Tata Group

India's first putting India first: business excellence in seven business sectors worldwide and global leadership in social investments

Tuesday 20 January 2009

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Tata Group is a conglomerate of 98 companies operating in more than 85 countries over 6 continents in 7 different sectors: information systems and communications, engineering, materials, services, energy, consumer products and chemicals .

Nowadays, Tata is India’s biggest private sector group in terms of both market capitalization, which amounted to $ 59,64 billion in 2007, and revenue, which reached $28,8 billion for 2007. Currently Tata group employs around 290 000 people around the world.

The group was founded by Jamsetji Tata with the aim of nation building. And the current chairman of the group, Ratan Tata, is rigorously following the vision of his predecessor. The group’s mission is to improve the living conditions of the Indian population by raising a multitude of initiatives. As Jamsetji Tata said once `the community is not just another stakeholder in business, but it is in fact the very purpose of its existence´. Therefore, from its very beginning, TATA family has adopted 5 core values: integrity, understanding, excellence, unity and responsibility. And nowadays Tata is a great example of a big company bringing large profits and aiming and acting in line with its main goal to improve the society it operates in.
Through its long history Tata has initiated various labour welfare laws, such as the establishment of Welfare Department, which was introduced in 1917 and enforced by law in 1948, or Maternity Benefit, which was introduced in 1928 and enforced by law in 1946.

Moreover, the Group has established various organizations and institutions which focus on scientific, educational and health development and prosperity of India. Concerning research and education it has financed and promoted the Indian Institute of Science, the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research and the Tata Institute of Social Sciences, as well as numerous the concession and scholarships. In the area of health care, it set up the Tata Memorial Hospital for cancer treatment (1996) and it is rigorously fighting against HIV/AIDS through various programs. In terms of environmental issues Tata runs a water management policy and ecotechnology center.

Due to the complexity that the variety of these activities implies, Tata group has a special division which coordinates social activities throughout all its group companies.

Tata became a golden standard for CSR and is considered one of the leaders in social investment around the world. As any other business oriented on growth and development, Tata is expanding the markets for existing products and continues to explore new markets that are constantly emerging in India and around the world. In term of sustaining its image as a social investment leader, Tata is facing a great challenge. As the company grows larger, it is harder to control, coordinate and align its activities and there is greater incentive for managers to deviate from the assigned path in order to ‘improve’ the financial performance of the group. However, up until now the group seem to have been able to handle such issues successfully.

One of the areas in which Tata might improve is in the products it produces. For example, one of the biggest Tata’s businesses is car industry. Despite the fact that TataMotors has launched a small, low emission ‘car for people’, Nano, it is producing jeeps and large trucks (and also defense vehicles ) whose emissions, though within in the standards, are still high. And transportation emission is a rapidly growing problem in heavily-populated and developing India where more and more people can afford driving cars. It is understandable that TataMotors is trying to offer the whole range of products and satisfy demands of various clients. However, there is a large space for public transportation development and improvement programs which Tata can launch and/or support.

Bibliography

http://www.tata.com/
http://www.tata.com/tata_sons/index.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tata_Group
http://www.iveybusinessjournal.com/article.asp?intArticle_ID=750
http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/2004/07/03/stories/2004070302430300.htm

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5 Discussions / 5 Messages

# Tata Group 20 June 2012 at 00:47 , by ainoa.ryll

I think a little more data about those projects they mentioned is needed.

Tata group is growing not only in India, now they have big investment on Africa, specially in telecommunication, a fast growing sector in the continent.

The reason I entered in this article is because I find a good opportunity in this ’’new’’ company to start a different way to do business. The conglomerate is so big and they have such a big influence in so many sectors that they could use that power to be runners of a new company system, not based only in the high profit site, they could bet on reach other goals, specially being from a country like they are, where poorness is clearly visible and having destinations like the places they’re going, like many sub-Saharian countries.

For many people, their goal is to work in Tata Group. I would like that the dream would be accompanied with the will of change.

I dream of a company like this, having the best professionals from around the world working for a better place. That’s why I find it inspiring.

