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Ratan Tatas successor: Spirit of enterprise runs deep in Cyrus Mistrys family Cyrus Mistry Very little is known about th Cyrus Mistry, the heir apparent of the Tata empire, has an entrepreneurial legacy going back to the turn of the last century.The familys beginnings were humble. His grandfather, Shapoorji Pallonji Mistry (born 1889), lived in a small lower middle-class Parsi house with 11 siblings at Khetwadi, Grant Road in south Bombay. He executed his first independent job of constructing the Girgaum Chowpatty pavement around 100 years ago. Everyday, young Shapoor and his father Pallonji would walk to work from home to save the two-anna tram fare. He made a profit of Rs 2,000 on the footpath contract within six months, said Jamsheed Kanga, who was municipal commissioner of Mumbai in the mid-1980s. The now-retired IAS officer dug into the Mistry family history some years ago and wrote an exhaustive chapter on Cyruss grandfather as part of a compilation, Parsis of the 20th Century, edited by Nawaz B Mody. Pallonji (Cyruss great grandfather) had started a small construction firm in partnership with an Englishman, Littlewood, called Littlewood Pallonji and Company. It was one of the firms involved in constructing the Malabar Hill reservoir. But Pallonji struggled to make ends meet and welcomed his son Shapoorji into the business. After executing the Chowpatty foothpath construction project, young Shapoorji realised that this business could be profitable-earning Rs 2,000 in six months was what many graduates could not achieve and he could do so without being a matriculate. With his smartness and intelligence he picked up the nuances of the trade very quickly and was of great assistance to his elderly father, said Kanga. Back |
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