case study on taj hotel mumbai

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The Ordinary Heroes of the Taj

• Rohit Deshpande
• Anjali Raina

How an Indian hotel chain’s organizational culture nurtured employees who were willing to risk their lives to save their guests

Reprint: R1112J

When terrorists attacked the Indian city of Mumbai in 2008, employees of the Taj Mumbai hotel displayed uncommon valor. They placed the safety of guests over their own well-being, thereby risking—and, in some cases, sacrificing—their lives. Deshpandé, of Harvard Business School, and Raina, of the HBS India Research Center in Mumbai, demonstrate that this behavior was not merely a crisis response. It was instead a manifestation of the Taj Group’s deeply rooted customer-centric culture that, the authors argue, other companies can emulate, both in extreme circumstances and during periods of normalcy.

The key ingredients of this Taj-style customer centricity include:

• a values-driven recruitment system that emphasizes integrity and duty over talent and skills;
• training of customer ambassadors who serve the guest first and the company second; and
• a recognition-as-reward system that values well-earned plaudits—from customers, colleagues, and immediate supervisors—over money and advancement.

Each of the three elements has important features and nuances, which the authors explore in detail so that your company can take its cues.

On November 26, 2008, Harish Manwani, chairman, and Nitin Paranjpe, CEO, of Hindustan Unilever hosted a dinner at the Taj Mahal Palace hotel in Mumbai (Taj Mumbai, for short). Unilever’s directors, senior executives, and their spouses were bidding farewell to Patrick Cescau, the CEO, and welcoming Paul Polman, the CEO-elect. About 35 Taj Mumbai employees, led by a 24-year-old banquet manager, Mallika Jagad, were assigned to manage the event in a second-floor banquet room. Around 9:30, as they served the main course, they heard what they thought were fireworks at a nearby wedding. In reality, these were the first gunshots from terrorists who were storming the Taj.

• RD Rohit Deshpande is Sebastian S. Kresge Professor of Marketing at the Harvard Business School.
• AR Anjali Raina is the executive director of the HBS India Research Center in Mumbai.

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Heroes Of The Taj Hotel: Why They Risked Their Lives

Alix Spiegel

Indian firefighters attempt to put out a fire as smoke billows out of the historic Taj Mahal Hotel in Mumbai, which was stormed by armed gunmen in November 2008. Indranil Mukherjee/AFP/Getty Images hide caption

Indian firefighters attempt to put out a fire as smoke billows out of the historic Taj Mahal Hotel in Mumbai, which was stormed by armed gunmen in November 2008.

On Nov. 26, 2008, terrorists simultaneously attacked about a dozen locations in Mumbai, India, including one of the most iconic buildings in the city, the Taj Mahal Palace Hotel.

For two nights and three days, the Taj was under siege, held by men with automatic weapons who took some people hostage, killed others and set fire to the famous dome of the hotel.

The siege of the Taj quickly became an international story. Lots of people covered it, including CNN's Fareed Zakaria, who grew up in Mumbai. In a report that aired the day after the attacks, Zakaria spoke eloquently about the horror of what had happened in Mumbai, and then pointed to a silver lining: the behavior of the employees at the Taj.

Apparently, something extraordinary had happened during the siege. According to hotel managers, none of the Taj employees had fled the scene to protect themselves during the attack: They all stayed at the hotel to help the guests.

"I was told many stories of Taj hotel employees who made sure that every guest they could find was safely ferreted out of the hotel, at grave risk to their own lives," Zakaria said on his program.

There was the story of the kitchen employees who formed a human shield to assist guests who were evacuating, and lost their lives as a result. Of the telephone operators who, after being evacuated, chose to return to the hotel so they could call guests and tell them what to do. Of Karambir Singh Kang, the general manager of the Taj, who worked to save people even after his wife and two sons, who lived on the sixth floor of the hotel, died in the fire set by the terrorists.

Often during a crisis, a single hero or small group of heroes who take action and risk their lives will emerge. But what happened at the Taj was much broader.

During the crisis, dozens of workers — waiters and busboys, and room cleaners who knew back exits and paths through the hotel — chose to stay in a building under siege until their customers were safe. They were the very model of ethical, selfless behavior.