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# Tata Group 4 October 2012 at 08:43 , by He Yan

As we know, the Tata Group is India’s largest business group, which was founded in 1868.It developed very quickly. Now the group is around the world with more than 400,000 employees. Since 143 years ago, Tata’s name has been widely respected for its good values and ethics in India. Today, it rated eleventh in “Forbes’s global Most-Admired companies.”

Actually which inspired me first and most is the 5 core values Tata group adapted from the beginning. That is integrity, understanding, excellence, unity and responsibility.
In my opinion:
Integrity means justice, honest and transparent.
Understanding means that you must concern, respect, love your colleagues and customers. Everything you do should be consistent with the fundamental interests of the social services.
Excellence means you should work hard in the daily work. The quality of company products and services should meet the highest standards.
Unity means you must unite with colleagues, customers and partners on the basis of understanding and cooperation to create a more strong relationship.
Responsibility means the company must have the sense of responsibility for the people, society and environment.

And Tata group did do like this. It is a big group bringing large profits, but its main goal is to improve the society it operates in. It also focuses on scientific, educational and health development and prosperity of India.Up to now, the Tata family was not included in the India rich list. The reason is very simple. The Tata family for generations, formed a kind of tradition, the personal wealth is mostly donated to numerous fund, for the majority of poor people in India. Tata group has done a lot of CSR activities, such as ’Tata Sponsors 35 Cleft Lip Children to Receive Free Medical Treatments’ and ’Tata Donate a library to Xi Wo Pu Elementary School’.

I think if Tata group strives to carry forward this tradition, it will win more trusts from customers, shareholders and society. It is for sure that it will be more competitive in the future.

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# Tata Group 5 October 2012 at 08:03 , by Aicha Mane

I think the Tata Group has a great future if it continues to follow the codes it promotes. One issue I would like to point out is the quality. You have mentioned it as one of the challenges but this might be their biggest one. In sub-saharan Africa, Tata has won out other companies and now supplies all of the buses for public transportation and competes aggressively to promote cars in that region. These cars however, because of their poor quality and incredibly high emissions, would not be sold in more developed countries. I think that if the Tata Group wants to be a truly ethical company it must fix the quality issues in their products and most importantly not endanger the lives of people in poorer countries to make profit.

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# Tata Group 5 October 2012 at 09:30 , by Daijiening

After reading the introduction of Tata Group, I am so inspired to work with this kind of company. The reasons are mainly in three aspects of what are the company engaged in, what is its social responsibility and what I can learn and develop in this company?

What are the company engaged in?
Tata group encompasses seven business sectors: communications and information technology, engineering, materials, services, energy, consumer products and chemicals. Tata Group has operations in more than 80 countries across six continents and its companies export products and services to 80 nations.
Besides the business scope and scale are wide, the product with well reputation and the strong profitability, the most important is the positive of Tata’s business philosophy, the five core values of integrity, understanding, excellence, unity and responsibility are adopted by the Tata group. They are dedicate to fight with AID, do business for research in the area of cancer treatment, build the cheapest house for the poor, it is a social business as well as profitable one.

What is its social responsibility?
The Tata group devotes itself to social responsibility. For example, almost two-thirds stock is held by charity fund, used for scientific, educational and health development. Set up a library for the orphan living in countryside so that make the children more happy by reading. Establish a non-profitable organization to give the appropriate treatment for those poor children.

What can I get from the company?
The corporation operations with seven business sectors in more than 80 countries across six continents, in this big platform, I believe that the possibility of job rotation is quite often so that have more chance to face dilemma situations and give the solution, more chance to communicate with people from different countries. That is what I want. It is really an good opportunities here for my career development.

How can’t I inspire to work with Tata? I hope Tata group have a promising future and be dedicate to more benefit for the development of the mankind.

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# Tata Group 7 March 2013 at 11:57 , by polcornudella

Tata is based on Cheap cars for countries in development, but the same cars can’t be sold in occidental countries because they don’t follow the standards in those countries. Does it is fair?

When all the world is trying to fight against pollution, companies like tata ara making cars that contaminates a lot. They have no respect with the environment whatsoever. They prefer to have profits than be Corporate Social Responsability. And the most worrying thing is that governments allow Tata and also promote these practices.

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