The chip industry has swept the world.
Not long ago, India's first consortium "Tata Group" announced that it would invest $90 billion in the next five years to support chip localization.
In addition to chips, the Tata Group is also preparing to negotiate the acquisition of the iPhone foundry set up in India, and projects such as the development of one-stop super apps for new energy vehicles have also been put on the agenda.
What is the origin of such a Tata Group?
There is a joke in South Korea that any Korean cannot survive from three things, taxes, death and Samsung.
In fact, replacing South Korea with India and Samsung with Tata is not a joke
As a group of companies with more than 100 companies and more than 30 listed companies, Tata Group is a "too strong to have no friends" giant in India.
The entrepreneurial history of this group is quite legendary.
The founder of the Tata Group, Jamshetji Tata, originated from the Parsi, an ethnic minority in India, an ethnic group that may number less than 100,000.
India in the 19th century was colonized by the British.
The identity of a minority made Jamshetji, who followed his father to the north and south at the age of 14, have a unique entrepreneurial advantage during this period. After all, the British are also convinced that in the racially strict India, how much storm can a businessman from an ethnic group with a weak population base make?
In 1868, after seeing the vast commercial system of the British colonists, Jamshetji founded his own export company in Mumbai and used the profits to create a textile mill, the predecessor of the Tata Group.
Jamshetjee was a nationalist businessman with a lot of feelings, and he believed that if India was to revitalize, it had to have its own steel industry.
So, in 1901, Jamshetji started India's first steel mill.
In addition to this, Jamshetji is also involved in areas such as hydropower engineering. He built India's first hydroelectric power station and the famous Taj Mahal Palace Hotel.
In 1904, Jamshetji died. In accordance with his living will, the Tata Group was inherited by his two sons.
In the hands of these two men, the Tata Group went from strength to strength, with the brothers building India's first cement plant, India's first homegrown insurance company, and a university offering huge scholarships to support India's aspiring young people to pursue their studies in Europe.
After the outbreak of World War I, due to the demand for steel in the war, the brothers took over the "Tata Steel" company, which accounted for more than 50% of the annual steel production in India, and became one of the largest steel mills in the world at that time.
In 1932, Jamshetji's eldest son died, and since the younger son died before his elder brother, the family was finally handed over to the elder Tata's nephew, Jahanji Tata, after both of them had no children.
It turned out to be a wise appointment.
From 1938 to 1988, when he took the helm, Jahanji Tata completed the rapid expansion of the Tata Group in 50 years.
As one of India's first pilots, Jahanji used his connections to start an airmail business and gradually expanded it into "Tata Air".
In 1946, Tata Air was successfully listed and renamed "Air India", becoming the first listed company under the Tata Group.
In the following decades, under Jahanji's decision-making, the Tata Group was involved in mining, metallurgy, machinery, chemicals, oil extraction, power and other fields, and the number of subsidiaries under the group also expanded from 14 when Jahanji took over to 95.
In 1991, Jahanji Tata's nephew, Ratan Tata, took over as chairman of the board of directors and became the fourth generation of the family.
At this time, almost all countries in the world, including India, were in an economic crisis, and the Tata Group, a century-old enterprise, inevitably bred the stubborn diseases of large enterprises such as overcrowding.
With a double degree from Cornell University and Harvard University, Ratan is extremely intelligent and capable.
From the very beginning of his tenure, he carried out a radical reform of the Group: more than 100 subsidiaries were reorganized into seven divisions, their own management framework was established, and mergers and acquisitions were carried out externally.
By the time of Rattan's temporary retirement in 2011, hundreds of overseas companies had been acquired by the Tata Group and its subsidiaries, accounting for more than 50% of its overseas revenue, making it one of the top global groups.
During his tenure, Ratan has been practicing de-family operations and establishing a modern corporate system, and he himself has been actively looking for a non-family member to succeed the Tata Group, but the results have not been satisfactory.
After a series of comparative screenings, Ratan finally decided in 2011 to appoint Indian construction industry tycoon Cyrus Mistry as chairman of the Tata Group.
However, in September 2022, Cyrus Mistry was tragically killed in a car accident at the age of 54.
After the accident, all walks of life in India issued a message of mourning, and Indian Prime Minister Modi also declared that the death of Sellers Mistry was a loss for Indian industry and commerce.
Although there has been a lot of power struggle within the Tata Group's top brass since then, no one can hide its glory.
Today, the Tata Group operates in more than 100 countries and regions around the world, with a total of more than 800,000 employees, covering almost all areas of people's livelihood in India.
Almost every Indian is using Tata Group's products all the time, from life to death, and even Xiaomi mobile phones have now entered India and accepted Ratan Tata's personal investment.
In 2022, Tata Group's operating revenue reached $110 billion, ranking first among Indian conglomerates.
In parallel with the pursuit of technology, the Tata Group is also committed to the development of philanthropy.
The Tata family has an unwritten practice of donating their fortune to a charitable foundation set up by the group when a member dies.
As the founder of the group of the original donor, Jamsetterjee has become the world's most valuable philanthropist with a donation of 670 billion yuan in the past 100 years, far exceeding Bill Gates, who donated 480 billion yuan.
Helping others, serving the society, achieving oneself, and business are the greatest charity in a society.
This may be the key to the Tata Group's succession to this day.
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The author of this article | The moon is born in the sea
Editor-in-Charge | Faint emerald
Curated | Blue orange