Quote of the Day by JRD Tata: ‘If you want excellence, you must aim at...’

“If you want excellence, you must aim at perfection. It makes you go into detail that you can avoid. It takes a lot of energy out of you, but that's the only way you finally actually achieve excellence. So in that sense, being finicky is essential,” a quote by JRD Tata, former chairman of Tata Sons and the Tata Group.

JRD Tata popularised this specific phrasing to describe his philosophy on corporate responsibility and perfection. The quote is deeply tied to his multi-decade tenure as Chairman of the Tata Group (1938-1991), where he believed that you must hold yourself and your team to a premium standard.

Who was JRD Tata?

Jehangir Ratanji Dadabhoy Tata (July 29, 1904-November 29, 1993) was a French-born Indian industrialist, philanthropist, aviator and former chairman of Tata Sons and the Tata Group. 

JRD Tata was an Indian businessman and aviation pioneer who created India’s first airline and oversaw the dramatic expansion of the Tata Group, India’s largest industrial empire. 

Tata surrendered his French citizenship in 1929, and that same year, he became one of the first Indians to gain a commercial pilot’s license. In 1932, Tata established Tata Air Mail, a courier service connecting Karachi, Ahmedabad, Bombay, and Madras (now Chennai).  

In 1938, when Tata took charge as chairman of the Tata Group, he was, at age 34, the youngest member of the Tata Sons board. He rebranded his airmail service as Tata Airlines, making it India’s first domestic carrier, and in 1946, he changed the rapidly growing company’s name to Air India.  

Over the next half-century, Tata strengthened existing businesses such as steel, power, and hotels and drove the group to diversify its interests to include chemicals, automobiles, pharmaceuticals, financial services, and information technology. 

When was this quote said by JRD Tata?   

This legendary quote by JRD Tata, the visionary former chairman of the Tata Group, perfectly captures his uncompromising philosophy on quality and leadership. Originally shared during a candid 1981 interview with India Today, this mindset helped him build global standards of the Indian industry, from steel manufacturing to founding Air India.

What does this quote mean?

Energy as a prerequisite, being "finicky" or meticulously obsessive, requires immense personal and emotional energy. Tata acknowledged this heavy toll but viewed it as the necessary cost of extraordinary outcomes

Tata admits that being finicky is exhausting. It takes a massive amount of mental and physical energy to obsess over small things, but he believes this exact energy is what separates a good product from a masterpiece.