A song in of Jamshedji Tata - And my family history and the Tatas

An audio recording of a song in praise of #JamshedjiTata  the founder of #TataSons sung by my 93 (she was 84 at the time or recording) year old aunt spent her childhood in #Jamshedpur

My paternal grandfather lost his entire inheritance of Rs. 10000 in a printing press. He was naive and his partner not just ran away with the capital, but left my grandfather in debt. The debt was closed with the help of my grandmother’s father. He had a BA in law, but he failed miserably in the court as he was an extremely soft person. He worked for a short time under another advocate, but probably was soon sent back home for lack of initiative to be a lawyer.

He was without work for a long time. Finally through some contact he was promised a job in TISCO at Jamshedpur. Being from an orthodox Brahmin family from the South and not knowing the language they were hesitant to move to North of India. Finally having no choice they moved to Jamshedpur. My aunt was all of 5 at that time. My father had not yet been born.

They landed up at the place of another South Indian who had been in Jamshedpur for sometime now and was well off. They landed very early in the morning and waited in the garden of the house. When the lady of the house woke up she took my grandfather and his family (grandmother and my aunt) and took them into their household.

My grandfather joined TISCO as a clerk and started working. They continued in the house of this family for sometime. Soon tongues started wagging and rumour was spread that this person was keeping someone in the house provided by the company and was making money. Even though this was untrue, not wanting to get entangled with law my grandfather’s family was sent to the house of the house resident’s brother. Soon enough my grandfather was lucky to get a quarters from TISCO and they moved into this residence.

Here is where my father was born and my aunt lived her childhood among the other families, many from South India and others from other places, most working at TISCO or TELCO. She lived there till she was married and after which she moved down South. Her marriage did not last long. Her husband gave up his job and started building a house on his own, on the promise of help from his family. But they did not keep up to it. All the while she insulted and tortured by the wife of her husband’s elder brother.

Finally her husband landed at Jamshedpur and he also got a job in ELCO. But life was not to be kind to my aunt, her husband passed away even before he joined TELCO. She then continued to live in Jamshedpur and that is how she is with us now as she kept shifting with my father (who was born soon after they shifted to Jamshedpur).

Given this history she is extremely attached, thankful and grateful to the Tatas and even today whenever she sees the word Tata her eyes light up. Tata’s she likens to the saviour of our family, and she is not wrong, as just before getting the job at TELCO, the situation had become so bad that my grandfather along with my grandmother and my aunt were planning to drown themselves. The story in the family is that when they reached the river bank they were met my an old man who saw my grandfather and told him to go back. He said that he will get a job and also have a son to look after them.

While my father did not work for the Tatas, I ended up getting a job at Tata’s and my aunt feels so good every time I wear a T-Shirt bearing the words “TATA”.

That is the legacy of TATA in my household.

JEH A Life of J. R. D. Tata by Bakhtiar K. Dadabhoy

JEH' A Life Of J.R.D.Tata by Bakhtiar K. Dadabhoy
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

A good book to know about the life of J. R. D. Tata who seems to be last of the legends from the family of Tatas.

As expected the book outlines his life from birth to death. The key focus is on his keen interest in aviation and how it led to him flying an aircraft from Karachi to Mumbai carrying mail. The first was a pioneering flight which led to the formation of airmail in India. The other two were done after 30 years and after 50 years of the original flight to reenact the first flight.

It gives a fair, not a biased, account of the life of JRD. It is sad that we do not have more of the same type in our industries now.

A must read for those who read JRD and a must read for those who don't so that they develop respect for him.

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Tata LOG: Eight Modern Stories from a Timeless Institute by Harish Bhat

Tatalog: Eight Modern Stories from a Timeless Institution by Harish Bhat
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

A book for the fan of the Tata Companies. The book is about the key successes of the Tata Companies in the recent past.

