Tata Group
The Tata Group comprises 98 operating companies in seven business sectors: information systems and communications; engineering; materials; services; energy; consumer products; and chemicals.
Company details
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- Business Type:
- Service provider
- Industry Type:
- Environmental
- Market Focus:
- Globally (various continents)
- Employees:
- Over 1000
This company also provides solutions for other industrial applications.
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About Us
Leadership with trust
The Tata group comprises over 100 operating companies in seven business sectors: communications and information technology, engineering, materials, services, energy, consumer products and chemicals. The group has operations in more than 80 countries across six continents, and its companies export products and services to 85 countries.
The total revenue of Tata companies, taken together, was $83.3 billion (around Rs3,796.75 billion) in 2010-11, with 58 per cent of this coming from business outside India. Tata companies employ over 425,000 people worldwide. The Tata name has been respected in India for more than 140 years for its adherence to strong values and business ethics.
Every Tata company or enterprise operates independently. Each of these companies has its own board of directors and shareholders, to whom it is answerable. There are 31 publicly listed Tata enterprises and they have a combined market capitalisation of about $78.58 billion (as on May 31, 2012), and a shareholder base of 3.6 million. The major Tata companies are Tata Steel, Tata Motors, Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), Tata Power, Tata Chemicals, Tata Global Beverages, Tata Teleservices, Titan, Tata Communications and Indian Hotels.
Tata Steel is among the top ten steelmakers, and Tata Motors is among the top five commercial vehicle manufacturers, in the world. TCS is a leading global software company, with delivery centres in the US, UK, Hungary, Brazil, Uruguay and China, besides India. Tata Global Beverages is the second-largest player in tea in the world. Tata Chemicals is the world’s second-largest manufacturer of soda ash and Tata Communications is one of the world’s largest wholesale voice carriers.
In tandem with the increasing international footprint of Tata companies, the Tata brand is also gaining international recognition. Brand Finance, a UK-based consultancy firm, valued the Tata brand at $15.75 billion in 2011 and ranked it 41st among the world's 100 most valuable brands. Businessweek magazine ranked Tata 17th among the '50 Most Innovative Companies' list and the Reputation Institute, USA, in 2009 rated it 11th on its list of the world's most reputable companies.
Founded by Jamsetji Tata in 1868, Tata’s early years were inspired by the spirit of nationalism. It pioneered several industries of national importance in India: steel, power, hospitality and airlines. In more recent times, its pioneering spirit has been showcased by companies such as TCS, India’s first software company, and Tata Motors, which made India’s first indigenously developed car, the Indica, in 1998 and recently unveiled the world’s lowest-cost car, the Tata Nano.
Tata companies have always believed in returning wealth to the society they serve. Two-thirds of the equity of Tata Sons, the Tata promoter holding company, is held by philanthropic trusts that have created national institutions for science and technology, medical research, social studies and the performing arts. The trusts also provide aid and assistance to non-government organisations working in the areas of education, healthcare and livelihoods. Tata companies also extend social welfare activities to communities around their industrial units. The combined development-related expenditure of the trusts and the companies amounts to around 3 per cent of the group's net profits in 2011.
Going forward, Tata is focusing on new technologies and innovation to drive its business in India and internationally. The Nano car is one example, as is the Eka supercomputer (developed by another Tata company), which in 2008 was ranked the world’s fourth fastest. Anchored in India and wedded to traditional values and strong ethics, Tata companies are building multinational businesses that will achieve growth through excellence and innovation, while balancing the interests of shareholders, employees and civil society.
Governance
Values and purpose
Purpose
At the Tata group we are committed to improving the quality of life of the communities we serve. We do this by striving for leadership and global competitiveness in the business sectors in which we operate.
Our practice of returning to society what we earn evokes trust among consumers, employees, shareholders and the community. We are committed to protecting this heritage of leadership with trust through the manner in which we conduct our business.
Core values
Tata has always been values-driven. These values continue to direct the growth and business of Tata companies. The five core Tata values underpinning the way we do business are:
Integrity: We must conduct our business fairly, with honesty and transparency. Everything we do must stand the test of public scrutiny.
Understanding: We must be caring, show respect, compassion and humanity for our colleagues and customers around the world, and always work for the benefit of the communities we serve.
Excellence: We must constantly strive to achieve the highest possible standards in our day-to-day work and in the quality of the goods and services we provide.
Unity: We must work cohesively with our colleagues across the group and with our customers and partners around the world, building strong relationships based on tolerance, understanding and mutual cooperation.
Responsibility: We must continue to be responsible, sensitive to the countries, communities and environments in which we work, always ensuring that what comes from the people goes back to the people many times over.
Business Excellence
Business excellence has been embedded in Tata through processes and methodologies that enable Tata companies to continually improve operations and achieve the world-class marquee
A key vector that has helped Tata companies grow and establish themselves on the global stage as business leaders in their respective fields is the strong business excellence movement in the group.
One of the initiatives in the business excellence movement is a framework known as the Tata Business Excellence Model (TBEM), which has been adapted from the renowned Malcolm Baldrige archetype. The essence of this framework is a proactive attitude rather than a reactive one. It is about changing the business and running it effectively and efficiently. The TBEM assessment covers seven core aspects of business operations: leadership; strategic planning; customer focus; measurement, analysis and knowledge management; workforce focus; process management and outcomes of financial and non-financial parameters; and business results.
The model works under the aegis of Tata Quality Management Services (TQMS), an in-house organisation mandated to help different Tata companies achieve their business excellence and improvement goals.
In recent years, the TBEM framework has been adapted to include new business and societal initiatives such as governance, safety, climate change and innovation.
