Thread by @mariogabriele

V excited to share this.

One of my favorite writers/ppl @packyM + I dug into Tata Group. It's wilder than I'd imagined.

- 152 yrs old
- Started as an opium exporter
- Key to Swadeshi movement
- Dominated by consulting
- Wants to be the next Super App?

readthegeneralist.com/briefing/tata

1/

Tata's a truly historic company.

It was founded by Jamsetji Tata, who began by expanding his father's exporting business before opening his own cotton mill:

"The Empress Mills."

2/

Jamsetji did some unreal things at Empress Mills, things that were way ahead of his times.

- Supplied clean water
- Access to credit
- Access to education/library
- Accident insurance

3/

Jamsetji's ambitions grew over the years. He settled on four big goals.

1. Bring iron manufacturing (back) to India.
2. Open a great tech university.
3. Built a hotel to encourage tourism.
4. Bring hydropower to Bombay.

He lived to see 1 of those come to life (hotel).

4/

Jamsetji's son, Dorabji, took over the business in 1904.

He was responsible for making the remaining three goals happen.

1. Tata opened a steel and iron division (TISCO)
2. Tata built a hydroelectric facility in Bombay
3. Tata opened the Indian Institute of Science

5/

JRD Tata wasn't a direct descendent of Jamsetji, but a cousin.

When he started in 1938, Tata had 14 businesses. When he left, it had 95.

7/

Ratan Tata took over the company in 1991.

Whereas Tata had been a loose conglomerate under JRD, Ratan tied the divisions back together and rebuilt ownership.

8/

Ratan also went on a buying spree.

He picked up companies like Land Rover, Jaguar, and Tetley's tea.

9/

After some Succession-style drama, Ratan was replaced by a steady hand: Natarajan Chandrasekaran ("Chandra").

He's in place today and is in the process of modernizing Tata.

It's no easy task.

10/

Why?

Well, for one thing, Tata has a *lot* of companies. Over 100.

That's hard to manage and means Tata group doesn't really have a clear identity.

11/

Secondly, not all of them are doing so well. Tata is really dominated by its consulting division, TCS.

Titan watches is pretty large, as is Tata Steel. But there's a long-tail with a lot of unimpactful businesses.

12/

There are also some major drags on the company with some divisions holding a ton of debt.

- Tata Steel: $11.6b debt
- Tata Power: $4.9b debt
- Tata Motors: $7.4b debt

13/

But there's hope. Chandra is making moves to bring Tata into the 21st century.

Most ambitiously, he wants to create a Tata super app...

14/

That sounds crazy. Tata doesn't have a messaging app to leverage or a P2P payment provider.

But Chandra's putting some interesting pieces in place:

- Buying 1mg, digital pharmacy
- Invested $200M in BigBasket, digital grocery
- Has a strong retail presence

15/

A company that's a century and a half old can't be fully summarized in a 280 character thread.

To dig in check out the piece and subscribe below. You'll be joining 33,000 others that use The Generalist to gain an edge.

readthegeneralist.com/briefing/tata

And, of course, most importantly, if you're able to, I'd encourage you to donate to India's covid-relief. Both @packyM and I have donated to organizations we trust.

Some strong resources:

nymag.com/strategist/art…

nytimes.com/article/india-…