The stated goal of the Tata Group is to secure positions of leadership for its companies in the industries they operate in. Driving this ambition is the quest for business excellence across all enterprises within the group, and one of its chief navigators is G. Jagannathan, CEO of Tata Quality Management Services. An interview

The not-so-quiet revolution underway in the Tata Group is gathering pace and the transformation it is aimed at bringing about is nothing short of momentous. The goal is a simple enough one, though to promote business excellence in every Tata company and, thereby, cement positions of leadership in every industry the group is involved in.

Guiding this endeavour is G. Jagannathan, chief executive officer of Tata Quality Management Services, the organisation that is defining the parameters of the business excellence benchmark that Tata companies are looking to set. An alumni of IIT (Madras), Mr Jagannathan, was with Tata Steel for 13 years and, prior to that, with Tata Engineering for 12 years. He took up his current position in August 2000.

In this interview with Christabelle Noronha, he speaks about the different programmes, projects and methods that are being employed to extract the best out of Tata Group companies.

tata.com: How has the drive for business excellence been implemented in the Tata Group?
G. Jagannathan: The first step is that companies sign a Brand Equity and Business Promotion (BEBP) agreement with Tata Sons. As a part of the agreement, it is necessary for them to achieve standards of excellence determined by scores based on the Malcolm Baldrige criteria. This drives companies to achieve certain minimum scores.

The real intention behind the group initiating the award was to reward the spirit of excellence. Though there was no framework to formalise this intention, it wasn't about winning prizes. The JRD QV award has taken root through the BEBP programme.

A company signing the agreement has to score a minimum of 220 points out of 550 in two years. This involves aspects that cover how companies have approached and deployed initiatives to help achieve excellence. In three years they have to achieve a minimum of 400 points on a scale of 1,000, not only in terms of initiatives and deployment, but also on the results they have achieved. In four years time a company must secure 500 points.

This is a complete and comprehensive scorecard. Each stage is intense and the score bands are crucial. When companies are in the 0-250 band, it shows the early efforts of the company driving towards excellence; 250-350 is when they start getting results, for example in terms of customer satisfaction going up.

There is a gap of at least one year between the results and the initial steps that a company has taken. That’s why we say the first two years will only be for spadework. By global business standards, being in this band is poor. The company is not even known internationally and nobody bothers about it. Even when a company moves to the second band, a stage where it starts getting recognised, internationally it is still only average.

Most of our companies are in this band. Tata Steel is between 550 and 650 points and is internationally known because it is on its way to becoming an industry leader. In terms of technology, the world looks at steel plants in Japan and South Korea as the best, but in terms of processes Tata Steel is emerging as a leader.

tata.com: Where is Tata Steel today?
GJ:It was at 616 points as of last year. The results for this year are not yet known. Let the assessment be over because there is a difference between paper and site assessments.

tata.com: What’s the difference?
GJ: It is the same as when an application is received. You judge from what you read but there are many doubts that may need clarification. At a site visit you can see and clarify everything and give additional points. Hence the importance of site visits.

tata.com: What initiatives are being taken to promote business excellence in Tata companies?
GJ: One is the BEBP agreement. The Total Quality Management Services (TQMS) was formed essentially to drive business excellence in the group’s companies through four processes: assurance, assessment, assistance and award.

If we look at the assurance process as part of the BEBP agreement, a company sets up an apex team comprising the chief executive officer, those reporting directly to him, a core group headed by the corporate quality head and process owners for each of the seven categories of the Tata Business Excellence Model.

The assurance process also checks on senior leader involvement in terms of how systematically he or she is involved in driving business excellence, processes for planned implementation of the Tata Business Excellence Model (TBEM), internal communications, training programmes for employees, how each of the categories is being analysed and how opportunities for improvement are being addressed.

The signing of the BEBP is by itself an intensive process. Before the signing, TQMS and the company have a kick-off meeting on TBEM assessment and prepare a joint action report. This report identifies, strengths and opportunities for improvement under each of the seven categories — leadership; strategic planning; customer and market focus; information and analysis; human resource focus; process management and business results.

Initially we may find that the company has a number of weaknesses. It often doesn’t have a vision, a mission or a value statement. If it does, it has not been communicated across the company. So we identify all these areas and prepare a compliance plan. The plan states that here is an ‘opportunity for improvement’ and identifies who will be responsible for driving and taking responsibility of this. A date is then set to fulfil it.

There is also a review mechanism. The apex team is supposed to monitor the compliance plan and the core group is expected to implement the action plan that is chalked out. The process for planned implementation is checked (clear milestones and time frames to achieve them are important here). We encourage companies to adopt a structured review mechanism.

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Uploaded in July 2003