The man who dared Ratan Tata

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Editor's note: In August 2003, I co-authored a cover story titled “The Enigma called Pallonji Mistry” for Businessworld magazine. That was when Tata Consultancy Services, the Tata group’s most valuable business and one that funded much of its investments and covered its losses, was being carved out as a separate company from the group’s holding company, Tata Sons, to be listed on the stock exchanges. The biggest single beneficiary would be Pallonji Mistry—the real estate tycoon and then chairman of the Shapoorji Pallonji Group—who held an 18.4% stake in Tata Sons. After nine decades of being an investor in the Tata group, Pallonji would finally be able to impute some direct value to his investment with the TCS listing. It was a tough story to do. No one wanted to say a word about “the phantom of Bombay House”. His executives declined to speak. A senior Tata Sons director invited me to his office and, after politely listening to all my questions, smiled and said “interesting”. A retired director of the group called me home and told me about Pallonji’s involvement in …