Tatas, the nearly 150-year-old Indian industrial conglomerate, has always evinced keen interest among the people. Not just for its business success over the decades but for its reputation of doing business ethically.
“Tata: The Gentle Giant”, a 45-minute documentary which has been researched, written and presented by Dr. Zareer Masani and recently screened on BBC World News, tells the story of this business giant right from its inception to the present times, focusing on its core values, activities and personalities.
Masani, who was a current affairs producer for BBC and authored four history books, gave two reasons for this documentary coming into being. “My long family connection with the Tatas is the first. My father had worked for the Tata Group for a decade as Chief of Staff of JRD Tata and Head of Public Relations. My parents and the Tatas were also close personal friends. I have many happy memories of those times.”
The other reason he states is, “Nobody had so far written an independent history or biographies of the Tatas. Whatever was available had been penned by those who had worked with the group all of which eulogised them.”
The documentary describes at length the business presence of the group in India and Britain where it is the largest manufacturer today while interspersing its history starting from Jamsetji the founder.
“Tata, more than any other business I know, is rooted in its history, as both a pioneering creator of wealth and philanthropic channel for turning profits back into social capital,” mentions Masani. Today Tata owns 19 United Kingdom companies ranging from tea to IT, steel to cars and employing 60,000 British workers. The presenter terms this as the wheel turning a full circle.
Jamsetji made no bones about the fact that Tata’s wealth had first to be created by hard-headed even ruthless competition before it could be redistributed for good causes. It even engaged in the opium trade. Ploughing the trade profits into India’s infant textile industry, the founder’s factories were among the first in the world to introduce the eight-hour day, accident and sickness benefits, paid leave and retirement pensions.
Mukund Rajan, Brand Custodian and Chief Ethics Officer, Tata Group, describes the group’s ownership model as “unique and unusual in the world of capitalism” with “sixty six per cent of the equity of the parent holding company, Tata Sons, held by private charity in India.”
Apart from playing the role of a benevolent employer the group’s philanthropy is visible in health, education and arts. Jamsetji left half his estate to Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore.
Sir Ratan funded Mahatma Gandhi’s civil rights campaign in South Africa and donated his superb art collection to the Bombay Museum. In 1940s it gave the country its first cancer hospital and also National Centre for Performing Arts, both in Mumbai.
Like any other business entity, Tatas have been subjected to criticism. Divya Gupta, a journalist, states in the documentary, “Tata Steel is considered as the gold standard in corporate social responsibility by its own standards and even by that of society. In many ways, I believe that Tata Steel has buckled to global competitive pressures. It has a historical legacy and a loyalty that I hope can put it back on track and regain that gold standard.”
Similarly, Vinod Mehta, former editor-in-chief of Outlook, accuses the group of using advertising as a lever to control them when the magazine ran a cover story on it.
Despite disapproval of many, what is significant are the comments of these same persons about the group. Mehta calls them as the “cleanest, more progressive and dependable business house in India”. Divya says, “Even their worst detractors will concede that they have contributed to the making of modern India”.
The reason for this contrary stance is probably best provided by Jerry Rao, Business Analyst. In reply to Masani’s question in the documentary as to how different are Tatas from their rivals and are they more ethical, more trustworthy, more philanthropic, he says, “What they are in terms of difference is really more in the eye of the beholder than in essentially what they do. They are in the eye of the beholder patriotic, honourable, committed to philanthropic causes….in terms of the way they run their businesses it is pretty much like anyone else.”
