Tata: Leadership With Trust

Author: Branzei, Oana
Source: Richard Ivey School of Business
Year: 2010
Company Name: Tata Group
Number of pages: 31

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Abstract:

The case illustrates the opportunities, challenges and trade-offs involved in the design, evolution and institutionalization of corporate social responsibility (CSR) and corporate sustainability (CS) within the Tata Group – an India-based indigenous multinational enterprise (MNE) with a unique 140-year old commitment to the community as the key stakeholder of business. Despite the 2008-2009 global recession, the Tata Group topped the economic value creation charts. In 2008-2009, the Group had grossed US$70.8 billion in revenues; 64.7 per cent of the Group’s revenues were now coming from outside India. Its 96 independent companies spanned seven sectors: information systems and communications, engineering, materials, services, energy, consumer products and chemicals. Economic turbulence had put a break on social and environmental investing for many other companies, but renewed Tata Group’s commitment: the Group had recently revised its charitable giving, adopted a group-wide climate change policy, and separated its mandatory and voluntary initiatives. The case deals with the intricate connections between the Group’s profitability and competitiveness on the one hand and its long-standing tradition of social responsibility on the other. It explores value-creation, leadership, ethics and sustainable development on the backdrop of rapid internationalizations and shifting stakeholders' expectations for corporate social responsibility.

This case was used in the Aspen Institute's 2010 Business and Society International MBA Case Competition. Visit the website at www.AspenCaseCompetition.org, for more information.