आज इस देश में टाटा एक ऐसा ब्रांड है जो टाटा भी अपने सारे उत्पादों को नहीं देता . हो सकता है यह आपके लिए एक समाचार हो लेकिन टाटा अपना लोगो उन उत्पादों को ही लगाने की इजाजत देता है जो उसके कठिन मापदंडों में खरे उतरते हैं .
लेकिन आज जो बात मैं आपके सामने रखना चाहता हूँ वह मुझे एक ईमेल से मिली . क्षमा चाहूँगा रोमन में भेजने के लिए . किसी को असुविधा हो तो मुझे लिखें .
A. Terrorist entry
1. They entered from the Leopold Colaba hotel entrance and also from
the northern entrance – spraying indiscriminate bullets on the Taj security
personnel and guests in general.
2. Though Taj had a reasonable security – they were surely not
equipped to deal with terrorists who were spraying 6 bullets per trigger.
3. The strategy of the terrorists was to throw chunks of RDX in an
open area that will explode and burn – creating chaos so that the guests and
staff run helter skelter so that the terrorists could kill them. The idea was
to create maximum casualties.
4. There were several critical gatherings and functions happening in
the hotel on that day – a Bohra wedding, global meet of Unilever CEOs and Board
members and 2 other corporate meetings were being held in the hotel – besides
the usual crowd.
5. The firing and chaos began at about 8.30 p.m. and the staff
including employees on casual and contract basis displayed exemplary presence
of mind, courage and sacrifice to protect the guests who were in various halls
and conference rooms.
B. Stories of Staff Heroics
1. A young lady guest relation executive with the HLL gathering
stopped any of the members going out and volunteered 3 times to go out and get
stuff such as ice cubes for whiskey of the guests when the situation outside
the hall was very explosives and she could have been easily the target of the
bullets
2. Thomas George a captain escorted 54 guests from a backdoor
staircase and when he was going down last he was shot by the terrorists
3. There were 500 emails from various guests narrating heroics of
the staff and thanking them for saving their lives
4. In a subsequent function, Ratan Tata broke down in full public
view and sobbed saying – "the company belongs to these people". The wife of
Thomas George who laid his life saving others said, she and the kids were proud
of the man and that she did not know that for 25 years she lived with a man who
was so courageous and brave
5. The episode happened on 26th November, a significant part of the
hotel was burnt down and destroyed – the hotel was re-opened on 21st December
and all the employees of the hotel were paraded in front of the guests
6. It was clearly a saga of extra-ordinary heroics by ordinary
people for their organisation and in a way for their country. The sense of duty
and service was unprecedented
7. The young lady who protected and looked after the HLL guests was
a management trainee and we often speak of juniority and seniority in the
organisation. She had no instructions from any supervisor to do what she did
a. She took just 3 minutes to rescue the entire team through the kitchen
b. Cars were organised outside the hotel as per seniority of the members
c. In the peak of the crisis, she stepped out and got the right wine glass
for the guest
8. People who exhibited courage included janitors, waiters,
directors, artisans and captains – all level of people
C. The Tata Gesture
1. All category of employees including those who had completed even
1 day as casuals were treated on duty during the time the hotel was closed
2. Relief and assistance to all those who were injured and killed
3. The relief and assistance was extended to all those who died at
the railway station, surroundings including the "Pav-Bhaji" vendor and the pan
shop owners
4. During the time the hotel was closed, the salaries were sent my
money order
5. A psychiatric cell was established in collaboration with Tata
Institute of Social Sciences to counsel those who needed such help
6. The thoughts and anxieties going on people's mind was constantly
tracked and where needed psychological help provided
7. Employee outreach centers were opened where all help, food,
water, sanitation, first aid and counseling was provided. 1600 employees were
covered by this facility
8. Every employee was assigned to one mentor and it was that
person's responsibility to act as a "single window" clearance for any help that
the person required
9. Ratan Tata personally visited the families of all the 80
employees who in some manner – either through injury or getting killed – were
affected.
10. The dependents of the employees were flown from outside Mumbai to
Mumbai and taken care off in terms of ensuring mental assurance and peace. They
were all accommodated in Hotel President for 3 weeks
11. Ratan Tata himself asked the families and dependents – as to what
they wanted him to do.
12. In a record time of 20 days, a new trust was created by the Tatas
for the purpose of relief of employees.
13. What is unique is that even the other people, the railway
employees, the police staff, the pedestrians who had nothing to do with Tatas
were covered by compensation. Each one of them was provided subsistence
allowance of Rs. 10K per month for all these people for 6 months.
14. A 4 year old granddaughter of a vendor got 4 bullets in her and
only one was removed in the Government hospital. She was taken to Bombay
hospital and several lacs were spent by the Tatas on her to fully recover her
15. New hand carts were provided to several vendors who lost their
carts
16. Tata will take responsibility of life education of 46 children of
the victims of the terror
17. This was the most trying period in the life of the organisation.
Senior managers including Ratan Tata were visiting funeral to funeral over the
3 days that were most horrible
18. The settlement for every deceased member ranged from Rs. 36 to 85
lacs in addition to the following benefits:
a. Full last salary for life for the family and dependents
b. Complete responsibility of education of children and dependents –
anywhere in the world
c. Full Medical facility for the whole family and dependents for rest of
their life
d. All loans and advances were waived off – irrespective of the amount
e. Counselor for life for each person
D. Epilogue
1. How was such passion created among the employees? How and why did
they behave the way they did?
2. The organisation is clear that it is not something that someone
can take credit for. It is not some training and development that created such
behaviour. If someone suggests that – everyone laughs
3. It has to do with the DNA of the organisation, with the way Tata
culture exists and above all with the situation that prevailed that time. The
organisation has always been telling that customers and guests are #1 priority
4. The hotel business was started by Jamshedji Tata when he was
insulted in one of the British hotels and not allowed to stay there.
5. He created several institutions which later became icons of
progress, culture and modernity. IISc is one such institute. He was told by the
rulers that time that he can acquire land for IISc to the extent he could fence
the same. He could afford fencing only 400 acres.
6. When the HR function hesitatingly made a very rich proposal to
Ratan – he said – do you think we are doing enough?
7. The whole approach was that the organisation would spend several
hundred crore in re-building the property – why not spend equally on the
employees who gave their life?
--
2 टिप्पणियां:
विचारणीय तथ्य!
डॉक्टर साहब,
कई अनछुए पहलु आपने उजागर किए...
अपनी गलतियों से सबक लेते हुए आगे के लिए सतर्क रहना चाहिए...
जय हिंद...
एक टिप्पणी भेजें