Where is the Tata who can restore it to glory?

Paris, prince of Troy, stole Helen, the wife of King Menelaus of Sparta. Menelaus led a war against Troy, killing Paris. Helen’s beauty inspired Christopher Marlowe to gush “Was this the face that launched a thousand ships...Sweet Helen make me immortal with a kiss.” Whether Helen wished to return to her husband is a matter of conjecture, but the romance of waging a war to repossess a stolen bride continues. On a less heroic scale, Air India, an enchanting bride, was snatched from the Tata empire through nationalisation in 1953. While one can imagine what passions drive men to wage a war to repossess the women they loved, one wonders what possessed Ratan Tata to retrieve Air India, now an impoverished relict.

JRD Tata, the passionate founder of Air India and its chairman until 1977, competed against legendary international airlines — Pan Am, American, United from the US; British Airways, Air France, Lufthansa, from Europe; and Japan Airlines, Cathay and Quantas in the East — and earned fulsome praise for operational efficiency and reliability, winning customers. It was no mean achievement. But JRD excelled them in service excellence. He created a distinctive identity and an aura that surrounded the airline. Long before Singapore Airlines created the iconic Singapore Girl, Air India’s air hostesses in their fine silk sarees embodied India’s unique, vibrant and diverse culture – sophisticated, yet traditional with understated elegance and grace.

JRD was a towering figure. It is well known that he was India’s first licensed pilot in 1929. In 1932, he flew India’s first commercial flight, carrying mail and two passengers from Karachi to Chennai via Mumbai on a single-engine hopping flight. That saw the birth of Tata Airlines, which became Air India in 1946. It was a pioneering feat.

But what is less known is that he was a daredevil. In 1930, Prince Aga Khan announced an Air Race for Indian nationals, with a prize for the winner of the first solo flight from England to India, or vice versa, to be completed within six weeks from the start. JRD took the challenge, and so did two other intrepid pilots — Manmohan Singh from Rawalpindi and Aspy Engineer, who had just turned 18. The latter two took off separately from Croydon, England. JRD embarked on his flight from Karachi in the opposite direction. Manmohan damaged his aircraft en route, but managed to reach Karachi after six weeks.

Feisty Aspy Engineer, (who later became the second Chief of the Indian Air Force) flying across Europe had a snag and landed at the remote Aboukir airstrip in the desert near Alexandria in Egypt, needing spark plugs. JRD, taking off from Karachi, lost his way due to a faulty compass, zigzagged via Haifa, Cairo, and also landed at Aboukir and ran into his competitor Aspy. The inherent magnanimity of JRD came to the fore. Both were flying Gypy Moths. Without a thought, JRD gifted Aspy four of his spare spark plugs – which he had kept for himself as reserve in such an eventuality. And soon, both took off in opposite directions and reached their destinations. Aspy won the Aga Khan Prize, beating JRD by two and a half hours. Imagine their grit flying through thunderstorms, high turbulence and fog, over mountains and deserts with just a map and compass. GPS did not exist then.

JRD combined in himself the magical qualities that make a great leader. Vision, magnanimity, charity, insight, decisiveness in complex situations, courage, talent for grooming younger people, and immense charisma.

While JRD also showed remarkable entrepreneurial foresight and set up Tata Motors, Titan, TCS, Voltas and Air India, he founded institutions like the Tata Memorial Centre for Cancer Research and Treatment, Tata Institute of Social Sciences and Tata Institute of Fundamental Research — which together enhanced the fortunes and the image of the Tatas, and of India.

But what were the unique traits that distinguished him to build a great airline that was both successful and endearing?

JRD could see the big picture and yet never lost sight of the finer details. He would walk the aisles, converse with passengers, make meticulous notes and follow up with letters to departmental heads. On flights, he would wipe any stains on the coffee cups and jugs. He once went into the lavatory, rolled up his sleeves and scrubbed the toilet. The airline staff got the message. With his intuitive Parisian taste for elegance (his mother was French, and he grew up in France as a child), he took great interest in the design of cabin ambience and in the attire and coiffure of the air hostesses (which never appeared like uniforms); he paid attention to the cuisine and the music that wafted through the cabin, which enchanted passengers as they came on board. With flights on time and flawless operations, Air India became the true pride and brand ambassador for the new nation that had just emerged from its dark past.

Ratan Tata’s achievements are considerable. He transformed the Tatas into a global behemoth after taking over from JRD, acquiring companies like Tetley, Jaguar and Land Rover, and Corus Steel. But when you look at the recent acquisition of Air India which is drowning in debt, with two of his other airlines also haemorrhaging cash, you begin to wonder if he is chasing a mirage, carried away by sentiment and ego in repossessing an ideal that no longer exists. It’s a starkly different world today from the JRD era.

The present generation of leaders at the helm of affairs at Tata companies were all born after the 1950s and were in their late-20s when JRD was ‘sacked’ as chairman of Air India by the Janata Party government in 1977 (although he returned to it briefly after Indira Gandhi returned to power). None of them have first-hand experience of the great leadership and managerial qualities of JRD — save for Ratan Tata, who was groomed under him, but who is now 84. We all romanticise the past, but who among the phalanx of leaders in the Tata group can fill the shoes of JRD to overcome what seems like an insurmountable challenge from the likes of Indigo, SIA and Emirates? Can an external professional CEO pull it off?

Air India is now in the kitty. Tatas must move with lightning speed. The challenges seem daunting. But everything is possible. As Walt Disney said, “If you can dream it, you can do it.”

(The writer is a soldier, farmer and entrepreneur)