Built to last: Brand Tata
a brand.’ The distinction is an important one. Reputation is what other people think about you; brand is the image of yourself that you portray to other people. Tata knew that managing that brand was essential not just to the greater internal coordination and cohesiveness that the group needed, but to reassert the values— trust, innovation, commitment to community and people—that had made Tata great in the first place; values that had come dangerously close to getting lost in the twilight years of JRD’s leadership.
Establishing the brand meant not just changing what Tata does, although there has been a historic shift away from smokestack industries towards services such as telecom and consultancy, which are seen as being more in keeping with the needs of modern India. It also meant telling the Tata story in new ways, to new stakeholder groups. A notable example has been Tata’s engagement with the youth of India, and increasingly in other countries as well. As a result, Tata is now perceived by young Indians as a thrusting, innovative, forward-looking company; and this would not have been the case 20 years ago.
The real alchemy here is that all of this has been done without losing sight of fundamental Tata values. Indeed, they underpin the brand and are part of its heart. When I talk about Tata to young Indian students, they tell me that the very things they admire about Tata are its values, its trustworthiness and its belief in people. These are the very
