A new endeavour aimed at coordinating the various social development initiatives of Tata companies promises to fortify the group’s commitment to helping society. Sujata Agarwal talks to Anant G. Nadkarni, the man committed to the mission

No business house has done as much for the general betterment of Indian society as has the Tata Group. From temples of learning and research to institutions of art and culture, from outstanding centres of healing to a huge variety of social development programmes, the group has contributed enormously to philanthropic causes without ever looking for monetary or public relations returns.

That has been so because helping the community has been central to the Tata way of functioning, and as important as making a success of its business ventures. Taking the road less travelled by corporates has brought the group a great amount of goodwill and is the basis of the trust it engenders among people in general and associates in particular.

But there has been a catch in this altruism. Given the massive scale of the Group’s munificence, coordination of social development activities by the different companies operating under the Tata umbrella took a beating. And charity for its own sake came close to becoming the norm. It was to eliminate the aberrations that had seeped into a well-meaning but out-of-date system that the Tata Council for Community Initiatives (TCCI) was established.

TCCI’s brief is to coordinate and integrate the various social projects undertaken within the Group, to focus on building communities rather than doling out money. Among those responsible for guiding the organisation is Anant G. Nadkarni, general manager of the Group Corporate Social Responsibility division.

Mr Nadkarni, who was with Telco for 18 years before taking up his present assignment, has during an eventful career worked with different communities, local authorities, government departments and NGOs to develop and implement social development projects. In this interview with Sujata Agrawal, he explains the rationale behind the setting up of TCCI, its objectives and its operations.

On why community development initiatives within the Tata Group have been integrated.
Social work has always been an essential part of the Tata culture. The group’s founders did not think of business profits in isolation; it was a component of the whole. The focus was on how business could liberate people from poverty, not of economics but of thought. Somehow, this aspect was getting blurred somewhere. [Tata] companies were doling out money more than building communities. It was running the risk of making people dependent. There was also no cohesion in the social work being done by different group companies. Representatives in Tata companies were looking for a common framework on community development and a platform for sharing and learning experiences.

What was needed was a group-level identity, one built on processes, on the Tata way of doing things, similar to what was happening in the businesses. The Tata Group is diverse in its activities but there is a commonality in terms of values. This can be defined as the Tata way, which stands for trust and faith. Therefore, we decided to emphasise processes rather than the activities. Our aim was to develop the human element and build a strong community. There are declarations and guidelines formalised through the Tata Council for Community Initiatives (TCCI) on this process.

Our intention is to minimise charity and support self-reliant communities. We believe that the business of business is to generate responsible capital. It has to go beyond making profits and it must, ultimately, improve the quality of life within the community.

On what bringing community development under one umbrella implies.
The first step towards institutionalisation was putting together the basic statements of intent, the declarations. The declarations state that the community is central to the core values of the Tata Group. This means that our products, the locations of our facilities, the finalising of business processes and of purchasing equipment, the behaviour of our employees, everything is central to serving the nation. Our commitment to social responsibility is so fundamental that when we say community we actually mean the nation.

We want community development to be ingrained in our businesses. Everyone must think community at all possible times. When we buy ink or paper, we must think about the environment. When we buy land to set up a factory, we must think about the welfare of the people. For instance, when Tata Steel was setting up a complex in Gopalpur, Dr [J. J.] Irani first sent people to build relations with the communities there and talk about rehabilitation. This was before Tata Steel went to the government. The compensation Tata Steel gave to the community was much higher than what the government had offered. That is an example of the Tata way.

You cannot have technology for its own sake. Building cars and assembling computers isn’t all there is to the business. You have to make a conscious effort and actually relate it to everyday life. Car advertisements talk about quality of life but that doesn’t hold any meaning if they are going to pollute the air. When we talk about improving the quality of life, we are doing it in the true sense of the phrase.

Earlier, social work within the Tata Group was characterised by philanthropy. That is why we did not want to make TCCI another trust or a society to grant funds. We wanted to make it a network of employees to help build communities. This can be done if you set up networks, not rigid institutions.

On what TCCI means at the company level.
Every company has adopted an Article of Association on social responsibility. TCCI has also, on its part, helped them evolve policy statements for the companies and this is available to the public. A crucial factor in community development is core competency. Every company has its core competency and TCCI helps evolve activities based on these. For example, the core competency of the Taj Group of Hotels is hospitality. This can be used to teach slum women baking, and help them make some money.

We are trying to get companies to look beyond their business, to integrate their social activities with their business and not keep it as a separate entity. Our effort is to ensure that every company has a social budget. This approach ensures that development costs are considered in advance and we generate not only economic capital but also social and environmental capital. The Department of Economics and Statistics helps us gather community development expenditure and divide it under various heads. Today the Tata Group spends Rs 136 crore on community development and this is audited by respective companies.