The topics are
1. Success of Indica - A car conceptualized and designed in India
2. CSR by Tata Chemicals in Okhamandal: A complete community has benefited from this initiative.
3. Openness of handling crisis at Tata Finance: The handling of the situation where the Tata group went out of the way to ensure that no investor lost out because of fraud done by the key management personnel at Tata Finance.
4. The success of Tanishq - The first corporate to succeed in Jewellery business
5. Setup of Second Careers - An opportunity for women who have opted out of the corporate world to manage children, to come back and restart their career.
6. The creation of EKA the super computer for India.
7. The take over of Tetley an international giant by a much smaller Indian company.
8. Tata Steel winning the Deming award for quality control.

The stress is on the ethics that are core to these success.

While it is true that the Tata Group of Companies are more ethical than many of the other corporate houses, the sheen is wearing off. The present avatar of the companies are aggressive an it is probably only a matter of time before more companies are exposed as Tata Finance was. These companies are no longer as compassionate as they used to be in the past, thanks partly to the share holder pressure for profits and growth and thanks partly to the influence cut-throat competition from the other corporate houses.

When the trend is to use any tactic to earn and show profits and growth it is difficult for any one corporate to maintain ethics and honest and continue to show a similar growth and profit as a more aggressive corporate. When growth and profit is in focus many other aspects like employee satisfaction, environmental concerns, and ethical practices get thrown to the wind.

One only hopes that the rot is stemmed and the Tata group of companies once again become as ethical and compassionate as they used to be in the past even if they do not show as much growth and profitability as the rest of the companies in the same field.

A decent read.

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The Tata Company

This entry is based on a document that was circulated internally within a Tata company. Not sure if it is available somewhere on the web. But this should be something that should be read by all corporates. An exemplar example of how an employer should treat its employees.

This are the minutes of the meeting of a discussion that Mr. Dileep Ranjekar, the CEO of Ms Azim Premji Foundation had with H N Srinivas, Senior Executive Vice President of Taj Group of Hotels.

October 10, 2009

Meeting with H N Srinivas – Senior Executive Vice President, Taj Group of Hotels

Last evening, I had a dinner meeting with HNS in Goa (I was there for a National Institute of Personnel Management conference – as a speaker).

He narrated the 26th November 2008 terror attack on Taj Mumbai and there were some important points.

A. Terrorist entry

1. They entered from the Leopold Colaba hotel entrance and also from the northern entrance spraying indiscriminate bullets on the Taj security personnel and guests in general.
2. Though Taj had a reasonable security – they were surely not equipped to deal with terrorists who were spraying 6 bullets per trigger.
3. The strategy of the terrorists was to throw chunks of RDX in an open area that will explode and burn – creating chaos so that the guests and staff run helter skelter so that the terrorists could kill them. The idea was to create maximum casualties.
4. There were several critical gatherings and functions happening in the hotel on that day – a Bohra wedding, global meet of Unilever CEOs and Board members and 2 other corporate meetings were being held in the hotel – besides the usual crowd.
5. The firing and chaos began at about 8.30 p.m. and the staff including employees on casual and contract basis displayed exemplary presence of mind, courage and sacrifice to protect the guests who were in various halls and conference rooms.

B. Stories of Staff Heroics

1. A young lady guest relation executive with the HLL gathering stopped any of the members going out and volunteered 3 times to go out and get stuff such as ice cubes for whiskey of the guests when the situation outside the hall was very explosives and she could have been easily the target of the bullets
2. Thomas George a captain escorted 54 guests from a backdoor staircase and when he was going down last he was shot by the terrorists
3. There were 500 emails from various guests narrating heroics of the staff and thanking them for saving their lives
4. In a subsequent function, Ratan Tata broke down in full public view and sobbed saying – “the company belongs to these people”. The wife of Thomas George who laid his life saving others said, she and the kids were proud of the man and that she did not know that for 25 years she lived with a man who was so courageous and brave
5. The episode happened on 26th November, a significant part of the hotel was burnt down and destroyed – the hotel was re-opened on 21st December and all the employees of the hotel were paraded in front of the guests
6. It was clearly a saga of extra-ordinary heroics by ordinary people for their organisation and in a way for their country. The sense of duty and service was unprecedented
7. The young lady who protected and looked after the HLL guests was a management trainee and we often speak of juniority and seniority in the organisation. She had no instructions from any supervisor to do what she did
1. She took just 3 minutes to rescue the entire team through the kitchen
2. Cars were organised outside the hotel as per seniority of the members
3. In the peak of the crisis, she stepped out and got the right wine glass for the guest
8. People who exhibited courage included janitors, waiters, directors, artisans and captains – all level of people

