[airbender]

Response by Taj employees to 26/11 a case study at Harvard



Link: Response by Taj employees to 26/11 a case study at Harvard - The Times of India

"He cites the example of a general manager who insisted on staying put and help direct a response to the attack even after learning that his wife and sons had died in a fire on the hotel's top floor. "


Kudos to these people. It's because of people like them india is still standing.


Contrast this to those policemen who fled the scene during the red fort terrorist attack.

[Reisender]

Originally Posted by airbender

Response by Taj employees to 26/11 a case study at Harvard

Kudo's to those unselfish souls lost their life to save guests.

May god bless their souls to RIP.

Note from the Team-BHP Support Team: Please avoid quoting an entire large post. It inconveniences our small screen & mobile readers.

Thanks.

[download2live]

What they did was heroic. But should this not be left as it is, untouched by commercialism?

I do not like making this into a case study for a B-School. Lets face the facts. People go to B-Schools to get a bigger post and a bigger salary. And then this "Lets incorporate this incident in our curriculum so that the MBA's we churn out will make more money for themselves and the parent company". Kind of belittles the whole selfless sacrifice.

Let the heroes lie in peace.

Just my two cents. I had to say what I felt. I do not intend to start a bashing war. Please do not flame me.

[pranavt]

By that logic, our history textbooks should be kept blank. Making an example out of bravery is nothing wrong.

[callvvijay]

Originally Posted by pranavt

By that logic, our history textbooks should be kept blank. Making an example out of bravery is nothing wrong.

Kudos to the brave and loyal souls. Does anybody here think that just by learning/knowing/doing case study of the Taj employees' selfless sacrifice would fetch them more salary??

As @airbender said, its because of these people that India is still standing and bringing their names into the curriculum of HBS is bringing laurels to those blesses souls.

Secondly, HBS is also doing the case study of what made these employees to stay put there risking their own lives. Its just the loyalty towards their organisation. So, what has made the employees so loyal to the organisation? Not all companies would get such loyal employees.

So this case study is in both directions - from the employer perspective and also the employee perspective and definitely not in the perspective of gaining more salary. Its for building such friendly/truehearted employer-employee relationship.

[vivekiny2k]

HBS would like to make a case study out of everything. Inflating our ego just because HBS made it a case study is not something I would be proud of. IIRC they also studied Lalu Prasad Yadav.

These people at Taj were genuinely concerned, and dutiful and they need to be remembered for their deeds. HBS case study or not.

On a lateral thought, the companies I have worked for in US have explicitly posted signs that in case of emergency, save your own lives first (may be for liability reasons). As an employer, would you want your employees to stay put in such a situation? I know they play by such rules in merchant navy. T-BHPians from shipping industry, what do you think?

[vamsi.kona]

Originally Posted by callvvijay

Secondly, HBS is also doing the case study of what made these employees to stay put there risking their own lives. Its just the loyalty towards their organisation. So, what has made the employees so loyal to the organisation? Not all companies would get such loyal employees.

So this case study is in both directions - from the employer perspective and also the employee perspective and definitely not in the perspective of gaining more salary. Its for building such friendly/truehearted employer-employee relationship.

As mentioned above this study is more directed towards the reasons for the reaction of the employees on that unfortunate day. Was it just their own inner self and righteousness that made them do that or was it their loyalty for the organisation or both. If it is the case of loyalty what policies of the management or the behaviour of their immediate seniors lead to such loyalty.

The findings may not work the same everywhere because of cultural differences, but they will give some insight.

And irrespective of Harvard doing this study or not what these brave souls and others did on that day shows the two faces of the world we live. On one hand someone was ready to take others life for his belief or whatever reason. On the other hand some one was ready to sacrifice his life to save others.

Every one was united during that time irrespective of their religion, caste, creed and sex. Its sad to say but the truth is unless faced with such tragedy we cannot forget our prejudices it seems. I don't blame politicians who use these sensitive issues to arouse tensions in society. We as a collective whole are responsible for entertaining them. I have seen literates with professional degrees, falling for such traps. Thats the reason there is a difference between a literate and educated person.

[noopster]

Originally Posted by download2live

What they did was heroic. But should this not be left as it is, untouched by commercialism?

I do not like making this into a case study for a B-School. Lets face the facts. People go to B-Schools to get a bigger post and a bigger salary. And then this "Lets incorporate this incident in our curriculum so that the MBA's we churn out will make more money for themselves and the parent company". Kind of belittles the whole selfless sacrifice.

Let the heroes lie in peace..

Your sentiment is appreciated but a case study at B-school is not "commercialism". We learned about Sharp's role in putting Japanese electronics products on the world map, HCL's fractals strategy, ITC's successful linking of the Classic variants to sports etc. as case studies in B-school and it was those, rather than rote-learning the 4Ps and 7s-es, that I remember and value even today. A case study on the Taj episode could be very inspirational for those aspiring to management positions in the hospitality industry, for example.

You seem to have some misguided notions about MBAs- maybe we should meet up for a drink some day

Just my two cents. I had to say what I felt. I do not intend to start a bashing war. Please do not flame me.

Not at all. But you can't get away with judgemental posts under the guise of anti-flame . Jus kiddin' mate, it's a forum, we're entitled to our opinions, as long as we voice them sensibly as we are now!

[deky]

Originally Posted by vamsi.kona

Was it just their own inner self and righteousness that made them do that or was it their loyalty for the organisation or both. If it is the case of loyalty what policies of the management or the behaviour of their immediate seniors lead to such loyalty.

I have worked Taj Mumbai for 3 years and I know for a fact that most of the employees, be it junior level employees or be it senior management they are all very happy with the organisiation. So much so that they dont even have an employee union (its present on papers but not a very strong one)

Employees work for atleast 12 hours daily in the hotel without complaining. I dont remeber a day when i came home before spending atleast 14 hrs in the hotel. But we did it because we loved our workplace. And when your work place becomes your home and the employees become your family I think you are bound to see such a response in such conditions.

I lost one friend in the incident and two of my batchmates/ catering college mates got bullet injuries and are still recovering. But they still happy with the organisation. They applaud the efforts taken by Mr. Ratan Tata to make sure that they get the best of the treatment and also are suitably compensated.

So I believe that its the loyalty towards the organisation that made the employees respond in such a manner.

On a lateral thought, the companies I have worked for in US have explicitly posted signs that in case of emergency, save your own lives first (may be for liability reasons). As an employer, would you want your employees to stay put in such a situation? I know they play by such rules in merchant navy. T-BHPians from shipping industry, what do you think?

I can comment on cruise liners only and not on merchant vessels. Cruise liners have lots of passangers as against merchant vessels which only have crew that can fit in one life boat in case of emergencies.

In case of emergencies every crew (merchant vessel or passanger vessel) has specific duty to perform before they can give their post away and abandon ship.

On a cruise liner most of the crew have to help passangers safely get off the ship and then they themselves can get on life boats/ rafts. So I guess "saving your own life first" is also not applicable here.

If all the crew save themselves first, guess there wont be anyone left to guide the passangers accordingly and that may create lot of panic resulting in loss of life.

Luckily the ship staff followed the procedure to the "T" and were able to save all lives onboard when our ship was sinking in the Melacca Strait

Regards