Now Reading: JRD Tata on wealth: Money stinks when piled, grows when spread
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JRD Tata on wealth: Money stinks when piled, grows when spread
Jehangir Ratanji Dadabhoy Tata, former chairman of Tata Sons, famously compared money to manure, saying it 'stinks when you pile it; it grows when you spread it.' He used the analogy repeatedly…
The Story in Brief
Jehangir Ratanji Dadabhoy Tata, former chairman of Tata Sons, famously compared money to manure, saying it 'stinks when you pile it; it grows when you spread it.' He used the analogy repeatedly in conversations, letters and meetings to explain the Tata Group’s philosophy of corporate social responsibility.
JRD Tata, born in 1904, founded Air India in 1932 as Tata Air Mail and led the group for over five decades, expanding into chemicals, automobiles and IT. He argued that hoarded wealth stagnates and causes corruption, while investing or sharing it creates jobs and builds communities.
The Indian Opinion
JRD Tata’s manure analogy is often cited to praise corporate charity without examining how profits were made first. The lazy narrative that any wealth concentration is automatically evil ignores the reality that Tata himself built a Rs 100-lakh-crore group through disciplined capitalism. The real test is whether companies pay fair wages and taxes before spreading leftovers as philanthropy. Will today’s billionaires match his record of building national institutions, not just writing cheques?
Source: businesstoday.in
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