The Tata Way

Tata companies today are in the news for big ticket acquisitions of global companies and brands. Yet, the group has not lost its fulcrum, and remains a pioneer in its thinking on how future organizations are run and managed.Decades before terms such as ‘Sustainability’ and ‘CSR’ became fashionable, the founder of the Tata Group, Jamsetji Tata was crystal clear when he said: “In a free enterprise, the community is not just another stakeholder in business, but is in fact the very purpose of its existence.”

While community-centric corporate philosophy was indeed spoken about and practiced all these years, the Group is now making the inherent sustainability element more explicit, and evolving policies and systems to institutionalize it. In fact, corporate sustainability is boldly acknowledged as business strategy by the Tatas now. Dr. J.J.Irani, Director, Tata Sons, is, in fact, insisting that sustainability professionals in the Tata companies should be seen as business strategists. What’s more, sustainability is turning into a serious career option here.

Understandably, the much-used phrase ‘Corporate Social Responsibility’ (CSR) is passé at the Tatas. It’s ‘Corporate Sustainability’ from now on. What this means is Tatas are broadening their agenda beyond communities, to include the environment and bio-diversity. For a conglomerate that’s got its feet soiled in carbon intensive industries such as steel, chemicals and automobiles, this would surely mean a highly challenging commitment to sustain. For the Tatas now, ‘the business of business is sustainable value creation’ and they are busy institutionalizing it across the Group.

The transformation

All this while, the Tatas have co-ordinated their CSR efforts at the Group level through Tata Council of Community Initiatives (TCCI), and gone about building CSR capacities through several initiatives across the Group. They’ve made CSR agenda a part of KRA’s for their managers and integrated CSR with business excellence.

To read the full article, click here...
To read the ePaper, visit: http://emagazine.managementnext.com