What could possibly explain it?

Getting To The Bottom Of It

Earlier this month, a study in the Harvard Business Review proposed an answer to that question.

The study was done by Rohit Deshpande, a Harvard business professor who researches both business ethics and global branding.

About nine months after the attacks on the Taj, Deshpande was in India interviewing senior management of the hotel on a completely different topic, but found that the people he was talking to kept steering the conversation back to the terrorist attacks.

"What was interesting about all those interviews with senior management was that they could not explain the behavior of their own employees," he told me. "They simply couldn't explain it."

An NDTV tribute video to the brave staff of the Taj Mahal Palace Hotel.

And so Deshpande decided to do his own investigation of the company to see if he might be able to untangle the cause.

Last year, Deshpande flew to India to review the company's HR policies and also do interviews with the hotel staff, everyone from managers to kitchen workers.

What he published in the Harvard Business Review is his case study of the company.

Now, because this is a case study and not a double-blind research study, it's impossible to draw definitive conclusions. But this is what Deshpande thinks:

"It perhaps has something to do with the kinds of people that they recruit to become employees at the Taj, and then the manner that they train them and reward them," he says.

From A To Z — Recruitment To Reward

First, recruitment. In their search to find maids and bellhops, the Taj avoids big cities and instead turns to small towns and semi-urban areas. There the Taj develops relationships with local schools, asking the leaders of those schools to hand-select people who have the qualifications they want.

"They don't look for students who have the highest grades. They're actually recruiting for personal characteristics," Deshpande says, "most specifically, respect and empathy."

Taj managers explained to Deshpande that they recruited for traits like empathy because that kind of underlying value is hard to teach. This, he says, is also why recruiters avoid hiring managers for the hotel from the top business schools in India. They deliberately go to second-tier business schools, on the theory that the people there will be less motivated by money.

And this strategy, as Deshpande points out, is highly unusual in India.

"Let me put this into a little cultural context for you," he says.

"India is a country where people are almost obsessed about grades. In order to get ahead, you have to have really high grades. But here is an organization that is doing just the opposite — they're recruiting not for grades, they're recruiting for character."

Part of this focus on character is ideological, he says.

The Taj is owned by a corporation called the Tata group, which for the past hundred years has been run by an extremely religious family that's interested in social justice: The company typically channels about two-thirds of its profits into a charitable trust.

But Deshpande says there are also practical reasons for this focus on character. The Taj hotel has made its name on customer service, and they are near maniacal about it, treating it almost like a science.

For example, managers have mapped the number of interactions that happen between customers and hotel employees in a typical 24-hour stay. There are on average 42, often unsupervised, interactions between employees and guests.

Each of these interactions is viewed by the company as an opportunity for employees to delight their customers with their kindness. So everything -- everything — about the training and rewards systems set up by the Taj is designed to encourage kindness.

Deshpande gives one example. "If guests say something or write something very complimentary about an employee, within 48 hours of [the] recording of that compliment, there is some sort of reward that is made."

Rewards range from gifts to job promotions.

This system — of immediately rewarding desired behavior — will likely sound familiar to people interested in psychology.

It's by-the-book conditioning, the same kind of conditioning used by B.F. Skinner to train his pigeons.

And in his study, Deshpande argues that it is this combination of selection and routinized rewards that explains what happened during those terrible three days when the Taj hotel was under siege.

The employees, he argues, were essentially performing the behaviors they were selected and trained to perform. In this case, extreme kindness to customers.

Enabling Ethics

The reception area of the Taj Mahal Hotel reopened on Dec. 22, 2008, less than a month after devastating attacks that rocked India's financial and entertainment capital. Sajjad Hussain/AFP/Getty Images hide caption

The reception area of the Taj Mahal Hotel reopened on Dec. 22, 2008, less than a month after devastating attacks that rocked India's financial and entertainment capital.

And for Deshpande, all of this has much larger implications: For him, what happened at the Taj is proof positive that organizations can create ethical behavior.

"I am absolutely convinced that corporations can enable ethical behavior, and I think what happened at the Taj on [Nov. 26, 2008] is a great example," he says.

But Tom Donaldson, professor of business ethics at the Wharton School, says producing ethics isn't so simple.

