10 hard-hitting questions Suhel Seth asked Ratan Tata

On Wednesday, Network18 announced it had the “biggest interview of the decade” slated for 9pm. Unfortunately, what we got instead was Ratan Tata, the former Chairman of Tata Sons, and interviewer Suhel Seth. Seth, known for his coiffure, is also the managing partner of Counselage, a brand marketing consultancy firm whose clients include Tata Steel, Tata Power, Taj Group of Hotels and Tata Elxsi.

We’d say ‘conflict of interest’ but the only conflict was deciding who fawned more.

We’re not sure what happened to the ‘biggest interview of the decade’ but clearly this PR exercise was a last minute substitution for something actually worth our 50 minutes.

It might be unfair to take Seth to task for not asking hard-hitting questions to a man who was a part of the biggest corporate spat of 2016, since he does sign his paycheques after all. But it is baffling that there was no mention of the Cyrus Mistry-Ratan Tata boardroom battle. Did we imagine it?

In the interests of sparing you, we’ve managed to curtail this ‘spectacle’ to 10 of the most interesting (debatable) questions.

1. Ratan Tata Trust will be completing 125 years of its existence. The first of the trusts. When you look back at the work Tata Trust has done, what do you feel and what ignites this feeling of compassion and giving back?
– What is this question even?

2. What do you think went through the minds of the founders, when they set this up especially transferring their value in Tata Sons to the Trust?
– I suppose ‘keep our wealth safe’ would be too obvious an answer?

3. The one thing that a lot of people talk about is the Tata culture, the Tata way of life. When you’re working for Tata, it’s almost as if you’re working for a family, on the other, it’s almost as if you’re part of a legacy. How have successive leaders managed to retain the Tata culture in times which are sadly materialistic, competitive, how have you maintained that culture?

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4. Has it been tough to stick by these values, especially during the times when values were being compromised for politics or competition. Were there times you often felt that “thank god, we’re not the short-cut Tatas”?
– What are these values? And the short-cut Tatas are 100 per cent, a show on Colors that we would watch!

5. What was it like growing up (in Mumbai) and I know the personal trauma you went through on 26/11. What went through your mind that evening? I remember you rushed to the Taj to see what was happening. What went through your mind? And it must’ve broken your heart to a great extent…
– What a whiplash of emotions, tell us about your childhood and quickly switch to when your hotel was attacked by terrorists. While an important question, it is important to note, people died in this horrific attack, the damage done to a hotel in comparison seems…tawdry, in our humble opinion.

6. You’ve seen Prime Ministers, you’ve seen governments at work, at the state level, at the international level. India is at an exciting time, at an exciting place. What are your views about Narendra Modi?
– Wait, were we not bemoaning the zeitgeist for being materialistic and competitive and lacking in values? Now it’s exciting? The times, they are a changing, clearly.

7. I don’t think you’ll ever be free, in a sense, I’m sure Chandra (Chairman of Tata Sons) comes to you, seeks your advice. He too needs a mentor. You’ve done so much, from flying planes to running conglomerates to sitting on international boards, what’s the one thing that continues to drive you to this day?
– At this point, Seth seems to be reading out Tata’s LinkedIn profile.

8. Now that you’re at arm’s length from operations at the Tata Group, what excites you the most about the Group and what worries you the most, if anything worries you at all?
– What started out as a straightforward question seemed to turn ominous by its end, who is free from worry in these exciting/trying times?

9. So that’s the trust, what excites you about the house of Tata, the industrial bit and what worries you the most if anything?
– Wasn’t this just asked?

10. You still have multifarious hobbies from tinkering and driving cars to flying planes to reading to architecture. Do you think in some way, this cross-functionality shaped you?
– Tinkering is now a hobby? Also, this is Ratan Tata, the man at the helm of a $100 billion conglomerate, surely, we can find more questions than what he does when he’s bored?

There were a few more questions about his hobbies, and his achievements. What should have been a fascinating insight into one of the most powerful people in the country unfolded like a shaadi.com profile instead.