ratan tata biography harper collins

Biographer of Ratan Tata

Harpercollins publishers acquires global publishing rights to the biography of ratan n. tata by dr. thomas mathew.

London/India/US, embargoed until 7 January 2022, 4 p.m. IST

HarperCollins today announced that it has acquired rights to publish the biography of legendary business figure Ratan N. Tata, who is counted among the most influential and inspirational leaders in the world. Ratan N. Tata: The Biography by Dr. Thomas Mathew will be published globally by HarperCollins in all formats in November 2022.

Udayan Mitra at HarperCollins India acquired world rights in all languages from Anish Chandy at Labyrinth Literary Agency. The book will be published by HarperCollins India in English and the principal Indian languages, by HarperCollins Leadership in the US and by William Collins in the UK.

Ratan Tata’s story is that of a man who overcame extraordinary travails and whose compassion took priority over business compulsions, uniquely achieving both goals. As the head of India’s oldest and largest business house, his story also encapsulates the narrative of India’s growing ambitions on the world stage and rising clout in the last few decades.

Ratan Tata turned the Tata conglomerate into a glob of this book will be a global publishing event of significance!’al colossus, daring to acquire the marquee brands of Tetley Tea, Jaguar Land Rover and Corus Steel, among others. Today, the group is India’s most valuable brand and amongst the most respected worldwide, with a market capitalization of over $250 billion that employs over 750,000 people – who make cars, blend tea, write software, among much else – across 100 countries.

During his momentous tenure, Ratan Tata transformed the Tata Group from a collection of disparate companies into a unified powerhouse. Today, it is one of the world’s largest business conglomerates and is greatly admired for its compassionate capitalism and trusteeship model of holding wealth.

Dr. Mathew’s comprehensive account of Ratan Tata’s life includes unknown details and fascinating stories from his formative years, the time he spent in America as a student, his return to India and his early tenure with the Tata Group. It leads up to the inspiring and engaging documentation of Mr Tata’s business strategies, leadership vision and personal integrity that have shaped the Group.

With inputs from a variety of interviewees – from the likes of former US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger to Karuna, the janitor at GT Hospital, Mumbai – this is the only comprehensive, definitive and account of Mr Tata’s life and times, his struggles and his important contributions to contemporary India. What emerges is the story of a private individual, a great industrialist and a remarkable leader who steadfastly believes, above all, in the values that he inherited, and who spent his life in the service of his fellow humans and a fledgling nation.

Speaking on the acquisition,

Ananth Padmanabhan, Chief Executive Officer of HarperCollins India, said: ‘We are absolutely delighted to be publishing the biography of Mr Ratan Tata. It’s a remarkable book on the life of an inspirational, influential and transformative personality, someone whose words and actions have changed the world around us. With unprecedented access to Mr Tata’s personal and professional life, Dr. Mathew paints a fascinating portrait of a man whose unwavering resolve to do the right thing has transformed many facets of independent India, more than any other individual or organization has. We can’t wait to publish the book in multiple formats and languages, across geographies. The publication of this book will be a global publishing event of significance!’

Udayan Mitra, Executive Publisher, HarperCollins India, added: ‘I grew up trusting in the Tatas, as I suspect generations before mine did, and as future generations will.

And behind the Tata brand that we all know is the vision of one incredible individual. Dr. Mathew’s wonderful, comprehensive biography explores the professional and private life of Ratan Tata, a man everyone respects but wouldn’t fully know if it weren’t for this book. And it celebrates his legacy: a legacy that every Indian can be truly proud of. It’s a matter of great personal pride and privilege for me to be associated with this remarkable biography, and to be able to bring this definitive and inspiring story to readers. This is quite simply the most important biography to be published in independent India.’

Arabella Pike, Publishing Director, William Collins, said: ‘We could not be more thrilled and proud to be working with Mr Ratan Tata and Dr. Thomas Mathew, and with HarperCollins India, on what I know will be a fascinating book. I look forward to publishing the definitive biography of Ratan Tata under one of the oldest and most respected publishing imprints in the world – William Collins – and helping readers throughout the UK and Europe, Australia and New Zealand discover the true story of Mr Tata’s extraordinary life and his many achievements in the industry, business and philanthropy.’

