Intern To Youngest Manager At Tata Group: How Did 31-Year-Old Shantanu Naidu Bagged This Top Position?

Ratan Tata's assistant, Shantanu Naidu is often considered his closest friend. Naidu who is the youngest manager at Tata Industries also serves as the General Manager at Tata Group. He also advised Tata about investing into startups.

Shantanu Naidu was born in Pune in 1993 and graduated with a Bachelor of Mechanical Engineering from Savitribai Phule Pune University in 2014. He then pursued a master's degree in business administration from Cornell Johnson Graduate School of Management, where he participated in several notable events and was awarded the prestigious Hemmeter Entrepreneurship Award and a prize in the Johnson Leadership Case Competition.

How did he meet Ratan Tata?

One of Shantanu's earliest entrepreneurial ventures was designing dog collars with reflectors, which quickly gained attention from local newspapers. This innovative idea soon reached Ratan Tata, who was impressed by Shantanu's initiative and asked him to join his company.

Tata also backed his initiative, 'motopaws' which now operates across 17 cities in India.

However, Shantanu requested to defer the offer as he was set to attend Cornell University. True to his word, Shantanu joined Tata Trusts in 2018 after completing his studies.

From intern to manager

Shantanu also worked as a business strategy intern back in 2017 for Tata Trusts. He was then promoted to the position of Deputy General Manager in 2018. Even before this, however, he interned with Tata technologies as Engineering intern in the year 2009.

In 2021, Shantanu made headlines again with the launch of the Goodfellows project, an initiative aimed at supporting elderly individuals living alone. As Tata's assistant, Shantanu continues to make a positive impact, combining his business acumen with social responsibility.