TQMS in association with Tata Projects Limited (TPL) hosted the Tata Network Forum (TNF) – Southern Region Ethics Meet in Hyderabad on May 26, 2010 at Taj Deccan. The theme was 'Developing Passionate Commitment’. Eminent members of TNF, Southern Region, consisting of CEOs and some chief ethics counsellors from many Group Companies in the region participated. A total of about 60 participants attended.
In the inaugural session, Mr. Bhaskar Bhatt, MD, Titan Industries, and Chairman, TNF, Southern Region, welcomed the gathering and set the tone for the event. He had chosen to reinforce the spirit in which ethics culture is practiced within Tata’s as part of group ethos for more than a century. He also highlighted that the ethics culture is to be driven by senior leadership team starting with CEO of a company and the signals should percolate to the lowest level and across stakeholder segments of an organization through open channels of communication. Mr. Anil Bhagra, Additional General Manager, South Central Railway, delivered the keynote address and shared his experience and exposure to Tata business ethical practices while working with the Tata Group on behalf of Railways and discussed insights into the systems followed in the Railways and Government to check unethical practices. Mr. Bhagra also mentioned that Tata’s is viewed as a role model group in practicing ethics and the same applies to all leaders.
Mr. A. Venkateshwar, Vice President, Corporate Affairs, and Chief Ethics Counsellor, TPL, thanked the keynote speaker for gracing the occasion.
The session which followed, started off with a lively panel discussion that revolved around the theme of “Building Passionate Commitment”, duly facilitated by Mr Harish Ahuja, VP TQMS. In this group discussion, Mr. Bhaskar Bhatt, MD Titan Industries, Mr. A. K. Misra, Executive Director & Chief Operating Officer, TPL, Mr. A. K. Mathur, Executive Director, TPL, Mr. V. Rajanna, VP & Regional Head, TCS, Dr. Rashmi Barbhaiya, MD & CEO, Advinus, and Mr. R. Srinivasan, MD & CEO, TCE, actively participated, citing live examples from their Past roles. The panelists shared their experiences and perspectives in light of the ethical dilemmas at the work place in their respective lives and organizations.
The key takeaway of the panel discussion is:
- Leaders have to behave like a role model and whenever necessary have to take some steps to reinforce the confidence of the employees in the system.
Thereafter, a short movie was screened; this movie was titled ,“Ethics in the Workplace” – by Nan DeMars, a famous ethicist who had emphasized the concerns related to workplace ethics in a group of cos like the Tata group of cos.
In the post-lunch session, Lt Col. Allan Burby, GM, TQMS, demonstrated the features of an online e-learning tool based upon the Tata Code of Conduct (TCoC), which has inbuilt scenarios for each of the 25 clauses. The tool can be used by Group Companies to spread awareness on the understanding of TCoC across the Group Companies and provide guidance to all employees/ other stakeholders.
This was followed by a session of Best Practices by sharing by five Group Companies – Titan, TCS, TTSL, Advinus and Voltas. Various new initiatives were shared during the meet which were followed by some of the group companies practices such as celebration of ethics week, Pareto analysis of Ethical concerns, posters with the photograph of ethics counsellor, positive ethics blog, Board committee for ethics, etc
Towards the end of the session, Mr. Harish Ahuja, VP, TQMS, spoke on ``Risk to Reputation’’ caused by unethical practices using interesting cases based on earlier case studies.
The session was summarized by Mr. Sumant Sood, from Titan Industries.