Serving the community is the first priority. The spirit of service, not publicity, is at the bottom of all programmes. You must be a leader and a servant. We have defined the roles of various people in community development who will look at processes and activities at the group and company levels. Every company has a facilitator and we help ensure that they operate as responsible managers.

We have got the group’s human resources division to agree that the human resources head must drive community initiatives in each company. We are also working on the specifications for leadership that shows social responsibility. We want to spread it as a standard through the Tata Business Excellence Model and have a social audit committee instituted in tandem with it.

On how TCCI operates at the programme level.
Companies can undertake diverse activities at the group level but there are certain parameters when it comes to selecting and implementing programmes and raising funds. The focus areas are vocational training, education, particularly computer- and infotech-related skills, empowering children and women, improving health, and water, village and urban management. The activities undertaken would depend on the core competence of the company involved.

The basic purpose is to effect a transformation. A mere gathering must be transformed into a community by using conflict and resolution. Further, volunteers from villages could be taught to attend to minor health complaints and bring about awareness that disease is caused by unhygienic conditions, and so communities should learn to take care of themselves. Building a well or a hall can sometimes lead to bonding people together, because it involves them in meshing their skills.

The Tata Group believes in looking beyond the chequebook. Managerial skills and expertise are very important and the group has this in abundance. Take an NGO who is working to integrate child labourers into mainstream education. A company could give just the money to build a room and be done with it, or it could develop a computer programme that lists all the children and monitors their progress. This is a typical core competence intervention. At a higher level, they actually teach the children. In Hyderabad, Tata Teleservices is just about getting together all Tata companies in that region to send volunteers to teach maths and computers to kids.

On the group supporting a single cause.
This is a crucial issue in the group. Many companies have asked us to define one activity that the Tatas could stand for. These are people who want to be led rather than lead. But we have focused on processes; we have deliberately let the activities be diverse. What is required in Jamshedpur differs from what is needed in Pune. You cannot be compulsive about encouraging one kind of activity and then impose it on people. Every company has its own capability and it should define its community development activities accordingly. Most of the times our companies are clear about what their communities need.

On working with NGOs.
NGOs have the expertise of working in certain areas and it is better for companies to work through them. It is actually a three-way partnership, between the company, the NGO and the government, (because it is the government which is going to take the initiative forward). NGOs want partners they can trust and the Tata name has an advantage here.

There are as yet no particular selection criteria for choosing NGOs. But there are certain factors which need to be kept in mind: we should not work with NGOs that have political or religious affiliations; instead we should look at partnering those that work for the community at large and the cause should be supported by the government.

One matter of concern is that NGOs are usually driven by a single personality. NGOs should, therefore, be checked for succession planning, management, and accountability of funds and impact. These are some of the areas where our managers can help the NGO to become more effective.

On employee participation in community development.
An important step taken by TCCI was to encourage Tata companies to formally set up a volunteer system. Earlier, community work was done by a single person responsible for this in any given company. All employees were not formally involved and credited for doing social work; it was seen as more of an after-hours activity. We changed that system and created facilitators in each company. Their responsibility is to spot volunteers already doing good work and reinforce it. On the other hand to encourage and deploy more employees in community service.

We conducted workshops in companies and they have gradually built a volunteer corps in the group. A significant change is that community development is now considered part of the job and an employee’s contribution is recognised. This is a big motivating factor. We are trying to get HR people in companies to identify employees. At Indian Hotels, Bernard Martyris is doing this across all employee levels. In fact they are the "apostles" to talk about the Tata Group’s community initiatives and be involved on their own part in this work.

On changing lives through community development.
Community development is a wonderful platform for personal improvement. It’s a free-of-cost training ground where you work in real, uncontrolled conditions. You learn from real society and not a faculty. People grow more as individuals and it humanises them. Personal transformations take place and employees bring this back to their workplaces. This is an overall developmental process, which is why there was a response from over 200 employees in Mumbai and several hundred employees formally registered in other places.

In the final analysis, when it comes to community development you think you are developing somebody, but really speaking you are learning too. "You change and the world changes for you", as Lord Buddha said it.

On the skills required for social work.
Personally, I think some qualified social workers have a know-it-all attitude. That is one thing you should not have if you want to be a good social worker. Social work requires more than just skills. You have to open up to the community and you must relate as a human being to the people you are trying to reach out to, without any clutter in your own mind. Some people are intelligent but cannot relate. Even if they qualify as social workers, they will have a problem getting people to trust in working out something together.

On personal achievements.
I used to be very structured in the past. Gradually I’ve realised that my job is more to help and allow people to function, to be a facilitator, somebody who encourages others and ensures that companies work better and more employees get connected.

It was exciting and challenging to work on developing the Tata Group’s guidelines for community development. They are some of the best guidelines available on corporate social responsibility. This has led to the CII and United Nations Development Programme asking me to prepare a ‘social code for business’, which was released recently and the Tatas will also assist in spreading across India. This is a great honour.