"If ethics could be engineered by the organization infallibly, we wouldn't be hearing about so many scandals in church organizations," he says.

It's not that rewards don't matter, Donaldson argues. They profoundly influence behavior, he says. But Donaldson wonders if all the training and conditioning done by the Taj can really be said to have produced truly ethical behavior. What would happen, he wonders, if those employees had confronted a different kind of ethical dilemma, one presented by the customers they'd been conditioned to serve?

"I'd like to know what a Taj employee would do," he says, "for example, if one of the guests ended up striking a homeless person, or one of the guests attempted to sexually assault a hotel worker."

It's hard to condition real ethics, he says.

But for Deshpande, in the example of the Taj and the incredible sacrifices of the employees who work there, there is still a clear, and very compelling, lesson.

"Corporate design is absolutely critical," Deshpande says. "For good, and for evil."

Watch CBS News

Why Taj Employees Offered Their Lives to Save Guests During Terrorist Attack

By Sean Silverthorne

Updated on: January 25, 2011 / 10:47 AM EST / MoneyWatch

But many didn't flee, instead choosing to help guests escape and then returning to help more. Telephone operators stayed the night, informing guests and telling them to keep their rooms quiet and dark. A dozen employees died in the firefight.

Why did they not leave? Why did they perform above and beyond the call of duty?

A new case study from Harvard Business School, "Terror at the Taj Bombay: Customer-Centric Leadership", finds possible answers both in the traditions of the country as well as in the deep customer-centric culture infused by the operators of the Taj: Indian Hotels and Tata Sons.

According to case author Rohit Deshpandé, a professor at Harvard Business School and a native of India, at least three factors were in play at the Taj:

• The right people . In the case, Indian Hotels CEO Raymond N. Bickson describes how he first looks for "nice people who are not afraid of serving people." He can teach them to be a bellman, a waiter, or a desk clerk, "but I can't teach them to be nice. I can't teach that spirit of ownership."
• Indian culture . "Athidhi devo bhavah," or the "guest is god", is deeply ingrained in Indian culture. In short, the phrase means that honoring guests is equal to honoring god, a message deeply embedded at the Taj.
• Employee-Employer relations . In India there is a strong "paternalistic equation" between employer and employee, an attribute underscored by rewards given by top executives to staffers for long length of service. Done right, relationships in Indian companies can feel more like family than us versus them.

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Sean Silverthorne is the editor of HBS Working Knowledge, which provides a first look at the research and ideas of Harvard Business School faculty. Working Knowledge, which won a Webby award in 2007, currently records 4 million unique visitors a year. He has been with HBS since 2001.

Silverthorne has 28 years experience in print and online journalism. Before arriving at HBS, he was a senior editor at CNET and executive editor of ZDNET News. While at At Ziff-Davis, Silverthorne also worked on the daily technology TV show The Site, and was a senior editor at PC Week Inside, which chronicled the business of the technology industry. He has held several reporting and editing roles on a variety of newspapers, and was Investor Business Daily's first journalist based in Silicon Valley.

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The Economic Times daily newspaper is available online now.

26/11 mumbai attack: hr practices converted ordinary taj employees into heroes.

Leadership from below explains the valour of Taj employees who died to keep guests alive during the terrorist attack on the property.

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Terror at the Taj

On November 26, 2008, 175 people died in Mumbai, India, when 10 terrorists simultaneously struck sites. Of the five locations—all well-known landmarks—the beautiful domes of the hotel known as the Taj Mahal Palace and Tower would become most closely associated with the horrific attacks in the world's collective conscience.

“Not even the senior managers could explain the behavior of these employees.”

A new multimedia case by HBS professor Rohit Deshpandé offers a flip side to the nightmarish scenes that unfolded in real time on television screens around the globe. Produced in collaboration with Ruth Page and David Habeeb of the HBS Educational Technology Group, Terror at the Taj Bombay: Customer-Centric Leadership  documents the bravery and resourcefulness shown by rank-and-file employees during the siege. 

Video interviews with hotel staff and senior executives, combined with security footage of the attack, create a documentary-like account of events that took place over the course of 59 hours. The case also covers the hotel's history, its approach to training employees, the "guest is God" philosophy inherent in Indian culture, and the question of how the hotel will recover after the attacks.

