JRD Tata conceived the idea of a company that would provide Group companies specialised services and benefits of economies resulting from common facilities. So it was that Tata Services was incorporated in 1957.

Over the years Tata Services has reinvented itself to keep pace with changing business trends. With the vision ‘to be an unmatched resource for solutions and services in a knowledge world’, the company has become a valuable Group resource with a growing recognition of its potential as a service arm of the Group, providing a gamut of services ranging from the high profile to the routine. It has strengths in several areas of knowledge-based services, from legal expertise, to labour relations, management training to economics related services, corporate communications to IT enabling support services.

TR Doongaji, managing director of Tata Services, has been with the Tata Group since 1966 when he joined Tata Steel. He was appointed the managing director of Tata Metals and Strips in 1989 and joint managing director of Tata SSL in 1995 before moving to Tata Services in 2000. He looks back at 50 years of Tata Services in a chat with Shubha Madhukar. Excerpts from the interview:

Very little is known about Tata Services. What does it do and why is it not as well known as the other Tata companies?
Though unlisted, Tata Services is a public company that offers a whole gamut of services exclusively to the Tata Group. Sometimes, I jokingly call Tata Services the ‘brahmin’ of the Group as it is owned by Group companies and caters only to Group companies. Restricting our role to the confines of the Group results in reduced external visibility. But this does not bother us so long as we can successfully cater to the needs and expectations of our companies.

Tata Services completes 50 years in 2007. Apart from playing a role in knowledge-based areas and services, the company has been a seeding ground for people and new ventures such as TCS, a jewel in the Tata crown.

How did Tata Services evolve?
Giving it a formal shape was basically JRD’s idea, although some services existed in one form or other even before the incorporation of Tata Services. If one were to consider the Bombay Plan of 1944 — which was proposed as a blueprint for the development of India’s economy and was formulated at the initiative of JRD and other industrialists, one could see it as a forerunner of the Department of Economics and Statistics.

Departments such as the Public Affairs Department at Delhi, TAS, Communications and Medical have been there for a very long time. All such services were grouped under the umbrella of Tata Services in 1957, thereby providing the departments an independent corporate identity and facilitating better use of their services by Group companies. With time, departments such as the Tata Management Training Centre; Tata Central Archives; Corporate Affairs Department, the Department of Economics & Statistics, Bombay House Shared Network; Tata Council for Community Initiatives, etc. got added.

How is Tata Services funded?
Tata Services operates on a no-profit-no-loss basis as most owners and customers of the company are the same — all being Group companies. Certain operations are either fully or partially funded through BEBP for activities that have predominantly a Group focus and are not related to the needs or activities of specific companies.

How does Tata Services add value to the Group?
In many ways: By recruiting and developing the best talent in various disciplines; by researching and providing economy inputs essential for strategy formulation; by rendering legal services; by tracking the brand and addressing internal communication; by realising economies for companies by clubbing procurement and negotiating common rates for certain products and services; by keeping abreast of changes in policy that could impact business and identifying opportunities; by providing medical attention and security arrangements; by being a repository of the Group’s achievements in the past and history as is being made; through community initiatives, etc.

I think the value-add also comes from guaranteed confidentiality, for instance in the case of mergers and acquisitions and rendering of quality service in a cost effective manner.

Of all the departments under Tata Services, which is your favourite?
Well, the degree of my involvement in the company’s various departments varies from department to department. In many departments the role I play is one of a ‘facilitator’ or ‘servant leader’, if you like. And so it is difficult to pick a single favourite department. Having said that, however, I feel most drawn to the Tata Central Archives which is not only a repository of past achievements of the Group and its celebrities but is also a repository of the Group’s cultural heritage and philosophy which needs to be treasured and valued by successive generations of Tata persons for all times to come. A line that I recall said : “There are two lasting bequests we can give our children (or successors); one is roots, the other is wings.” The Archives is a continuous reminder of our priceless roots. Fly as much as we may, we could be lost in space if we failed to be guided by the beacon of our roots.

How did it come about?
As you know, JRD was one who was obsessed with perfection, and record keeping for him was no exception. Motivated by Russi Lala’s drive for research on the Tata Group and his encouragement, JRD initiated and blessed the idea of having a Tata archives. Today the Archives in Pune has treasures such as letters written by the Founder to important people and celebrities of his time, JRD’s tool room and his office replicated with its original furniture from Bombay House, Sir Ratan Tata’s wedding chairs, JRD’s Bharat Ratna and lakhs of documents that mark important milestones in our story.

The Archives has helped companies in legal cases by providing information and documents that would have otherwise been long forgotten and lost. It assists companies by sharing with them the importance of preserving documents, photographs and memorabilia and helping them to set up their own archives.

Since Mr Ratan Tata inaugurated the Archives on February 13, 2001, we have concentrated on improving processes, training people in preservation and restoration techniques, even sending one of our officers abroad for learning modern methods of managing an archive and I feel proud to say that ours is probably the only ISO certified archive in the world.

Our focus in the Archives today is not only to preserve the past but also to capture moments in the Group’s history as it is being made every day under the inspiring guidance and leadership of our present Group Chairman, Mr Ratan Tata. Since ‘today’ is the ‘yesterday’ of ‘tomorrow’, if current happenings are captured in time it is far easier to refer to them in the future.

The Founder's old clothes… T R Doongaji recalls an electrifying moment when the most treasured item of the Archives lay before him… A couple of years ago a gentleman who had worked with me in Navsari came with the best New Year’s gift I have ever received. The man carried a bundle tied in a muslin cloth. It contained a set of our Founder Jamsetji’s clothes, consisting of a shirt, a waistcoat and a mock chest piece. It was invaluable. There was however a niggling doubt. ‘How do I know for certain that these clothes are those of the Founder and not someone else’s?’ I questioned. The gentleman promptly showed me a picture of the Founder wearing them and I was convinced. The set of clothes and the photograph are now in the Archives. Receiving and touching these clothes was an electrifying experience as, the Founder, for thousands of us in the Group, is nothing short of a deity. “Good Lord,” I said to myself, “we have a chair that the Founder used in the Empress Mills in Nagpur; we have located his desk and a couple of other chairs belonging to him and we now also have a set of his clothes, more than a hundred years after he passed away!” A colleague and a young friend, Zubin Mistry, during one of his holidays in Matheran had wandered into Sir Ratan Tata’s property called 'Hampstead’. Given the poor condition of the structure, we managed to remove and salvage the stained glass window which carried the name ‘Hampstead’, the uniquely designed wedding chairs of Sir Ratan Tata and his wife Lady Navajbai, as well as some old cupboards popularly known as suryamukhis. Restored and polished, these items are now part of a priceless collection of belongings preserved in the Archives.

Uploaded in September, 2007