Executive Summary

On November 26, 2008, Indian City Mumbai was attacked by a group of ten armed terrorists. They divided into sub-groups and attacked a dozen locations in Mumbai including luxury hotels, hospital, railway station, restaurant, and a Jewish centre and killed as many as 159 people, both Indians and foreigners, and gravely wounded more than 200. The assault, known as 26/11, shocked the nation and exposed the country’s vulnerability to terrorism yet again. The Taj’s burning domes which stayed ablaze for two days and three nights, will forever symbolize the tragic events of 26/11.

When terrorists attacked the iconic 103 year old - Taj Mahal Palace hotel, there were as many as 600 guests in various rooms and around 600 people were present for dinner events at various restaurants in the hotel. Among them was a dinner hosted by Chairman and CEO of of Hindustan Unilever and several of its directors, senior executives and their spouses to bid farewell to the CEO and welcoming the new CEO-elect of Unilever. The staff quickly realized something was wrong. They locked the doors, turned off the lights and asked everyone to lie down quietly under tables and refrain from using cell phones. They asked husbands and wives to separate to reduce the risk to families. They rushed people to safe locations such as kitchens and basements. Telephone operators stayed at their posts, calling guests to lock doors and not step out. All employees stayed there in spite of the terrorists rampaging through the hotel, hurling grenades, firing automatic weapons, and tearing the place apart. The staff kept calm and constantly went around offering water and asking people if they needed anything else. When evacuating, the staff evacuated the guests first by risking their lives. They formed human cordons around the guests while they were escaping to protect them from the gun shots of the terrorists. In the process they lost their lives but they put the safety of guests above themselves. There were employees who lost their family members in the firing but did not budge and carried out the evacuation process.
During the onslaught, 31 people died and 28 were hurt, but the hotel received only praise the day after. Employees of the Taj displayed uncommon valour. They placed the safety of guests over their own well-being, thereby risking and sacrificing their lives. Its guests were overwhelmed by employees’ dedication to duty, their desire to protect guests without regard to personal safety, and their quick thinking. As many as 11 Taj employees—a third of the hotel’s casualties—laid down their lives while helping 1,500 guests escape.
Taj Mumbai is one of the world’s best hotels. The hotel is known for the highest levels of quality, its ability to go extra mile to delight customers, and its highly trained staff, some of whom have worked there for decades. Every employee knows his job, they know their regular guests, and is comfortable taking orders. But they gave a new dimension to customer service during the terrorist strike. Actions of Taj employees weren’t prescribed in Taj manuals; no official policies or procedures existed for such event.
It is necessary to find out what created that extreme customer-centric culture of employees that they stayed back to rescue guests when they could have saved themselves. This behaviour was not merely a crisis response. Some contextual factors could have a bearing, such as India’s ancient culture of hospitality where a guest is treated as God; the values of the House of Tata, which owns the Taj Group; and the Taj’s historical roots in the patriotic movement of India. These coupled with unusual hiring, training, and incentive systems of the Taj Group created an organizational culture in which employees are willing to do almost anything for guests. This extraordinary customer centricity helped, in a moment of crisis, to turn its employees into heroes.
The key ingredients of Taj’s culture are * a values-driven recruitment system that emphasizes integrity and duty over talent and skills * training of staff who serve the guest first and the company second * A recognition-as-reward system that values well-earned feedback—from customers, colleagues and immediate supervisors—over money and advancement.

Other ways in which Taj conducts its HR:

* Seek fresh recruits rather than laterals. * Hire from small towns and semi urban areas, not metros. * Recruit from high schools and second-tier business schools rather than colleges and premier B-schools. * Induct managers who seek a long term relationship with the organisation. * Train workers for 18 months, not just 12. * Ensure that employees can deal with guests without consulting a supervisor. * Teach people to improvise rather than do things by the book. * Use timely recognition, not money, as reward. * Ensure that recognition comes from immediate supervisors, not top management.

Taj Group has a deeply rooted customer-centric culture that other companies can emulate, both in extreme circumstances and during periods of normalcy. These practices will create better businesses and in turn a better society at large.