C. The Tata Gesture

1. All category of employees including those who had completed even 1 day as casuals were treated on duty during the time the hotel was closed
2. Relief and assistance to all those who were injured and killed
3. The relief and assistance was extended to all those who died at the railway station, surroundings including the “Pav-Bhaji” vendor and the pan shop owners
4. During the time the hotel was closed, the salaries were sent my money order
5. A psychiatric cell was established in collaboration with Tata Institute of Social Sciences to counsel those who needed such help
6. The thoughts and anxieties going on people’s mind was constantly tracked and where needed psychological help provided
7. Employee outreach centers were opened where all help, food, water, sanitation, first aid and counseling was provided. 1600 employees were covered by this facility
8. Every employee was assigned to one mentor and it was that person’s responsibility to act as a“single window” clearance for any help that the person required
9. Ratan Tata personally visited the families of all the 80 employees who in some manner – either through injury or getting killed – were affected.
10. The dependents of the employees were flown from outside Mumbai to Mumbai and taken care off in terms of ensuring mental assurance and peace. They were all accommodated in Hotel President for 3 weeks
11. Ratan Tata himself asked the families and dependents – as to what they wanted him to do.
12. In a record time of 20 days, a new trust was created by the Tatas for the purpose of relief of employees.
13. What is unique is that even the other people, the railway employees, the police staff, the pedestrians who had nothing to do with Tatas were covered by compensation. Each one of them was provided subsistence allowance of Rs. 10K per month for all these people for 6 months.
14. A 4 year old granddaughter of a vendor got 4 bullets in her and only one was removed in the Government hospital. She was taken to Bombay hospital and several lacs were spent by the Tatas on her to fully recover her
15. New hand carts were provided to several vendors who lost their carts
16. Tata will take responsibility of life education of 46 children of the victims of the terror
17. This was the most trying period in the life of the organisation. Senior managers including Ratan Tata were visiting funeral to funeral over the 3 days that were most horrible
18. The settlement for every deceased member ranged from Rs. 36 to 85 lacs in addition to the following benefits:
1. Full last salary for life for the family and dependents
2. Complete responsibility of education of children and dependents – anywhere in the world
3. Full Medical facility for the whole family and dependents for rest of their life
4. All loans and advances were waived off – irrespective of the amount
5. Counselor for life for each person

D. Epilogue

1. How was such passion created among the employees? How and why did they behave the waythey did?
2. The organisation is clear that it is not something that someone can take credit for. It is not some training and development that created such behaviour. If someone suggests that – everyone laughs
3. It has to do with the DNA of the organisation, with the way Tata culture exists and above all with the situation that prevailed that time. The organisation has always been telling that customers and guests are #1 priority
4. The hotel business was started by Jamshedji Tata when he was insulted in one of the British hotels and not allowed to stay there.
5. He created several institutions which later became icons of progress, culture and modernity. IISc is one such institute. He was told by the rulers that time that he can acquire land for IISc to the extent he could fence the same. He could afford fencing only 400 acres.
6. When the HR function hesitatingly made a very rich proposal to Ratan – he said – do you think we are doing enough?
7. The whole approach was that the organisation would spend several hundred crore in re-building the property – why not spend equally on the employees who gave their life?

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My comments
Look at the highlighted text in the Section C. A classic reason of why Tatas as a corporate is considered to be a good employer to work for. May not be true for all Tata companies, but definitely as a group most Tata companies would have reacted the same way. It is amazing that an Organization can think and do something like this.
Also note the last point in Section D. A wonderful policy to follow. Should be adhered to by all the Organizations. No reason why an Organization cannot. or must not follow the principle outlined in that statement.
Can we have more Tatas?
Do you need any more reason to work with Tatas?