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Ratan Tata's words of inspiration
August 26, 2008
On innovation:Barriers to innovation are usually in the mind.
On customers:There was a need to re-focus and look at how your customer sees you, and to pay more attention to what the customer wants rather than what you think she wants. Are you really the most cost effective producer? Are you aggressive enough to grab marketshare? Will you endeavour to dip your toe in the water and do something that you haven't done before?
On innovation:If you are a little innovative or a little bit of a gambler, and you make a product which is either ahead of its time or has an evolutionary design, or has features that work into a person's perception, then you have an acceptable product.
On questioning:I kept saying, please question the unquestionable. I tried to tell our younger managers just don't accept something that was done in the past, don't accept something as a holy cow. . . go question it. That was less of a problem than getting our senior managers not to tell the younger managers, 'Look young man, don't question me.'
On speed:Today, the world does not afford you to luxury of being a slow mover. Nor are there any holy cows. We have to be aggressive, be far-sighted enough to look into the future and we also have to be pragmatic enough to say that if we really are not in a leadership position in a particular business, we should look at exiting that business.
Image: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Ratan Tata applaud during proceedings at the '66th Annual Convocation' and the unveiling of the 'Foundation stone for Jamsetji Tata Centre for Disaster Management' at the Tata Institute of Social Science (TISS) in Mumbai. | Photograph: Sebastian D'Souza/AFP/Getty Images
Also read: All about the new Bengaluru International Airport
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