TATA GROUP – A NATIONAL SHRINE

Reflecting from seeing Tata Glimpses (2014), a master class taken by Donn Doongaji, a Tata veteran, he refers to Tata Group as a National Shrine. Actually I think he refers to The Taj Mahal Hotel in Mumbai as a National Shrine but I think this can be easily said for the whole group. Here are just a few reasons which I learnt from Tata Glimpses and from a recent news article in The ET.

• The Taj Mahal Hotel built in 1903, for national pride was the first and finest hotel in Asia at that time. It still is one of the finest. Not only was it the first hotel in Asia to have electricity and elevators, but the hotel has served the tall an mighty and has been of service in times of distress to many. Do you know that the hotel had its own electroplating unit when it was commissioned? It faced the 2011 attacks and the keepers of the shrine protected its guests at the cost of their lives displaying a lethal combination of service and fearlessness.

• Tata Steel, another business built for national self-sufficiency, has operated in difficult areas of Jharkhand, Bihar, Orissa, has had no problem of labour unrest for many decades. The kind of human relations they maintain at that scale of employing 1000s of people given the tough steel industry and difficult conditions. We see labour unrest in small factories and in mature industrial areas. When George Fernandes gave hints of nationalising private steel companies, he received a message from the union leader of Tata Steel on behalf if 65000 employees then, requesting not to touch TISCO. I guess, in 1990, when Dorabji Tata was Chairman of Tata Steel, the business was in poor financial states because of business conditions, so much so, that there was no money to pay wages and the plant was getting on the verge of shutting down. It was then that Dorabji, who probably had a few thousand shares in Tata Steel, pledged his entire wealth – from his tie pin to his wife, Lady Meherbai Tata’s 245 carat Jubilee diamond. So many reasons why Tata Group is a National Shrine.

• Bombay Hydro Electric Power Co (I believe the company name I have used in right) – was set up by Tata Group in 1920S.  This vision of Jamset ji materialised after his passing away but he was the one who was convinced that the worsening condition of the air quality of then Bombay needed a solution form Hydro Power supply and not coal generated power even though there was so much more money in coal. That is one more reason why Tata Group is a National Shrine.

• Heal, But Don’t Talk About It – this article published in The ET on October 16th, 2024 authored by V  Shantakumar, founder of Doing Think. This is the reason why Tata Group is a National Shrine and Jamset ji is the deity.

“QUOTE

THE YEAR was 1991.Ratan Tata had told Arun Nanda,the then-Chairman of Rediffusion, that he wanted a brand campaign for the Tata Group. This work, for which I assigned Rahul Bose and Nitin Berry as the core creative team- ended up giving me one of the proudest ,most cherished moments in my career … and my life. The campaign called ‘The Company of Man’ (not really gender assigned, but it was a different time- of course) was about how the Tata Group helped people. And it wasn’t so much about the business, but the values of the group enshrined in Jamshetji Tata’s original vision that ‘the purpose of an enterprise was to serve the community’. This plaque can still be seen under his bust as you enter Bombay House.

The Campaign was beautifully written and art directed .One day, Ratan Tata came in to meet us in what would’ve been a rare visit by him to an agency’s office …We were at Readymoney terraces in Mumbai, and here in  a hobbit-sized conference room, I presented the campaign to him.He sat in the corner and as I read out the work, he had tears in his eyes. And then, that huge, kind person stood up and said something I will never forget . He said, “This is a great piece of work. But I will never release it’’. I asked why. He replied. “Because if you are a true healer ,You do not go around telling people that you are healer. You just heal.’’ He thanked us and soon after, he left the room. As a creative director.  I sat there feeling both small and proud at the same time, that I had met such a man. 

UNQUOTE”

THIS IS WHY TATA GROUP IS A NATIONAL SHRINE.

Courtesy: Tata Quotes & Tata Glimpses