Head and shoulder above the rest

I hear that one major business school sent an elite team to the Taj hotel in Mumbai of 26/11 terrorist attack. They were on a mission to understand, how a month old trainee in the banquette hall decided that I will wait in the hotel until all guests are safely escorted out. How did hundreds of employees put their lives in the line of fire to serve their guests, help their guests, when they were well versed with the escape routes themselves? What gave a senior employee the strength to stand by, help other employees in cleaning up the mess, knowing he had just lost his family at the hands of the very same terrorist?

I don’t know what the findings of their study are. But I think, if you are living in India, you probably know why. There are some values that TATAs stand for, which keeps them head and shoulder above the rest.

Post the 26/11 episode, there were some steps that the TATAs took, which is not known to a lot of us. Even if you are aware, reading this again will only fill you with pride that we have an organization, a head of an organization who behaves in such fashion.

When an organization which has been struck by such a devastating occurrence, some desperate measures are sure to take place. TATAs have done a whole lot for the employees and that is understandable and probably expected from a TATA company. Things like full last salary for life for the family and dependents. Complete responsibility of education of children and dependents - anywhere in the world, full Medical facility for the whole family and dependents for rest of their life, all loans and advances were waived off - irrespective of the amount, counselor for life for each person were some of the many steps taken.

They did not stop with this. In a record time of 20 days, a new trust was created by the TATAs for the purpose of relief of employees. What is unique is that even the other people, the railway employees, the police staff, the pedestrians who had nothing to do with TATAs were covered by compensation. Each one of them was provided subsistence allowance of Rs. 10K per month for all these people for 6 months. New hand carts were provided to several vendors who lost their carts. Tata will take responsibility of life education of 46 children of the victims of the terror.

A 4 year old girl, granddaughter of a vendor at a station, had 4 bullets in her when she was brought to the Government hospital. The doctors were able to remove only one bullet and she was battling for her life. She was taken to Bombay hospital and several lacs were spent by the TATAs on her, until she fully recovered. I am sure this is one of the many stories that have never been discussed in television shows, as it lacks ‘sensationalism factor’.

It’s said, that the Group HR head went with a pretty beefed up budget for the plans laid out wondering if the chairman would approve of such a huge cost outflow. The chairman remarked – do you think we are doing enough? When crores are being spent on rebuilding our hotel to make it ready for business, why can’t we spent an equal amount to ensure we support as many people within and outside our family to get back on their feet, after what has hit us.

Time in and time out, it’s been the TATAs who have come to the fore front and done a difference to a situation of misery. And they do it without anyone knowing. There is no PR team which trumpets on what is done.

One of the most important leadership traits is the ability to create people who think like you, who behave like you, whose values are your own. When you have an organization which can empathize and have a deep sense of helping, it’s any ones guess what a month old trainee would do when thrown into a situation like that.