Underlying this framework is a central conundrum: Why did the Taj employees stay at their posts, jeopardizing their safety in order to save hotel guests? And is this level of loyalty and dedication something that can be replicated and scaled elsewhere?

"Not even the senior managers could explain the behavior of these employees," says Deshpandé. "In the interview, the vice chairman of the company says that they knew all the back exits—the natural human instinct would be to flee. These are people who instinctively did the right thing. And in the process, some of them, unfortunately, gave their lives to save guests." A dozen employees died.

Most Difficult Case

Deshpandé, a native of Bombay (now Mumbai), says it took a full week to conduct the interviews. "This is the hardest case I've ever worked on. One reason is that I had no conception of what it would be like to have people confront the trauma again. We objectify it, keep emotion at a distance, but after 15 minutes of questions with a video camera in a darkened room, there are deeper, more personal reflections of what happened. It was really, really hard.

"The other thing is that I grew up there. So the Taj is part of my memories, too. As one of the interview subjects said, the Taj is their Taj, meaning anyone who has ever walked through its doors. It's a place that means many things to many people."

In one interview, Taj general manager Karambir Singh Kang describes his father, a military man, telling him that his job is like being the captain of a ship. "I think that's the way everyone else felt, too," says Kang. "A sense of loyalty to the hotel, a sense of responsibility to the guests." Several hours into the siege, Kang's wife and two young sons died in a fire that swept through their apartment on the hotel's top floor. Even after receiving the news, he insisted on staying at his post to help direct a response to the ongoing attack. (The battle for control at the Taj would continue a full two days after other locations had been secured.)

Nothing in the employees' training could have prepared them for such an unprecedented situation, Deshpandé says. Yet further interviews and text documents from the case provide background on the unique culture of Tata Sons, the Taj's parent company, while also revealing the exacting process for selecting, training, and rewarding Taj employees for their work.

Mandate To Delight

Awards are given for longer terms of service, for example, with Group Chairman Ratan Tata (HBS AMP 71, 1975) personally recognizing those who have served 10 to 35 years and more. Employees who have demonstrated outstanding service are selected for inclusion in the Managing Directors Club and recognized across the organization.

Such incentives aren't so unusual, of course. But interviews with senior management demonstrate how seriously the task of building a customer-centric culture and value system is taken at the Taj and its parent company, Indian Hotels.

"Every time they interact with a guest they should look for an opportunity to delight him," says H.N. Srinivas, senior vice president of human resources. During a 24-hour stay, a guest will have an average of 40 to 42 contacts with employees. "We've mapped it," he explains.

When it comes to selecting employees, Indian Hotels CEO Raymond N. Bickson describes how he first looks for "nice people who are not afraid of serving people." He can teach them to be a bellman, a waiter, or a desk clerk, he continues. "But I can't teach them to be nice. I can't teach that spirit of ownership."

"In India and the developing world, there's a much more paternalistic equation between employer and employee," says Ratan Tata, chairman of Tata Sons. "I think that creates a kinship." Every employee donates a small portion of their salary to a pool that can be drawn on in the event a colleague suffers an accident or other significant personal setback.

To date, Deshpandé has taught the case in the School's Owner/President Management Executive Education program; he expects it to be used more widely, particularly since it can also be taught as an example of managing the postcrisis recovery of a flagship corporate brand.

No Clear Answer

The question of why the Taj employees demonstrated such loyalty elicited a variety of responses from students, Deshpandé says.

"For example, some suggested that it has to do with governance of the Tatas; two-thirds of their profits are donated to charitable causes, so the employees feel that they are working for a higher good." But the IT firm Tata Consultancy Services has had many of the same difficulties with employee retention that other Indian IT firms experience. "In that case, the loyalty might be more to self rather than to the organization," he says.

A definitive answer to the question of why the Taj employees behaved as they did may not be possible; but managers who read and view the case will likely come away with a clearer sense of what it takes to build a particular culture and value system and how to recruit, train, and reward employees in nonmonetary ways.

"It's all of those very specific things that build a customer-centric culture in an organization," Deshpandé says. "This example far exceeds anything I've seen before."

