An untold story: Here's how Ratan Tata took 'revenge' on Ford after his humiliation by...

There is a popular saying -- "success is the best form of revenge". Leading businessman and former Tata Sons Chairman Ratan Tata stands as a true testament to this. 

Let's unfold a lesser-known story, reflecting a "sweet revenge" by Ratan Tata.

Ratan Tata, known for his revolutionary contribution to the automobile sector, launched his dream project -- Tata Indica -- in 1990s. However, what was seen as a landmark milestone didn't yield desired results. Due to the poor sales, Tata made up its mind to sell the car division. 

In 1999, the group wanted to sell the car division to Ford Motors. A delegation from the company comprising of Ratan Tata and his team flew to Detroit and held a meeting with the chairman of Ford, Bill Ford. In the meeting that lasted three hours, Tata faced humiliation as Ford told them that "they didn't know anything about cars" and that "they shouldn't have started the division". 

“They told us ‘you do not know anything, why did you start the passenger car division at all’. They said they will do us a favour by buying our car division,” a Tata Group veteran said, as quoted by Firstpost. 

After the meeting, Ratan Tata decided not to sell the car division and came back to India. He worked even harder, and took the firm to new heights. 

Tables turned after nine years when Ratan Tata bought Ford's iconic Jaguar- Land Rover brands for $2.3 billion in 2008. Notably, Ford was then on the verge of bankruptcy after the 2008 global financial meltdown. 

"You are doing us a big favour": Bill Ford told Ratan Tata 

After Tata acquired Ford's JLR, Bill Ford told Ratan Tata that the latter was "doing a big favour to the firm". 

"You are doing us a big favour by buying JLR", he told Tata, as quoted by Indiatimes. Not only did the Tata group buy JLR, they indeed turned it into one of the most successful ventures.