Jamie Lockard, Vice President and Publisher, Harper Leadership, said: ‘HarperCollins Leadership is excited for the opportunity to share Mr Tata’s story of his remarkable career across many continents, businesses and people with readers in the US. His rich history and the indelible lessons of leadership, innovation, brand-building, and cultivating passionate associates and consumers are central to what we do best.’

The author of the book, Dr. Thomas Mathew, added: ‘Over the last four decades, I have had the opportunity to closely observe and interact with the Indian corporate ecosystem and in the later years with Mr Ratan Tata and the Tata Group, in particular. So, when I got the opportunity to write the story of the man whose name instantly evokes intense admiration, bordering on adulation, among people across the world, I had no doubt that it would be far and away an exciting yet daunting task.

‘As part of the research, I benefitted from unprecedented access to the records of the conglomerate, the trusts that control it as well as Mr Tata’s personal documents, letters and journals. I also enjoyed virtually unfettered access to Mr Tata himself, who narrated his life story in a tell-all fashion. The research also took me across continents following Ratan Tata’s journey, interviewing those who were involved in it, those who influenced him and those whose lives he had touched.

‘My literary agent, Anish Chandy, has done a creditable job of putting together this global publishing deal by selecting HarperCollins.

‘I hope readers find the extraordinary and inspiring life journey of Mr Tata as gripping as I did while putting this book together.’

Issued by: Aman Arora, HarperCollins India Email: [email protected]

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Dr. Thomas Mathew (https://thomasmathew.com) is a retired career bureaucrat belonging to the 1983 batch of the Indian Administrative Service. With a passion for writing, he has several publications to his credit, including four books – In Search of Congruence: India-US Relations under the Obama Administration (edited and contributed to its lead chapter), The Winged Wonders of Rashtrapati Bhavan and Abode Under the Dome. He regularly writes opinion pieces for leading dailies.

Dr. Mathew holds a PhD degree from Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, and is a Bachelor of Law from Delhi University. He has worked in key roles in the Ministries of Finance, Defence and Industry, amongst others. He subsequently served as Additional Secretary to President of India Pranab Mukherjee.

Dr. Mathew met Ratan Tata in a professional capacity about three decades ago. They continued their interactions due to their shared interests. In 2018, Dr. Mathew began work on the biography of Ratan Tata.

Now retired, he serves on the board of several companies and is consulted on corporate matters. He lives in Gurugram, pursuing his passion of writing, nature conservation and photography.

ABOUT HARPERCOLLINS INDIA

HarperCollins India publishes some of the finest writers from the Indian Subcontinent and around the world, publishing approximately 200 new books every year, with a print and digital catalogue of more than 2,000 titles across 10 imprints. Its authors have won almost every major literary award including the Man Booker Prize, JCB Prize, DSC Prize, New India Foundation Award, Atta Galatta Prize, Shakti Bhatt Prize, Gourmand Cookbook Award, Publishing Next Award, Tata Literature Live! Award, Gaja Capital Business Book Prize, BICW Award, Sushila Devi Award, Sahitya Akademi Award and Crossword Book Award. HarperCollins India also represents some of the finest publishers in the world including Harvard University Press, Gallup Press, Oneworld, Bonnier Zaffre, Usborne, Dover and Lonely Planet. HarperCollins India has been awarded the Publisher of the Year Award four times: at Tata Literature Live! in 2021, 2018 and 2016 and at Publishing Next in 2015. HarperCollins India is a subsidiary of HarperCollins Publishers.

ABOUT HARPERCOLLINS

HarperCollins Publishers is the second largest consumer book publisher in the world, with operations in 17 countries. With 200 years of history and more than 120 branded imprints around the world, HarperCollins publishes approximately 10,000 new books every year in 16 languages, and has a print and digital catalogue of more than 200,000 titles. Writing across dozens of genres, HarperCollins authors include winners of the Nobel Prize, the Pulitzer Prize, the National Book Award, the Newbery and Caldecott Medals and the Man Booker Prize. HarperCollins, headquartered in New York, is a subsidiary of News Corp (Nasdaq: NWS, NWSA; ASX: NWS, NWSLV) and can be visited online at corporate.HC.com.

