Sing Tata in C(h)orus

On my last day in the London, I was watching the morning breakfast news on BBC. In the LSE pre-opening briefing, the major item on agenda was the Tata’s Bid for Corus. The BBC report made me swell with pride wherein they called the Tata’s as one of the most respected companies worldwide and their compassionate attitude towards workers of Corus. They were termed as the best suitors among a plethora of multinational giants in fray then for Corus.

So, when I read that the Corus auction on Tuesday night, I was anxious to know the results. When I woke up in the morning yesterday, my immediate instinct was to check the newspaper. But since the bid closed at 7 AM IST, there was no update in the newspaper. I immediately navigated to indiatimes.com through my mobile and literally jumped with joy on seeing the headline.

Read: 'How financial Engineering made the deal possible'

The growth of the Tata’s is testimony to India’s attitude of embracing new cultures. It all began in the 17th century when Parsis a minority community in Persia, had to migrate from their land. They came and settled in a town called Navsari in the present day Gujarat in India. The Tatas were an influential family among these Parsis being the family of Parsee priests for generations. In this family was born Jamshetji Nusserwanji Tata who started the Tata Group by setting up a textile mill in 1869 and the rest as they say is History.

Today the name Tata is a household name – from Salt to Electricity to Software and Steel – the Tata group is everywhere. But apart from being a name to reckon Tata has been responsible for setting the standards which Indian and even global corporates looks up to.

The Tata’s have always maintained high standards of integrity and have always shown the way for ethical business practises. More so nationalism has always been the underlying sentiment within the Tata group whether it has been starting an Airline service (Air India) or now acquiring a steel company – the nation has always been the priority. In the early days of independence the Tata’s invested in several businesses which were thought unprofitable, only to contribute to providing India with self-sufficiency in certain sectors.

The Tata group has also had an unblemished record in terms of corporate disputes. The Jamshedpur facility – one of the oldest steel complexes in Asia has never faced labour problems till date. Even international acquisitions like Daewoo have not seen any labour or attrition issues.
One of the reasons for this, apart from commitment to ethical standards, is the fact that the Tata group has never been run like a family business. The chairmanship of the group has never been passed to any direct descendants of the previous chairman. JRD was not a direct descendant of Jamshedji, neither was Ratan Tata of JRD. In fact, it was always the board which decided who would be the next chairman.

Since its inception, Tata’s have been a board managed company. Probably this is the reason why the group never saw any family feuds interfere with the company’s operations unlike the Birlas, Bajajs and now the Ambanis which had ownership disputes breaking the companies.

The ownership structure of the Tata group companies is also quite different from other family owned businesses. Many companies which flash the Tata Group name on them do not any more have Tata’s as the principal investor. Yet so many of them feel proud to be called part of Tatas – its more about the cultural match with the group than an ownership thing.

This is what makes the Tatas - India’s most trusted company!