"The Tatas are inspirational; I had to write the full story": Harish Bhat

You are a regular columnist for Mint and now an author. What propelled you to write this book?
There are two things that propelled me to write this book, Firstly I have worked 25 years with the Tata Group and have been greatly inspired by many stories that I have seen of the Tata Group - some stories I have participated in and some that I have seen as a member of the Tata Group, but from outside its organisations.

So for instance, the Tanishq story I have been a part of. But other stories like Okhamandal or Tata Indica, I have seen from outside and admired greatly.

So I thought to myself that there are many inspiring stories from the Tata Group which have not really been told in a manner that reaches out to a large number of people.

As I said if these stories are written well, it can inspire many youngsters, young managers and entrepreneurs to change their dreams and achieve what the Tata Group has achieved over the last several years. That was the first drive to write this book.

The second reason is my passion for writing. If I were not a manager, I would be a writer. I love the written word and expressions and that's why I keep writing for newspapers and other publications. So writing this book came from the confidence of those two drives - the inspiring stories seen within the Tata Group and my passion for writing.

How different is it to author a book from writing a column?
Authoring a book requires you to live the book day in and day out. Writing a column is two to three hours of work. It's about structuring your thoughts on a specific topic and putting it down. Once you file your column, it's out of your way. And you don't think too much about it anymore. Writing a column is very limited in terms of the time and energy it demands.