J .R. D . Tata (Orations on Business Ethics)

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Jehangir Ratanji Dadabhoy Tata or J.R.D. Tata has been the benchmark for business leaders globally due to his business acumen, integrity, ethics and social concern. He successfully demonstrated that an organization can be profitable without compromising on ethics and values. He was also the first to implement a host of employee welfare schemes in corporate India, which were later adopted by the Indian government as statutory requirements.

J.R.D. Tata: Orations on Business Ethics is an insightful and engaging volume that brings forth the views of eminent leaders from different walks of life, including J.R.D. Tata, Ramachandra Guha, Subroto Bagchi, Mark Tully, Tarun Das, Anil Kakodkar, among others. The book analyses how the concept of business ethics has moved well beyond financial integrity to include social and environmental responsibility, and how corporate social responsibility has gone mainstream.

This commemorative volume by XLRI-JRD Tata Foundation in Business Ethics is a tribute to J.R.D. Tata and takes forward the Xavier School of Management's (XLRI's) mission of 'abiding commitment to improving the quality of life in organizations and society.

XLRI, in association with a few Tata Group companies, established the XLRI-JRD Tata Foundation in Business Ethics in 1991 to mark their long-standing commitment and contribution to business ethics in India. The foundation seeks to address this by publicly affirming the urgent need for ethics in business and the need to bring about a conducive culture in which it can thrive.

The activities undertaken by the foundation include the annual JRD Tata Oration on Business Ethics, and the presentation of the JRD Tata Award for Business Ethics to eminent persons who have distinguished themselves in business ethics. The foundation actively encourages research in the field of ethical practices in business.

Adam Smith wrote The Wealth of Nations way back in 1776. This was not a book on economics as a source of wealth. It spoke about moral principles as the source of wealth. Adam Smith was a British moral philosopher; not an economist. He spoke about ethics as a way of life, for corporate advantage. According to the Ethics Resource Center, Washington DC, companies that are dedicated to doing the right thing, have a written commitment to social responsibility, and act on it as a way of life, are consistently more profitable than those who do not.

If your company is ethical and socially responsible, it won't automatically make you rich and successful, but it will definitely pave the way for you to become so. Ethics + competence = success is a winning equation. This is the equation of ethics for corporate advantage. On the other hand, companies that continually attempt to test the edge of ethics inevitably go over the edge. Shortcuts, deception, cheating and cutting corners test the edge of ethics and never pay off in the long run. People and organizations always lose in the long term when they live without ethics and guiding moral principles.'

Business and industry ethics is not just a concept or construct, a category or structure of thought, or even a theory or abstraction, but a concrete, challenging way of life for corporate executives to think and act legally, ethically, morally and spiritually in the turbulent markets of today. This commemorative volume on J.R.D. Tata illustrates this truth and strategy.