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How the Taj rebuilt itself after the Mumbai terror attacks of 26/11

• Nov 26, 2018,
• Updated Nov 26, 2018, 7:08 PM IST

It's been 10 years since the 26/11 Mumbai attacks but memories of the horrible carnage that killed 180 people and injured over 300, remain fresh. In the years following the tragedy, the iconic Taj Mahal hotel has been able to resurrect not just its opulent interiors and exterior but also its spirit.

The destruction While most of the hotel reopened within a month of the tragic attack, the Palace wing of the 115-year old hotel, which was heavily damaged from inside due to the fire, bullets and water, reopened 21 months later. The total estimated loss for Taj amounted to Rs 400 crore.

Human Resource practices The Taj hotel staff were praised for putting their lives in danger while saving the guests. The hotel lived up to its high levels of quality and making extra efforts to delight customers. In this case, this hospitality extended to saving several lives of guests.The staff gave customer service a whole new meaning when they went above and beyond the call of duty. The different styles of training, hiring and incentive systems went a long way .Taj has a value-driven recruitment system and trains employees to be customer ambassadors and not the hotel's ambassadors. In fact, this exemplary behaviour by employees  on the three days of the attacks  became a case study at Harvard.

Help for victims The all-famous humanitarian philosophy of Jamshetji Tata came to the fore as the Taj went all out to help those affected in any way by the attack. The compensation for every employee who was killed ranged from Rs 36 lakh to Rs 85 lakh in addition to the full last salary till the employee's scheduled retirement. The senior management took charge of the education of children and  dependents anywhere in the world. They are also providing medical facilities to the dependants for the rest of their lives. They also organised a counsellor for life for each person. A psychiatric cell was established in alliance with the Tata Institute of Social Sciences to counsel all those who needed such help

Architecture The luxurious hotel's interiors were charred. For 60 hours this iconic monument was at the mercy of armed gunmen.The cost of the restoration of the hotel was upwards of 1.75 billion rupees. More than 21 months were spent assessing the damage and then restoring the hotel. Architects, designers and restoration experts from India and around the world were involved in the process.

Security Needless to say the hotel has ramped up security in all its hotels. In the Taj Palace in Mumbai there are now 150 security cameras, up from just 15 at the time of the incident. It now has 50 security personnel five times more than what it had in 2008. The large windows overlooking the Mumbai bay are made of shatterproof glass.

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Terror at the Taj Bombay: Customer-Centric Leadership, Multimedia Case

By: Rohit Deshpande

On November 26, 2008, heavily armed terrorists launched a series of attacks throughout the western-Indian city of Mumbai (formerly Bombay). One of the locations attacked was the Taj Mahal Palace and…

• Length: 40 minutes
• Publication Date: Dec 7, 2010
• Discipline: Marketing
• Product #: 511703-HTM-ENG

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On November 26, 2008, heavily armed terrorists launched a series of attacks throughout the western-Indian city of Mumbai (formerly Bombay). One of the locations attacked was the Taj Mahal Palace and Tower, which was occupied by the terrorists for over three days, resulting in the deaths of 34 people and 28 people injured. However, the Taj received praise in the aftermath of the attacks for the selfless actions of the staff in placing the safety of the hotel's guests before their own and working to save the lives of its guests. This case seeks to address how leaders develop a customer-centric organization, as well as how an organization saves its flagship brand after a crisis.

Learning Objectives

The case may be of interest to faculty interested in branding and marketing strategy and the challenges of developing a customer-centric business, as well as faculty interested in crisis management and leadership in the aftermath of a devastating attack on a brand.

Dec 7, 2010

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Harvard Business School

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Taj Mahal Palace, Mumbai

By Pallavi Mehra

Photography by The Taj Mahal Palace, Mumbai

The Taj Mahal Palace, Mumbai, which opened in 1903 is located in the heart of the city and overlooks the majestic Gateway of India. This iconic hotel has played host to kings, dignitaries and eminent personalities from across the globe, and is acknowledged as a world leader in hospitality. Each of the hotel's 543 rooms and suites are a perfect blend of the charm of a bygone era with modern amenities. The Taj Mahal Palace, Mumbai makes a wonderful starting point from where to discover the charm of South Mumbai.

