A corporate giant with a mission
The Hindu Business Line — August 26, 2007

The story of Tata Steel and Jamshedpur is more than the story of an industry and a township that grew around it. It is a story of a man and his vision. It is a story of how the vision transformed into a tradition, and how the tradition was institutionalised with a policy framework that was tailor-made for facilitation of the desired objectives.
The story of Tata Steel and Jamshedpur is also the story of generations of people with a mission; the story of an industrious effort to create resources for a nation and wealth for shareholders and stakeholders alike; the story of an industrial enterprise's sincere and sustained endeavour to serve the community within which it exists.

It is also a story of how labour and management can work hand-in-hand for the benefit of an enterprise and the lives of people it impacts; the story of how a domestic steel company has dared to dream and establish its forceful presence in the global steel firmament and the story of how a hundred-year-old company can be the pivot around which the lives of around 12 lakh people who live in and around Jamshedpur revolves.

That, in a nutshell is the story of Tata Steel. When the Tatas first came to Sakchi (which is now part of Jamshedpur), it was a harsh and demanding environment that yielded a meagre living to its tribal inhabitants.

Within a few years of their arrival, the Tatas succeeded in transforming the bush land into a well-designed, clean, green and beautiful township that is Jamshedpur. Today, Jamshedpur, with its civic and social infrastructure, is one of the most liveable cities in the country.

It is the only city in South East Asia that has been selected by the United Nations to participate in the Global Compact Cities Pilot Programme.

From being incorporated in 1907 to 1912, when steel was first made, and to the present day, Tata Steel has come a long way.

In the process, milestones have been created, pioneering labour welfare measures initiated and the community at large was served in a manner few corporates had done before.

Today, the company has expanded its presence to different geographies in the world with acquisitions that would have been considered pipedreams even a few years ago. Tata Steel is currently ranked as the 6th largest steel producer in the world with a global capacity of 28 million tonnes. By 2015, the company will have an annual manufacturing capacity of 50 million tonnes.

Sooner than later, it hopes to realise its dream of becoming a 100 million-tonne per annum capacity steel company.

While Tata Steel has pursued with missionary zeal its corporate ambitions in the 100 years of its existence, it has never lost sight of the aspirations of its employees and the expectations of the community within which it exists.

As a policy, the company has endeavoured to ensure that the professional, material and social aspirations of its employees are met. Living quality of very high standards for its employees is a focus area for the company even as all of them — and others who live in Jamshedpur — have access to quality healthcare provided by the company.

Not just its employees, as part of its corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiatives, Tata Steel has reached out to the community at large, especially in rural areas in the periphery of Jamshedpur.

The company's CSR initiatives are spread across diverse areas such as employee welfare, economic development of the rural poor, environment management, healthcare and childcare, education, sports and adventure, relief during natural calamities, arts and culture and social welfare.

Recognitions and accolades have been constant companions of Tata Steel. World Steel Dynamics has ranked Tata Steel as the No 1 steel company in the world for three consecutive years. The company achieved EVA positive status in 2003 and has, since then, continued to be an EVA positive company.

The company was declared the lowest-cost producer of steel in the world in 2001.
Over the years, Tata Steel has spawned several large, medium, small and micro industries in and around Jamshedpur.

These include big names such as Tata Power, Tinplate Company of India Ltd, Tata Rolls Ltd, BOC, Indian Steel & Wire Products, Timken India Ltd, Cummins India, Lafarge and Usha Martin Industries. More than 600 small and medium industries in Jamshedpur and its periphery depend, in some way or the other, on Tata Steel.

Says Sanjiv Kapila, managing director of Sandeep Industries, an external processing agent of Tata Steel and whose plant has been operating in Jamshedpur for more than 25 years now: "The business environment in Jamshedpur couldn't be better. We have excellent infrastructure in the Tata-run township, there are no power cuts, the quality of water is excellent and so is the quality of social life".

Kapila knows what he is saying. His is a third generation association with Tata Steel.

His grandfather belonged to the first batch of graduate engineer trainees of Tata Steel.

Adds Ronald D'Costa, owner of Boulevard Hotel, the oldest surviving hotel of Jamshedpur: "Beginning the 1990s, a sense of desperation and gloom had descended on this city. People thought that the future belonged to cities where IT was the buzzword and not in a brick and mortar city we lived in.

Some felt that the House of Tatas was concentrating more on emerging areas such as telecom, software and even automobiles.

This was also the time severe job cuts were taking place and a sense of uncertainty reigned.

Many searched for new avenues in other cities and left Jamshedpur.

But many business families that had become part of the Jamshedpur community elected to wait out the bad phase.

We are happy to be one of them.

We do not regret that we put our faith in a brand name that has been equated with trust globally. Tata equals trust".