage point view to all the happenings.
Mukund starts the book with how he started off his career, and briefly touches upon his family. Mukund is the brother of the more famous sibling – Raghuram Rajan, the ex RBI governor;
Starting off with his initial years as a budding manager at Tatas, he talks about how he came about his own with getting a chance to heading the telecom business of TATA, to getting to the corner office, tryst with private equity and his eventual exit from the company. This book is more a memoir of Mukund of his TATA years, and a glimpse into the working and thinking style of Ratan Tata.
Mukund had a birds eye view of the happenings at the TATA group – The greatest company in the world?, by his own admission. He was there at a time when the group was changing its ways from an old conglomerate filled with old babu’s and adapting itself to the new ways of working. Ratan Tata had brought in fresh blood and started marquee programs that still continue.
A quick read, I finished the book on my iPad over a lazy weekend. A good easy read if you are keen to know how a conglomerate operate and the power struggles that one needs to navigate even when you are the major owner of a company.
Mukund starts the book with how he started off his career, and briefly touches upon his family. Mukund is the brother of the more famous sibling – Raghuram Rajan, the ex RBI governor;
Starting off with his initial years as a budding manager at Tatas, he talks about how he came about his own with getting a chance to heading the telecom business of TATA, to getting to the corner office, tryst with private equity and his eventual exit from the company. This book is more a memoir of Mukund of his TATA years, and a glimpse into the working and thinking style of Ratan Tata.
Mukund had a birds eye view of the happenings at the TATA group – The greatest company in the world?, by his own admission. He was there at a time when the group was changing its ways from an old conglomerate filled with old babu’s and adapting itself to the new ways of working. Ratan Tata had brought in fresh blood and started marquee programs that still continue.
A quick read, I finished the book on my iPad over a lazy weekend. A good easy read if you are keen to know how a conglomerate operate and the power struggles that one needs to navigate even when you are the major owner of a company.
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April 22, 2019Location: PTI IRC
Accession No: DL030686
Accession No: DL030686
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews