From Social Entrepreneur
to Corporate Titan
India’s Tata Group has for decades been among that country’s largest and most infl uential
industrial conglomerates. With $62 billion in annual revenues, and businesses ranging from
steel and chemicals to hotels and tea, it is big by any measure. Among its recent and bestknown initiatives is the plan to sell the world’s least expensive car (approximately $2,500),
dubbed the 1-lakh car.
It may come as a surprise, then, to learn that the founder of the Tata Group, Jamsetji Tata,
was one of the world’s fi rst and most successful social entrepreneurs. Nearly a century before anyone uttered the term corporate social responsibility, Tata built a business empire that
defi ned its mission as creating both profi ts and social value. Tata, who died in 1904, is quoted
on the Tata Group’s Web site as saying, “In a free enterprise, the community is not just another stakeholder in business, but is in fact the very purpose of its existence.”
It is almost impossible to visit India and not be aware of Tata Group’s presence. It includes
not only the industrial entities, but also a stunning array of public service institutions, including the Tata Cancer Hospitals, Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Tata Trusts, and the Indian
Institute of Science in Bangalore (founded by Jamsetji Tata). The Indian Institute of Science
is one of India’s top technical universities and is the main reason that Bangalore has emerged
as a major hub of information technology services.
More than an illustration, the Tata story is an allegory. Entrepreneurial value creation
and corporate value creation are not two different stories. They are, instead, distinct chapters
of the same story: the social entrepreneur became the corporate titan. —P.A.