Tata Steel Wins the Deming Prize

Harish Bhat

Description

From steel to beverages and from supercomputers to automobiles, TATA companies have broken new ground and set new standards of excellence over the past two decades. Written by a TATA insider, TATAlog presents the hitherto untold stories about the strategic and operational challenges that TATA companies have faced, and the forward thinking and determination that have raised the brand to new heights. This is one of the eight riveting and inspiring stories from TATAlog that reveals the DNA of every TATA enterprise. Be sure to check out the other seven: *Tata Indica *Okhamandal *Tata Finance *Tanishq *Second Careers for Women *The EKA Supercomputer *Tata Tetley

Sujets

• Histoire
• Strategic management
• Economics
• History

Informations

• Publié par: Penguin Books Ltd
• Date de parution: 15 septembre 2013
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9789351183068
• Langue: English

Extrait

HARISH BHAT
Tata Steel Wins the Deming Prize Eight Modern Stories from a Timeless Institution -->
Contents Dedication
Foreword
A Path Well Paved
Tata Indica, the Very First Indian Car
Uplifting Tales from Okhamandal
The Tribulations of Tata Finance
Tanishq Sets the Gold Standard
Second Careers for Intelligent Women
EKA: Birth of an Indian Supercomputer
Tetley Enters the Tata Fold -->
Tata Steel Wins the Deming Prize Epilogue: One Day in Kolkata
Acknowledgements -->
Copyright Page
Tata Steel Wins the Deming Prize
Quality is not an act. It is a habit.
-Aristotle
One must forever strive for excellence, or even perfection, in any task, however small, and never be satisfied with the second best.
-J.R.D. Tata
A midnight call from Japan
On 6 October 2008, a 3 a.m. phone call woke B. Muthuraman, managing director of Tata Steel, up in Chicago. He heard a distant Japanese voice, speaking in English. Due to the marked difference in accents it normally takes some time to comprehend the Japanese, even when one is wide awake. In the dead of the night, the challenge must have been even greater.
Muthuraman recalls that conversation:
I recognized the Japanese person on the call as one of the assessors who had visited our company earlier in the year. He told me, very simply and directly, that Tata Steel had been awarded the Deming Prize. This is a most coveted quality award that companies across the world crave for. I wasn t sure whether I had heard him correctly. I was not entirely awake, he was speaking in halting Japanese English, and this was phenomenal news. I just said Thank you , and the call was over.
But the news was too good to be true, so I wanted to call him back immediately, just to verify what he had actually said. Then I felt it would be stupid to do this. My wife, who was next to me, had been woken up by all this noise, and asked me what this was all about. I shared the news with her, and then rang up my senior colleague Hemant Nerurkar at Jamshedpur. Of course I could not sleep any more. The phone rang many more times that night. Because we had won.
Muthuraman would go on to win many other honours, including the Padma Bhushan bestowed by the President of India. However, he considers the Deming Prize to be very special.
This award is for the organization. It is for the effort of some 35,000 people of Tata Steel. Only if these 35,000 people are sharply aligned towards a common goal and committed to the highest levels of quality, will you be able to win the Deming Prize. A collective effort such as this is always more challenging, more rewarding than awards and prizes for individual efforts. I felt proud for all our people. This was a dream come true.