On a rainy day in November 2003, Tata Sons Chairman Ratan Tata noticed a family of four on a scooter - the father driving it with a young kid standing in the front, behind the handlebars and wife sitting behind him with another child on her lap.
Ratan Tata was moved by this incident and asked himself whether one could conceive of a safe, affordable, all weather form of transport for such a family.
And after four years, Ratan Tata turned his dream into reality with the launch of Nano -People's car- in Delhi.
However, it has not been a successful dream. A decade down the line, Tata Motors has stopped production of the Nano which it had billed as the ‘people’s car’ and more significantly, the ‘cheapest car’.
In class-conscious India, people did not want to be seen riding the cheapest car, rather a more expensive second-hand car at the same price apparently gave them more dignity. This branding would turn out to be Tata Motors’ biggest mistake but the damage had already been done.
Despite indications that the ‘Nano’ was no longer a viable project, Tata Motors’ continued production because Ratan Tata was emotionally attached to the ‘car’.
Now, leading business dailies across the nation have reported that as per regulatory filings by the company, there was no production and sales of the Nano in the domestic market in September this year making it the ninth consecutive month that Tata Motors has not produced the small car.
After selling just one unit in February this year, the company has also not sold a single unit of the Nano in the rest of the months so far.
Company officials have hinted that production and sales of the Nano would stop from April 2020 as Tata Motors has no plans to invest further on Ratan Tata’s ‘dream car’ to meet strict emission norms under Bharat Stage- VI and other safety regulations which would result in huge cost escalation.
Like Dhirubhai Ambani who dreamed of a mobile phone and the ‘world’ in every Indian’s pocket, Ratan Tata dreamed of a car for every common man in India.
Reliance failed initially in its mobile phone strategy, wound it up before coming back again now with Jio.
Similarly, Ratan Tata’s strategy may have failed with the Nano but there is every possibility that he will succeed with his plans in the future.
Because, these men are not merely businessmen, they are visionaries first. And it’s this factor that separates them from the pack.