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CAMPUS BUZZ Events Getting people’s passion is far more difficult than getting their commitment
CAMPUS BUZZ Events Getting people’s passion is far more difficult than getting their commitment
October
15
2010
Getting people’s passion is far more difficult than getting their commitment
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All of us at FLAME were extremely privileged to have the Tata team visit us on the 15th of October. The interaction we had with them from 9.30 to 12.30 proved to be truly fruitful, peppered as it was with games and question and answer sessions. The team comprised of Mr.Satish Pradhan – Chief, Group Human Resources - Tata Sons, Mr.B Sudhakar – CHRO – Tata Chemicals, Mr.Sujit Patil – Head Communications – Tata Chemicals, and Mr. Deepak Deshpande- GM Corporate HR – Tata Chemicals. “You are the best as you are, so don’t think of this as an evaluation,” began Mr. Pradhan, capturing our attention right at the onset. “Academic brilliance and intelligence is not enough to build the kind of leaders we’ll need in the future. There is a difference between being value driven and being capable,” he continued, touching upon matters which concerned every one of us as students. Mr. Pradhan then spoke at length about the TATA Company, giving an overview of the organization, along with its group purpose. We learnt that TATA is the largest business company in India and that TCS would hire 30,000 students from campuses this year. “Leadership is about being the best. It’s about excellence,” said Mr. Pradhan and then launched into an explanation of the kind of leadership TATA encouraged. “If there is one thing sacred about this group, it is its values,” he declared passionately. “The community is not merely one of the stakeholders for us. It is the very purpose of our existence. I have seen ordinary people in this group struggling everyday to live that commitment.” We were spellbound to hear how all the theoretic concepts and visions in our heads were actually being realized at this gigantic organization called TATA. We were all surprised to know that the TATA revenue graph has seen only a very gradual rise until recently. The company’s CAGR is 15.5%. “We should learn from these ups and downs and learn to insulate ourselves,” said Mr. Pradhan. He spoke at length about the expansion strategy adopted by the various groups under the TATA umbrella, and the significant change that has taken place in the nature of their workforce. We then had a question and answers session where Mr. Pradhan revealed the secret of TATA’s success – “Our companies have grown by constantly reinventing themselves. We always ask ourselves – Are we going to be a good parent for the companies we acquire?” Mr. Pradhan inspired us tremendously by saying, “You are a very fortunate generation. You have grown up without the baggage of the pre 1992 years. So there is huge opportunity for people like you in this country.” The team ended the session with a lively game in which we had to divide ourselves into groups of ten and come up with three crucial aspects that we would like to change in our society. Several pertinent points came up in the discussion that followed the primary of which was problems with the education system. Mr. Pradhan made a very remarkable observation, “Getting people’s passion is far more difficult and important than getting their commitment.” Thus the session went a long way in demystifying the TATA success story for us, and also inspiring us to perhaps replicate the same one day, or at least go as far as we can. |
