Tuesday, December 14, 2010

Something about Tata

Noel N. Tata has been one of the most reclusive business honchos in India. And he insists that it's his nature that makes him that way-and not a desire to keep a low profile. To our pleasant surprise, we found Tata an extremely engaging conversationalist, as he went about debunking common theories and wisdom about organised retail- a business he lives and breathes. Excerpts from his first full-length interview:

BT: It's 10 years now that you have been with Trent. What do you see yourself doing in the future?

NT: There is so much more to do now at Trent that there is little time to think about anything else. Usually, I am on a six-and-a-half-day week. The rest is time left for family and often if I have to visit a place like Nashik or Pune to look at a store, a Sunday is the best day to go for it. So, I have little time left after that. And retail is a detailed business-you cannot get away from it. You have to keep revisiting your stores. Even on a holiday I might see a little shop somewhere doing something special and I start thinking-now we can do that, too. This is a business I have a passion for and I feel I am lucky to have had the opportunity to work in this business. Each of the top five players in hypermarkets can build a business worth more than Rs 20,000 crore in the next 20 years.

No comments:

Post a Comment