Tata #2: The Almost Died Company
It was the mid-80’s. India was still under the License Raj. The joint MD of Tata Steel told JRD Tata that if they didn’t renovate the plant totally: “You and I will be standing outside the gate selling tickets to people to come and see the steel museum.” Things looked that dire for Tata Steel, writes Shashank Shah in The Tata Group . ~~ Though the Tata companies are all separate entities, they are a group with a common Chairman. In 1994, Ratan Tata instituted the JRD Quality Value (QV) award – it would go to the Tata company that scored the most in the internationally recognized Baldridge National Quality Programme methodology. The first year, the average score across 12 group companies was 215. Out of 1,000. Nobody got the prize – they were all too low: “The benchmark for winning the (Baldridge) award was 600 points.” It was a crushing moment to realize how poorly they rated on global scales. Six more years passed. Still no com...