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The man behind all of these was Burjorji Padshah, a loyal employee of the Tatas and also related to them. His father and Jamsetji had been close friends and Jamsetji cemented the relationship by marrying off his daughter to Burjorji. Those were the days of child marriage. Unfortunately, the little bride died at the age of ten. Burjorji’s father too died when Burjorji was young and the responsibility of managing the family was taken up by Jamsetji.
Burjorji was a very bright child, clearing his matriculation exam by the time he was thirteen. He enrolled in Elphinstone College, bagging scholarships all through. After studying mathematics at Cambridge University, he took up a job as an assistant professor at a college in Karachi. Jamsetji sent his own son, Ratan, to study under him there. Later, when Burjorji learnt that a British national had been given preference over him for the post of professor, he resigned in protest and returned to Bombay. His mind turned to social work and he wanted to support Gopal Krishna Gokhale’s Bharat Sewak Samaj. However, Jamsetji convinced him to work for him.
Aware of Burjorji’s academic brilliance, Jamsetji told him to travel the world. We want to create a world-class institution of science, he said to him, and I want you to see the world and learn from the best. So, Burjorji travelled to many great institutions and reported back. It was he who suggested that the proposed institute be modelled on Johns Hopkins University in the US, and IISc was duly built on the lines suggested by Burjorji. Eventually, he became Jamsetji’s right-hand man in all his projects. His ability with numbers was well known and he was the man to approach in case anyone wanted to understand the complex economics of any project. His presence was of great help to Dorabji and Ratanji after Jamsetji’s death.
He remained responsible for all factory purchases and travelled extensively across the world searching for the best equipment. World War I had just ended and everyone was scrambling to get global business and economics in order. Everyone was keen to get things stabilized as soon as possible. A trip of Burjorji’s during that period took him to Japan from America to assess business opportunities now that peace had been established. On the long sea journey, he befriended one Edward Thomson, who was an advisor in the area of cooking oil production. Burjorji recalled Jamsetji commenting once, ‘We must get into the business of cooking oil. After all, we produce millions of coconuts but we do not produce the oil from it.’
Thomson proposed starting a factory for coconut oil, describing factories in the Philippines that produced coconut oil, adding, ‘The Americans love this business. It has high margins of nearly 70 per cent.’ Burjorji promptly suggested Edward submit a detailed project plan, since he knew it had been Jamsetji’s wish to start a factory that produced coconut oil. Edward’s enthusiasm knew no bounds. He suggested three factories instead of one. He insisted there was huge demand from America. He also suggested creating downstream products from the solid residue left after the extraction of oil.
The Tata management, dreaming of the new project, was unaware that Edward had hidden a critical aspect which could turn the dream into a nightmare. America had invested a lot of money in the Philippines, which was under their control. India was a British territory and the Americans naturally preferred to do business within their own dominion. Besides, their investments in the Philippines were about to flower. Edward had waxed eloquent about American demand but had failed to mention it would primarily be met by coconuts from the Philippines, not so much from India.
Excerpted from Pg 35-36 of Tatas: How a family built a business and a nation by Girish Kuber