Brand-Building & Infrastructure Redux

Brand-Building and Infrastructure Redux

Tata Hall will be the name of a new academic and residential building to come up at Harvard Business School, following on from a $50 million bequest from the Tata Group.

This is the largest ever contribution received by the Harvard Business School from an international donor. The School currently also happens to boast of a Dean Nitin Nohria who is of Indian origin.

This endowment from the Tata Group follows on from $10 million gifted by the Mahindra Group earlier. And coming during one of the worst financial crises the US has faced, these payments are bound to earn both business groups and their country of origin, a great deal of goodwill. Remarkably, both Tata and Mahindra come from the private sector in an emerging economy grappling with its binary demands of poverty and progress.

It is fortuitous indeed therefore, that such a slot was still left open; what with the Saudis, Kuwaitis and other  very well-heeled Arabs looking for diplomatically leverageable investments and causes to endow in America. And that is just as well for us Indians and the two chairmen of Tata and Mahindra who happen to have studied there in times past.

These grants underline that neither business groups are, any longer, merely Indian, with more and more of a global footprint as the time goes on. The Tata Group already generates more than 60% of its business outside India. And a good deal of it is from the high-end of the market, in fields as diverse as hotels, steel, automobiles and tea.

With this foray into the Harvard Business School establishment, it will now be far more difficult for the likes of the luxury Orient Express Hotels brand, to show reluctance regarding “fit”, the next time Tata seeks to buy more substantially into its properties. Of course, that infamous episode was before Tata acquired Corus and Jaguar/Landrover, but was nevertheless sometime after it bought Tetley. And Mahindra may not remain the lesser known new owner of Satyam for long.

Sadly, old post-colonial attitudes to India may have been revised somewhat in Britain, but America, in its pre-eminence, is definitely the more lucrative nut to crack. Doing so via the Ivy League is therefore a very good idea.

Visionary actions like this, by the Tata Chairman, just months before he is due to retire from the day-to-day helmsmanship, albeit to a powerful stewardship of the Tata Trusts, are therefore to be lauded, both for their correctness and boldness. Since the Tata Trusts own over 60% of the businesses overall, hopefully Ratan Tata’s voice will continue to be heard well beyond 2012. Meanwhile, this is a classic example of brand building that will prove, for generations to come, extremely cheap at the price.

But brand-building alone would not be cutting the mustard. The Tatas back their well -targeted philanthropy with massive skill and know-how, represented by the oft repeated “Salt to Software” array of products and services. They are not only at the forefront of our nation building efforts but are proud innovators, epitomised by the Nano motor-car being freely sold at under $3,000 a unit.

Another major Tata Sons shareholder, the Shapoorji Pallonji Group, coincidentally, built the new and improved Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium in New Delhi complete with the biggest membrane roof in the world. It was the glittering, state-of-the art venue of both the opening and closing ceremonies at the recently concluded 19th Commonwealth Games.  Other SP Group companies, such as AFCON, have been building a lot of Delhi’s new infrastructure as well.

But quite apart from matters pertaining to the CWG, it is poor infrastructure that defines our backward image and acts as a retardant to the desired double-digit growth. And our neglect of it over the years, in areas such as electricity, water, transport, roads, ports, and so on, has put us at a nagging competitive disadvantage.

Besides, if the CWG managed to redeem itself from the shameful morass it was bogged down in just days before the event began; the credit must go in equal measure to the athletes who bagged 101 medals in a wide range of sporting events, and the quality of the world-class infrastructure built by India for the occasion.

“Bread and Circuses” was the cynical Roman Empire formula for entertaining the Hoi Polloi designed to render them amenable. A present day equivalent is probably the development of infrastructure, as in all that went into the CWG.

The broader point is that infrastructure, created and revived, even at very high cost, is without doubt the very elixir of growth and aspiration. It also spurs performance in practically any given field of endeavour. It is the very aphrodisiac to progress. But it is not only the infrastructure, but also undeniably better training for our sportsmen and women that has resulted in overall success at this CWG. But this training too is a form of infrastructure, without which the physical facilities would have stayed under utilised.

The Indian performance, particularly in sports where we were unable to win medals in past competitions, makes one realise what is possible with the right inputs. And that as a country, our surprisingly merit-based selection of heroes and heroines from small towns and villages, by such an allegedly corrupt and venal sports administration, is also most heartening. It showed us that poor and middle class India is vitally alive and well. And that it is demonstrably patriotic and sincere. And that it is the unsullied spirit of such men and women that promises good things for our collective future- despite the sickening corruption, cynicism and jadedness displayed by some of our richer and more powerful compatriots.

As for the other physical infrastructure enhancements, Delhi/NCR will be savouring its benefits, that of the metro, the spanking new airport, the spruced up main railway station, the flyovers, over-bridges, underpasses, new hotels, a revived Connaught Place largely rescued from its tawdry and abused degradation, and sundry other improvements, for many years to come.

And we must recognise that infrastructure is our ticket to improved standards, competitiveness and further growth still, in matters well beyond sports. It is both ladder and virtuous circle. It is our release from the taint of backwardness and the only thing holding us back from the beckoning of a glorious and prolific destiny.

(1,049 words)

Mahaashtami, October 15^th, 2010

Gautam Mukherjee


Published as Leader Edit in The Pioneer on November 3rd, 2010 as "Home and abroad". Also published online at www.dailypioneer.com and The Pioneer ePaper. Archived under Columnists at www.dailypioneer.com