Nothing succeeds likes success. The entire world kowtowed before Ratan N Tata, Chairman of Tata Group and Tata Motors, after he unveiled the cheapest Rs 1 lakh small car, Nano, before the world at the 9th Auto Expo at Pragati Maidan on January 10. In a flash of seconds he proved that he was not a mere dreamer, but a winner too who can help tens of millions of growing middle class Indians to realize their dreams of owning a car. He also changed the dynamics of auto industry and silenced scores of his detractors.

But Ratan Tata has also faced brickbats from satraps in the Tata Empire after he took over as Chairman of Tata Sons in 1991 and from rivals in the India Inc who had dismissed him as a man of no consequence with little business sense. Tata took over from his uncle and legendary JRD Tata when India opened its gates of liberalization and it fell on the shoulders of a Cornell-trained architect to re-engineer the family's big business to explore and exploit the emerging new economic opportunities at home and abroad.

Thanks to his vision and guidance, the group commands a leading position in information technology (TCS, CMC), steel (Tata Steel), chemicals (Tata Chemicals), tea (Tata Tea) and hospitality (Indian Hotels). Tata's name is reaching new geographies through an aggressive 'merger and acquisition' around the globe. The group has a presence in 40 countries and exports to 140. In 2007 Ratan Tata successfully engineered the group's acquisition of Europe's largest steelmaker, Corus, in a US $ 12-billion deal that has been hailed as a turning point for the Indian business.

In his recent book, India's Global Wealth Club, Geoff Hiscock, a leading expert on Asian business observes: "The Corus takeover, the biggest yet by an Indian company, was one more step in a 15- year process that has seen Ratan Tata reorganize and rejuvenate a group widely seen as too unwieldy, lethargic and under-performing." Tatas continue their acquisition spree around the globe and is likely to pursue more in the coming months.

When Tata revealed his dream of making a 'people's car', analysts predicted his ruin. His rival car maker Maruti Suzuki Corporation that holds fifty percent of the passenger car market,ex-chief Osamu Suzuki dismissed the feasibility of such a low-priced car and that it cannot be produced without compromising on safety and environmental standards. Now that Tata has done it, his detractors are eating their words fearing about their bottom lines that may go southward in years to come. Time and again Ratan Tata has proved that he is not the business dum dum or untalented he was made out to be by his detractors and that he had not got the job just because of his surname. No doubt, by dreaming of 'Nano' and delivering it, Rata Tata has shown the world that he not only inherited the mantle of the vast Tata empire but also the legacy of JRD of being the most respected and admired businessman in India.