The Tatas have a legacy of nation-building over 150 years. Dancing across this long arc of time are thousands of beautiful, astonishing stories, many of which can inspire and provoke us, even move us to meaningful action in our own lives.
A diamond twice as large as the famous Kohinoor pledged to survive a financial crisis; a meeting with a ‘relatively unknown young monk’ who later went on to be known as Swami Vivekananda; the fascinating story of the first-ever Indian team at the Olympics; the making of India’s first commercial airline and first indigenous car; how ‘OK TATA’ made its way to the backs of millions of trucks on Indian highways; a famous race that was both lost and won; and many more.
TataStories is a collection of littleknown tales of individuals, events and places from the Tata Group that have shaped the India we live in today.
Currently the brand custodian at Tata Sons, Harish Bhat has held many roles in the Tata Group over the past thirtyfour years, including as managing director of Tata Global Beverages, and chief operating officer of the watches and jewellery businesses of the Titan Company Ltd.
Harish is an alumnus of BITS Pilani and Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad (IIMA). He won the IIMA gold medal for scholastic excellence, and later the British Chevening Scholarship for young managers. In 2017, he received the Distinguished Alumnus Award from BITS Pilani.
An avid marketer, he has helped create many successful Tata brands. He writes extensively, and is a columnist for The Hindu Business Line and Mint. His first book, Tatalog, was published in 2012. His second book, The Curious Marketer, was published in 2017. His third book, and first work of fiction, An Extreme Love of Coffee, was published in 2019. In 2019, LinkedIn selected him as one of their top voices in India.
Harish is an incorrigible foodie and fitness freak. His wife, Veena, is a computer professional and data scientist. They have a daughter, Gayatri, who has graduated from college and embarked on her professional career.
The First Story
This is a storybook with a difference. It contains many inspiring stories which are wide-ranging in their scope, all of them drawn from the history of the Tata Group, a remarkable institution which has a legacy stretching back more than 150 years.
Tata is the largest Indian corporate house, and one of the most visible India-headquartered conglomerates in the world. Over 700 million consumers across the world use Tata products and services because of their consistent quality, enduring appeal and the trust that Tata is privileged to have earned over the past fifteen decades.
Dancing across this long arc of time are thousands of beautiful, astonishing Tata stories, many of which can inspire and provoke us, even move us to meaningful action in our own lives. These stories bring to vivid life the extraordinary longevity, vibrancy and success of Tata. But at their essence, they are simple, moving stories of great teams, men and women, which hold deep lessons for all of us.
But there is always a first story, and this is the story of why the Tata Group exists.
The Story of Jamsetji Tata
This story begins in a small one-storey house in Navsari, a town in Gujarat, in the western part of India. Here, on 3 March 1839, a son was born to Nusserwanji Tata, who came from a Parsi Zoroastrian priestly family. This boy was Jamsetji Tata, founder of the Tata Group. When he was thirteen years of age, Jamsetji moved to live with his father in Mumbai.
He studied at Elphinstone College there, and developed a deep love of reading. His favourite authors were Charles Dickens and William Makepeace Thackeray, and he also enjoyed the humorous writings of Mark Twain. His books provided him a wonderful window to the world.
That window expanded even farther when he joined his father's firm. Then, in 1868, he established a private trading firm with a capital of Rs 21,000. That was the start of the Tata Group. A few years later, in 1874, he founded his first major industrial venture, the Central India Spinning, Weaving and Manufacturing Company Limited, at Nagpur. This venture is popularly referred to as Empress Mills.
Empress Mills was an extraordinary endeavour, and it also revealed this young man's future promise. He was convinced of the benefits of long-stapled cotton as the best raw material for these mills, and therefore devoted a lot of his attention to improving the cultivation of cotton in India. He also quickly and confidently invested in new manufacturing innovations, such as the ring spindle, which substantially improved the output of the factory. Thus, Empress Mills soon became a very profitable enterprise.
But mere profits were not the real reason why Empress Mills was so special. Here, in the nineteenth century, when human resource development was an unheard-of concept, Jamsetji Tata introduced a gratuitous pension fund for the workers of the mills, in 1887. This was the first of its kind in the country. In 1895, he established an accident compensation scheme for workers. In 1901, he introduced a Provident Fund scheme for his workers. This was the first time ever in India that this concept had been introduced. Each of these schemes, devised specifically for employee welfare, were pioneering innovations in Indian industry, which established a new way of doing business.
Speaking in 1895, he explained this new way: 'We do not claim to be more unselfish, more generous, or more philanthropic than other people. But, we think, we started on sound and straightforward business principles, considering the interests of our shareholders our own, and the health and welfare of our employees the sure foundation of our prosperity.'
Nation-building and Pioneering
Jamsetji Tata soon applied this same philosophy to every business he established. Businesses should strive hard to be profitable, but they exist to serve a larger need-that of the community. As he expanded the canvas of his activities, the meaning of community expanded to envelop the entire nation. The love of India soon became the driving force of his life.
This deep and abiding love led him to conceptualize India's first integrated steel mill, the country's first grand luxury hotel, and an Indian university of science education and research. He set out his vision of creating an organization where the `community is not just another stakeholder in business, but is, in fact, the very purpose of its existence'. A vision that has remained the guiding North Star for the Tata Group.
The Tata Trusts are the best illustration of how this philosophy has been put into action. For the past 125 years, they have contributed consistently to the community, investing significantly in education, health, livelihoods, art and culture.
These public charitable trusts own 66 per cent of the equity shares of Tata Sons, the parent company of the Tata Group. As a result of this unique ownership structure, a significant proportion of the profits of Tata Sons flow to the Tata Trusts, which in turn invest these funds back into the community. In the words of J.R.D. Tata, who was chairman of the Tata Group for over fifty years, this ensures that 'what came from the people has gone back to the people, many times over'.
If giving back to the community has been the guiding North Star, pioneering new enterprises has been the restless ship on which Tata has sailed towards this horizon. Since inception, the Tatas have pioneered multiple businesses which are important to the nation: India's first integrated steel plant. India's first major hydroelectric power company. India's first commercial airline. The company that put India on the global IT services map. The first indigenous Indian car. Branded iodized salt, which changed the way India consumes its food. Branded jewellery, which has transformed one of the country's largest markets. And many more.
These pioneering businesses, each of them relevant to their day and age, have pursued excellence in their respective industries. They have served important consumer needs even as they have upheld principled corporate behaviour, and contributed to the communities which they are part of. They have constantly fuelled the Tata ship for over 150 years, and continue to do so.
**Contents and Sample Pages**
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