A Kinder, Gentler Conglomerate; Tata coddles workers, not managers, yet thrives in global industries as a uniquely Indian-style company.(Company Profile)

Publication: Newsweek

Publication Date: 31-OCT-05

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Byline: George Wehrfritz And Ron Moreau (With Sumeet Chatterjee in Mumbai)

A new kind of multinational is emerging out of India. It is the Tata Group, a family conglomerate that has gone professional without losing its old-school values. Forged from both India's struggle for independence from Britain and the influence of early-20th-century Fabian socialists, Tata is a ferocious competitor with a very liberal touch. Consider: one of the largest of its 32 businesses, Tata Steel, has cut almost half its work force since 1990 to become the lowest-cost competitor in this industry--yet has kept its promise to pay all laid-off workers full salary until retirement.

In some ways, Tata could exist only in India, where wages of $1.20 an hour make cradle-to-grave corporate welfare far more affordable than it would be even in China. But Tata is unique even for India, where...

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