Three Indians including Ratan Tata named in Forbes greatest living business minds list

Founder Naresh Goyal talks with Tata and Etihad for investment in airline to keep it afloat. (Image: Reuters)

Three Indians have been included into the list of 100 greatest living business minds released by Forbes. Ratan Tata, Chairman Emeritus of the salt-to-software conglomerate; Lakshmi Mittal, CEO and Chairman of world’s largest steel producer, Arcelor Mittal; and Vinod Khosla, the founder of VC firm Khosla Ventures have featured in ‘the greatest ever collection of business essayists and greatest ever portrait portfolio in business history’.

Apart from these three, the list includes names like Jeff Bezos, Mark Zuckerberg, Warren Buffett, Bill Gates, Muhammad Yunus, Donald Trump and Masayoshi Son.

Ratan Tata: He is the Chairman Emeritus of Tata group under whose leadership, the revenue of the group touched USD 100 billion in 2011-12. An alumni of Cornell University and Harvard Business School, he is a recipient of the second highest civilian awards of India—Padma Vibhushan.

His message: Be passionate in areas relevant to you, and be a voice that is respected and abreast of developments.

Net worth: Not Available

Vinod Khosla: The India-born American businessman and engineer was the co-founder of Sun Microsystem which is credited to develop Java programming language. The company was later acquired by Oracle in 2010. His venture has invested in companies like Academia.edu, BioConsortia, Checkr among others.

His message: I explicitly don't build or guard my reputation. I believe in telling it like it is and not worrying about it.

Net worth: USD 1.82 Billion (Source: Forbes, as on September 20)

Lakhsmi Mittal: The Indian steel baron is the second richest Indian in the world after Mukesh Ambani. Under his guidance, ArcelorMittal waded through tumultuous times and registered a profit of 1.8 billion at a time when the world was dealing with steel over-production. This was the first time the company posted a profit since 2011. The company had lost USD 7.9 billion in 2015.

His message: Every industry today has to fight complacency, prepare to see the disruption coming and then be flexible enough to adapt swiftly.

Net worth: USD 16.5 Billion (Source: Forbes, as on September 20)