Sustainability emerges from the core values of a corporation – the principles that are put to practice in any organisation by successive generations of leaders.

 

Tata Steel is, perhaps one among very few companies in the world, to be blessed with these values at the very moment that it was conceived by Jamsetji Tata, the Founder of the Tata Group in the late 19th Century. A true nationalist, he strongly advocated the development of indigenous industry in India, while at the same time as a conscientious citizen, he upheld the rights of its people to share the wealth created by these enterprises.

 

This strong belief, in the sustained and long-term creation of value for all stakeholders and for nations in which the Tata companies operate, has been the cornerstone of the Tata Group. For Jamsetji Tata, the progress of enterprise, welfare of people and the health of the enterprise were inextricably linked. Wealth and the generation of wealth have never "been ends in themselves, but a means to an end, for the increased prosperity of India," The Times of India said in 1912 of the Tatas.

 

Conscious that the task of social progress in any country, cannot be undertaken by the Government alone, J R D Tata the Chairman of the Tata Group from 1938 to 1991, believed that, "to create good working conditions, to pay the best wages to its employees and provide decent housing to its employees are not enough for the industry, the aim of an industry should be to discharge its overall social responsibilities to the community and the society at large, where industry is located."

 

Guided by this mandate, Tata companies have for decades used its skills and resources, to the extent it can reasonably afford, to give back to the community a fair share of the product of its efforts.

 

Jamshedpur, in India, the Tata city, was built on the ideology that it would comprise not merely the Steel Works but embody a step towards building a new Nation. Development commenced in 1912 and within few years the area was transformed into a well-planned township, largely due to the vision of the Founder Jamsetji Tata, whose name it bears today. Roads (more than 500 kms), housing, parks, gardens, sports stadiums, recreational facilities, markets, healthcare facilities were developed, not only for the employees but for all the citizens of the bustling, vibrant township. Amongst the many other accolades that the city has received, it got its due recognition when it was chosen as one of the six model cities globally under the UN Global Compact programme, a significant recognition of CSR of the Tata Group.

 

Tata was the first to establish labour welfare practices, even before these were made statutory laws across the world. In 1912 it invited Sidney and Beatrice Webb, the Founders of the London School of Economics, to prepare a Memorandum of Health for the Steel City, Jamshedpur in India. An eight-hour workday was also instituted in 1912,, free medical aid in 1915, a Welfare Department in 1917, leave with pay, Workers Provident Fund and Workmen’s Compensation in 1920 and Maternity Benefit for ladies in 1928.

 

Free medical services through Company-run hospitals is provided and educational facilities for the employees and their families is fully supported. Besides benefits such as the employee family benefit scheme, early separation scheme, housing, free water and medical services, subsidised electricity, housing, metro allowance, rewards and recognitions as well as special allowances are also provided.

 

At the The Tata group, sports is a way of life. Tata has also encouraged sports in a very big way, providing infrastructure for various sports academies, building Olympic-standard stadiums, allocating resources to sustain these efforts, not limited to use only for its employees but for the communities in general. These efforts have not been in vain – many National champions, Asian medallists and Indian Olympians are products of these academies.

 

In general, about 66% of the profits of Tata Group go to charity and each Tata Group company channels more than 4 percent of its operating income to the trusts, Every generation of Tata family members have left a larger portion of its profit to these trusts. It is using this systematic plough back to of wealth to the society which has helped establish and finance numerous quality research, educational and cultural institutes in India. The Tata Group was awarded the Carnegie Medal of Philanthropy in 2007 in recognition of the group's long history of philanthropic activities. Some of the institutes established by the Tata Group are Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Indian Institute of Science, National Centre for Performing Arts, Tata Management Training Centre, Tata Memorial Hospital, Tata Football Academy, The JRD Tata Ecotechnology Centre, The Energy and Resources Institute (earlier known as Tata Energy and Research Institute) - which is a Non-profit organisation completely committed to the cause of research in the field of renewable energy. The Tata Group has donated $50 million to the prestigious Harvard Business School (HBS) to build an academic and a residential building on the institute’s campus in Boston, Massachusetts.

 

By virtue of the extent of its demonstrated commitment for decades, through the beliefs and values it has acted upon, the resources it has deployed, the wealth it has shared as well as the many "firsts" it has achieved through socio-economic programmes, Tata Group is India’s and indeed globally acknowledged Corporate Social Responsibility leader and is recognised as a most humane conglomerate.

 

Today it is truly a professional group where meritocracy rules the roost, and the premise for business is on sound ethical business practices. Needless to say, any organization, leave alone a conglomerate, can sustain itself over the changing environment while continuously thriving, only if it is based on strong and ethical business values and practices. “We may be among the few companies around the world who think and act first as a citizen,” says    R. Gopalakrishnan, an executive director of Tata Sons Ltd., the privately held holding company of Tata Group, and a director of several Tata companies.

 

The lesson for corporates therefore is that - doing well by doing good is simply good business. And if the Tata group’s unique business model has proven to be financially sustainable, it does provide a lasting example for other companies that – like the Tata Group companies – seek to serve new markets, build a more solid reputation as global citizens, maintain growth, and above all fulfill their own sense of purpose.