NAME: RATAN NAVAL TATA AGE: 68 DESIGNATION: Chairman GROUP: Tata Group

Ratan Tata must be a delighted man. Virtually all his businesses are doing well. Tata Steel has already emerged as a steel multinational. TCS was listed in 2004. And the recent agreement between Tata Motors and Fiat is the first between an Indian auto company and a global biggie where the former is not the junior partner. Clearly, the Tata Group is at its most exciting phase; and the credit for this goes almost entirely to Tata's vision. This architect from Cornell University joined the group in 1962 and maintained a relatively low profile till his 1991 appointment as Chairman of holding company Tata Sons. The Tata Group was then a loose federation of companies presided over by high profile, almost autonomous, satraps. Tata Sons had small stakes in many of the group's crown jewels and there were serious concerns over whether the group would hold together. But Tata proved all the naysayers wrong. A very hands-on, tech-savvy business leader, he realised that the group needed a new paradigm to survive in post-reforms India. Consequently, he streamlined the sprawling empire into seven verticals: information systems and communications; engineering; materials; services; energy; consumer products and chemicals. He also assembled a crack team of professionals who helped him consolidate the group-exiting sectors that didn't hold promise and entering exciting new sectors like insurance, telecom and retail-and aggressively expand abroad. The Tatas have spent about $1 billion (Rs 4,500 crore) on a series of global acquisitions and more are in the pipeline.

Insiders say Tata delegates responsibility rather well, despite his instinctive hands-on nature. The results are clearly visible: the stodgy Rs 14,000-crore group he took over 15 years ago is now a cohesive, Rs 80,000-crore conglomerate and, arguably, the best known Indian MNC in the world. But Tata expects the group to emerge even bigger. "More importantly, I hope the group comes to be regarded as being the best in India-best in the manner in which we operate, best in the products we deliver, and best in our value systems and ethics. Having said that, I hope that a hundred years from now, we will spread our wings far beyond India," he said recently. That hope is already being fulfilled.