Dear Veterans,
Regards. Find below a face to face talk between
one veteran from Punjab and Mr.H N Srinivas,
Sr.Executive,Vice President of Tal Group of Hotels.
Country needs a defence Minister like the Tata.
Subject: This is why Tata is a Respected name in India
Meeting with H N Srinivas – Senior Executive Vice
President, Taj Group of Hotels -25.11.2009
Last evening, a veteran from Punjab had a dinner
meeting with HNS in Goa (I was there for a
National Institute of Personnel Management
conference – as a speaker).
He narrated the 26th November 2008 terror
attack on Taj Mumbai and there were some
important points.
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. 10,000
per month for all these people for 6 months.
14. A 4 year old grand daughter 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
additionto 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 lives ?
Veteran Prabhjot Singh Chhatwal PLS Retd.
President,
Indian Ex-Services League,Punjab & Chandigarh.
Mob.098554-09128,Tele-Fax 0175-5000896.
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