The other core elements of the Tata business excellence movement are the Tata Code of Conduct (tcoc), a mandatory pan-Tata policy that defines how Tata employees can conduct themselves, and the Management of Business Ethics, a programme that helps Tata companies drive ethics and values in the organisation.
As a result, the business excellence processes have come to characterise the Tata way of enhancing and conducting its business endeavours, and to a great extent, have helped define the Tata brand.
The TBEM movement in Tata has a built-in reward and recognition mechanism wherein companies that have achieved a score of 600 on the TBEM framework are felicitated with the JRD QV Award.
TQMS
Tata Quality Management Services (TQMS), a division of Tata Sons (the principal promoter holding company of the Tata group of companies), is entrusted with the mandate of setting standards of excellence and partnering closely with Tata companies to achieve their business excellence and improvement goals. TQMS is the custodian of the TBEM assessment process and the Tata Code of Conduct training and interventions.
TQMS aims to offer value to group companies in enhancing their performance and global competitiveness. It collaborates with Tata companies, through long- and short-term initiatives, on the following key areas: TBEM assessment, TBEM training, improvement services, climate change, innovation, corporate governance and ethics, safety and education excellence.
Through TBEM, TQMS helps Tata companies gain insights on their strengths and their opportunities for improvement. This is managed through an annual process of 'applications and assessments'. Each company writes an application wherein it describes, in the context of the TBEM matrix, what it does and how it does it. This submission is then gauged by trained assessors, who study the application, visit the company and interact with its people. The assessors map out the strengths and improvement opportunities existing in the company before providing their feedback to its leadership team.
Implicit in the TQMS approach is the belief that its wide-ranging methodology will enable Tata companies to become exemplars — on business as well as ethical parameters — in their respective spheres.
TBEM
The TBEM methodology has been moulded to deliver strategic direction and drive business improvements. It contains elements that enable companies following its directives to capture the best of global business processes and practices. The model has retained its relevance thanks to the dynamism built into its core. This translates into an ability to evolve and stay in step with ever-changing business performance parameters.
The TBEM matrix is used for the organisational self-assessment of Tata companies, recognition and awards, and for providing feedback to applicants. In addition, TBEM plays three important supportive roles in strengthening the competitiveness of Tata companies:
- It helps improve business excellence practices, capabilities and results
- It facilitates communication with a common language of excellence across all Tata companies and the sharing of best practices among them
- It serves as a working tool for understanding and managing performance, for providing planning guidance, and for identifying learning opportunities
The TBEM methodology comprises a set of questions that applicant Tata companies have to answer. Its main objectives are to enhance value for all stakeholders and contribute to marketplace success; maximise enterprise-wide effectiveness and capabilities; and deliver organisational and personal learning.
The core values and concepts of TBEM are embodied in seven categories: leadership; strategic planning; customer focus; measurement, analysis and knowledge management; workforce focus; process management and outcomes of financial and non-financial parameters; and business results.
The TBEM system focuses on certain key areas of business performance: customer-focused results; product and service results; financial and market results; human resource results; organisational effectiveness results; governance and social responsibility results.
JRD QV Award
While quality has always been one of the cornerstones of the Tata way of business, the need to introduce a formal system that calibrated how different group companies were faring on this scale began to be felt in the early 1990s. That led to the institution, in 1995, of the JRD Quality Value Awards, the forerunner to TBEM. Named after JRD Tata, the late chairman of the group and a crusader for the cause of business excellence in Tata companies, the awards have now been incorporated in TBEM.
Jehangir Ratanji Dadabhoy Tata, or JRD, as he was popularly known in business circles, guided the destiny of India’s largest business house for well over half a century. Over the years that he was at the helm of affairs of the group, JRD Tata helped establish many new enterprises.
He was always conscious about the importance of quality, and ensured that this quality consciousness prevailed in all the organisations that belonged to the Tata group. He was proud that the companies within the group were known, domestically and internationally, for the quality of their products and services.
As a tribute to his quest for perfection in every sphere of activity, the JRD Tata Quality Value Award was instituted in his memory.
The JRD QV Award is modelled on the lines of the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award, integrating beneficial attributes from other national quality awards. The award recognises a company within the Tata group, which excels in quality management and has achieved the highest levels of quality.
This is an annual award presented to the winning company on July 29 each year, the birth anniversary of JRD Tata.
The objectives of the award are:
- To create awareness on the importance of the value of quality and the need for total customer satisfaction in all areas of operations within the Tata group
- To achieve and sustain continuous excellence and consequently leadership in the marketplace
Evaluation process
Tata companies participate in an annual process of assessment. The idea is to subject them to an assessment based on the excellence parameters embedded in the Tata Business Excellence Model (TBEM).
Each company writes an application in which it describes what job it does and how it does the job in the context of the criteria set by TBEM. This application is then evaluated and studied by trained TBEM assessors who analyse the processes and systems prevalent in the company being assessed. The assessors visit the company and interact with its office bearers across all levels and departments. They draw out the strengths and improvement opportunities, and then provide feedback to the leadership team. An in-built scoring mechanism enables the company to track its progress over time, and ensure that it keeps improving.
Criteria for recognition:
- JRD QV Award: 600+ for the first time
- Leadership in Excellence: 700+ for the first time
- Sustained Excellence: 3 successive improvements beyond 600
- Active Promotion: 500 to 600 for the first time
- Serious Adoption: 450 to 500 for the first time
- High Delta: High improvement in one year min 75 for 500-
- High Delta 500+: High improvement in one year min 50
- High Delta 600+: High improvement in one year min 25
Innovation
Innovation — in thoughts, processes, approaches and strategies — has become a critical factor for Tata companies as they chart course for a future in a business world without boundaries. The objective is to consistently deliver breakthrough products and services and Tata sees innovation as the means to achieve this