He did not shy away from joining the crew to clean a dirty aircraft toilet.
"If he saw a dirty airline counter, he would shame everyone by requesting a duster and wiping it himself. On one occasion he rolled up his selves and helped the crew clean a dirty aircraft toilet. From the inside decor to the colour of the air hostess' saris; from wordings on-air India hoardings to the availability of toilet paper in lavatories onboard, JRD set high benchmarks in hands-on-leadership."
'The Tata group: from torchbearers to trailblazers' presents a biographical sketch of the Tata group of companies by tracing its history.
Replete with riveting tales, the book traces the history of 25 Tata group companies using insider accounts from 100 senior Tata leaders. Published by Penguin, the book will be available in the market from next month.
Tata would take great personal care of passengers even when flying as passengers himself many times he wandered about on flights making notes of tiny details that needed to be fixed, from the level to which mine was poured into a wine glass to the hairstyle of air hostesses.
"He was particularly concerned that the high standards of air India international should not be adversely affected by nationalization. Over the next twenty-five year, through personal commitment, he maintained high standards of service at Air India, which enjoyed an excellent reputation among passengers."
The remarkable success story of Tata airlines also holds business management lessons for present-day airlines which are facing losses year after year.
The airlines founded in 1932 had made a profit of Rs 6 lakh in the fifth year of operation and maintained punctuality at 99.4%.
"Over the years, air India developed a fine reputation for its high-class onboard service that was talked about with administration and envy by its global competitors. In the 1950s when British Airways introduced a jet service that cut a few hours off the trip, passengers still preferred to fly by Air India's slower propeller-driven aircraft, simply because of the way they were pampered onboard."
Air India's downfall began in the 1990s and 2016-2017 the national carrier's total losses accumulated to a staggering Rs 47,145.62 crore. Earlier in the year, the government's plan to offload 76% of Air India's equity share capital as well as transfer management control to private players failed as the sale did not attract any interest.