The Taj Mahal Palace, Mumbai: Bombay Stairs

Rooms and Suites

With its arched balconies, the Taj Mahal Tower stands in harmonious contrast to the Palace. The 258 rooms and suites of the Tower offer a refreshing mix of European and Indian accents. The 285 rooms and suites at the Taj Mahal Palace have been completely restored by some of the world's most acclaimed designers. Each suite is adorned with a charming theme, rich textures and hues, and an opulent décor. The lavish Bell Tower Suite evokes the romance of a seafaring sojourn. The Maratha and Lotus suites have their own integral leitmotif, paying homage to the great warrior tribe and the national flower of the land respectively. The Tata Suite, designed to celebrate the legend of the Tata's,  makes a remarkable statement with white makrana marble floors, intricate marquetry on timber, Indian hand-knotted carpets, colonial furniture and crystal chandeliers.

The Taj Mahal Palace, Mumbai: Rajput Suite, Swing Study

Restaurants and Bars

From age-old favourites to contemporary palate pleasers, the Taj Mahal Palace, Mumbai offers a varied and luxurious dining experience, encompassing the world's favourite cuisines. From Middle Eastern to Japanese and European—there is something for everyone. The newest offering by the hotel is the ultra-chic Wine and Malt Lounge. This elegant space is ideal for guests to discover fine spirits while enjoying views of the Apollo Bunder. For the more adventurous, Souk—the only enclosed rooftop restobar in Mumbai, now boasts of sundowners every evening. Nurse a drink while watching the evening sky light up over the Arabian Sea.

By Takshi Mehta

By Ashna Lulla

By Arshia Dhar

The Taj Mahal Palace, Mumbai: Palace lounge

Events and Occasions

The Taj Mahal Palace, Mumbai has nine grand banquet rooms, tastefully refurbished to include the latest in business facilities, while still retaining the elegance and old-world charm so beloved of the Taj. From the lavish Crystal Room to the regal Ballroom, from the rooftop Rendezvous to the historic Princes Room, the hotel offers the perfect venue for any business or social occasion. The property also houses an extensive shopping arcade, an art gallery, a salon and a spa.

By Aishwarya Khurana

By Chandni Sehgal

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The Ordinary Heroes of the Taj Hotel: Amazing Case Study

December 22, 2017 by studymumbai Leave a Comment

Not many in India have perhaps come across this case study, but its amazing. Do see the video…around 18 minutes.

Taj terror attack has become a massive psychology case study in Harvard. Not ONE Taj employee abandoned the hotel and ran right through the attack. They helped guests escape and many died . 1100 guests, 600 employees. Over 1600 managed to escape safe. Only 34 people died, of which half were staff members.

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Probably defense personnel are trained to deal with such situations. May be some in the police may also show courage and stay put. But employees in a city like Mumbai staying put when terrorists have entered their premises?

It confounds psychologists.

The speaker talks about 3 recruitment strategies.

1) Taj did not recruit from big cities , they recruited from smaller cities where traditional culture still holds strong 2) They did not recruit toppers, they spoke to school masters to find out who were most respectful of their parents, elders , teachers and and others . 3) They taught their employees to be ambassadors of the guests, to become their ears to the organisation, and not to become ambassadors of the company (which is usually the norm).

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Taj Hotels, Resorts and Palaces

• Format: Print
• | Language: English
• | Pages: 16

About The Author

Rohit Deshpande

Related work.

• Faculty Research
• September 2015
• Taj Hotels, Resorts and Palaces  By: Rohit Deshpande and Mona Sinha
• Taj Hotels, Resorts and Palaces  By: Rohit Deshpandé

Mumbai: Stray Dog Takes Nap At 5-Star Taj Hotel's Entrance, Viral Photo Post Draws Admiration For Ratan Tata

I n the times when we come across cases of people harassing stray animals and shooing them way with cruelty, there's a post from Mumbai which revokes the faith in humanity and care. It surfaces from the prestigious Taj Mahal Hotel located in South Bombay and shows a stray dog peacefully taking a nap at the entrance of the five-star hotel. The picture captured the animal left undisturbed, providing it a space to rest on a sunny day instead of bothering about how its presence would allegedly affect the lavish stay's ambience.

