mumbai the world sat up and took notice of the tata group in the first decade of the 21st century how a string of prestigious acquisitions abroad and an unimaginably cheap car transformed the 140yearold indian business house into a global conglomerate however it will be interesting to see where the group heads for in the next decade when its charismatic chairman ratan tata makes way for a younger person to take over the reinsjust imagine at the beginning of the millennium the tata group was staring at two disappointments a huge loss of rs 550 crore at its flagship company telco now tata motors and the financial mess at tata finance however after a decade the group is a name to reckon with in the international corporate scene on the basis of ratan tatas daring acquisitions of coveted global assets starting with tetley in the fall of 2000 and moving to top gear with jaguar land rover in june 2008tata steels 13 billion corus acquisition is the largest overseas deal by an indian firm the groups revenues have jumped nine times from rs 35937 crore in the late 90s to rs 325334 crore in 200809 with 65 of the revenues coming from overseasbut apart from these bigticket deals what made the group tick was the creation of a business model that will tap the masses a model that was inspired by the bottom of the pyramid theme and heres where the nano drives in an almost impossible feat a peoples car with a rs 1 lakh tagit was the brainchild of ratan tata a capricorn who turned 72 a couple of days ago became the groups chairman in 1991 according to a a tata veteran the group has gone through three phases since then one he established control over the group which was then tightly managed by a few people two he kicked off the restructuring and restrategising programme he set a goal to be among the top three players in the businesses the group has a presence in to increase the groups minuscule holding to a comfortable position and formation of a common brand identity in the twodimensional tata blue logothird perhaps the most ambitious was building a global empire the group had some setbacks too during the decade for example the abandonment of the 3 billion investment in bangladesh pulling out the nano project from west bengal the terror attacks on its hotel taj mahal palace and tower and the financial stress it experienced as a result of the global meltdownhowever the next decade would see a major change in the tata group ratan tata would retire from tata sons in 2012 when he turns 75 to make way for a successor however he may continue to be the chairman of sir dorabji tata trust and sir ratan trust the two charitable trusts that hold a major stake in tata sons a position his predecessor jrd tata held till his death he