Why did Tata Steel have to modernise?
We would have been finished otherwise. As I always say, you cannot fight a modern-day war with weapons of the Mahabharata. We would have been annihilated had we not modernised. We realised this and embarked on the four phases of modernisation. We addressed our drawbacks like the steelmaking process, our weakest link. Phase five or the modernisation of the mind phase is about changing old mindsets and utilising what has been achieved. How difficult was it convincing workers of the need for drastic restructuring? This is where the impact of two-way communication comes in. For example, Tata Steel had a policy wherein anyone who had worked in the company for a lifetime, his or her son got employment in the company. This meant that the workforce would never come down. We told workers that we will recruit your sons if they are capable, but not otherwise. And instead of being worried about jobs for their sons, they should be worried about their own jobs. At the same time, we addressed their c