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What happened to Ratan Tata's authorised biography that HarperCollins acquired in a record deal

Ratan Tata's biography was acquired by HarperCollins for Rs 2 crore, a record in the history of non-fiction publishing in India

Though Ratan Tata remained a titan in India Inc, no movie was ever made on him. He has penned several books about leadership and innovation, but for those eager to read about the entrepreneur's life, the tidbits only came from his rare interviews and biographies. 

But, the reports about his first authorised biography generated huge buzz after HarperCollins acquired the deal for a price of Rs 2 crore, a record in the history of non-fiction publishing in India.

Titled Ratan N. Tata: A Life, written by former senior bureaucrat and retired IAS officer Thomas Mathew, was tipped as the most anticipated release of the year 2023. It was said that the book contained anecdotes of Ratan Tata from interviewees who range from US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger to Karuna to the janitor at GT Hospital, Mumbai.

The fact that Mathew had access to the private papers, correspondence and photographs of Ratan Tata over the past decades made it a much-anticipated read.

Harper Collins had initially planned to release the book on November 2022, which was later pushed to March 30 2023, However, they had to further defer the release date to February 5. The release did not happen and the publisher has not yet given any update.

 Though Mathew had shared the manuscript with Ratan Tata in 2022, reports indicated that his close aides, including some of the family members, were still considering the material that would be published in the book. 

"Less than half a dozen people know the real reason behind the delay," an executive with the publisher told The Mint in February. He added that a man of Ratan Tata's stature needed time to process all that should be published. "Before you conclude on what parts are being objected to, please appreciate that this is an authorised book," he said, adding that the author and the publisher have no objection to removing anything. 

The book is also said to have contained details of Tata's personal life and unreported events that led to the ouster of former Tata Sons chairman Cyrus Mistry. 

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Ratan Tata : A Life

By Thomas Mathew

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About the book

Ratan Tata was one of the most influential and inspirational personalities of our time–an iconic business leader who was instrumental in transforming independent India’s industrial landscape.

Established in 1868, the Tata Group spans a gamut of industries, from salt to steel to software, and is synonymous with quality and trust. It operates in more than 100 countries, impacting the lives of billions of people around the world. The abiding goodwill and respect that the Tata brand carries today can be traced back largely to the vision and integrity of one individual who spearheaded the conglomerate for over two decades–Ratan Tata.

Starting out as a novice on the shop floor of a Tata company, Ratan Tata achieved an unequalled growth rate for the Tata Group as chairman and took India to the world through global acquisitions, overcoming many serious challenges along the way.

This fascinating biography traces Ratan Tata’s years in immaculate detail, from his lonely childhood to his irrepressible youthful exuberance, from his first major role in the conglomerate to being appointed chairman of Tata Sons in 1991 and his role as the head of Tata Trusts, India’s largest philanthropic enterprise. It is as much a story of determination and an unwavering commitment to enduring principles and values as it is a testament to achieving unprecedented corporate success.

Drawing on hundreds of hours of interviews with Ratan Tata, his family, friends, former colleagues and business associates, and filled with previously unknown facts, anecdotes and the author’s insights, this is a comprehensive account of a life the likes of which the world has seldom seen.

Available in: Hardback

Language: English

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• Biography, Memoir and True Story
• Economics, Finance, Business and Management
• NON FICTION
• About the Author

Thomas Mathew

Thomas Mathew is a retired bureaucrat who has held key positions over a three-decade career in the Indian Administrative Service. He is a law graduate from Delhi University and holds a doctorate in International Relations from Jawaharlal Nehru University.

During his career, he pioneered groundbreaking policies in the defence and finance ministries, including unrestricted foreign direct investment in the defence industry in India and the direct participation of foreigners in the Indian equity market.

Mathew first met Ratan Tata about three decades ago, and they stayed in touch due to shared interests. Mathew’s understanding of global policies and the corporate landscape equipped him to write this biography.

Mathew serves on the board of several large Indian companies and offers advice on corporate, defence and policy matters. He lives in Gurugram, pursuing his passion for writing, nature conservation and photography.

More about the author at thomasmathew.com

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Ratan Tata: A Life – The Early Years of Ratan Tata

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