"Strict instructions from Ratan Tata..."

An HR professional named Dr Rubi Khan (Phd) uploaded a LinkedIn Post during her stay at the Taj Hotel and spotting a stray animal peacefully resting there. "During my stay, as I started my day, I noticed a living being sleeping peacefully in the same spot, seemingly carefree," she wrote. Khan went further to the staff about letting the stray dog inside the premises of the luxurious hotel. She was delighted by the response she received from the staff as they informed her about the "Strict instructions from Ratan Tata to treat animals well."

Read full post below

Sharing the photo of the dog sleeping at the entrance of the hotel, she posted, "The entrance of such a prestigious establishment holds significant importance, and there he was, peacefully sleeping, perhaps unnoticed by many of the guests. Amidst the chaos, he owns the place, finding his sanctuary." Her post is now viral on the internet.

Praise and admiration for Ratan Tata follows

She is seen praising Ratan Tata for his kind consideration towards animals. "It’s a fine balance of head and heart...You can be the most successful entrepreneur, but that should never stop you from respecting and embracing everyone," Khan wrote while reflecting on the great values of Tata.

"Salute to Ratan Tata's gesture," said netizens while reacting to the post. "This is genuine hospitality, beyond the shallow cosmetic layers that one associates with facia. Taj truly rocks," read a comment, while another LinkedIn user said, "This wonderful gesture of Mr Ratan Tata sir."

Learn, ideate and collaborate on the biggest innovation opportunities

Taj hotels case study.

@ Zamri Raman

Delivering the “ Tajness” – a signature touch that is unmistakably Taj.

Introduction

Back in the 1890s, Jamsetji Tata was denied entry into the Royal Navy Yacht Club for the simple reason of being an Indian. The Tata founder vowed to set up an Indian hotel that gave world-class service and showcased prime Indian hospitality at the same time. This brought about the dawn of India Hotels Company Limited (IHCL) in 1899 and the iconic Taj Mahal Palace Hotel, Mumbai in 1903.

His legacy stands strong to this day, with IHCL being the largest hospitality company in the Southeast Asian region. Spanning across 118 years, IHCL owns more than 150 hotels in over 100 locations.

IHCL has diversified its business into various brand segments, including luxury hotels, select hotels, upscale hotels, service retail, and volume catering. The Group applies world-class services to its customers while maintaining the warmth of Indian hospitality. The combination of the two is what “ Tajness ” is all about.

In a free enterprise, the community is not just another stakeholder in the business but is, in fact, the very purpose of existence.

– Jamsetji Tata, Founder of the Tata Group, Chairman (1868 – 1904)

• IHCL records a consolidated revenue of INR 4,596 Crore (USD 630.8 million) for FY 2019-2020
• Taj Hotels rank 1 st in India for customer experience (CX), according to a report by KPMG Global CX Excellence Report in 2018
• Wins Gallup Great Workplace awards for eight years

Opportunities

Among the strengths showcased by Taj hotel:

• The Group strives on building a stellar empowerment culture. They place a strong emphasis on an organisational value where employees put customers’ needs above everything else. This customer-centricity has developed an army of heroes, the likes for which is truly unparalleled. Their stakeholders’ courage was featured in news headlines during the Mumbai terrorist attack crisis. Employees were committed to saving the lives of the customer instead of their own, displaying customer centricity in its extreme value.
• Aspiration 2022 is a strategic priority plan drawn to drive the company forward. It is based on three “Rs” – Re-structure, Re-engineer and Re-imagine. The strategic plan encapsulates all stakeholders with key priorities, including monetisation and divestments, technology expansion, brandscape management, and portfolio multiplication.

Best practices

Employee experience.

• Value-driven recruitment – Taj Hotels has a longstanding tradition of hiring their frontline employees from small and semi-urban areas of India. The Group believes that this is where wholesome traditional Indian values can be found to this day, including respect for the elderly, humility, discipline, and honesty. In return, this value-specific workforce has helped Taj make their CX aspiration a reality.
• Empowerment of employees through extensive training – Every employee goes through an 18-month training period, instead of the usual 12-month offered by most hotels. Under the program, employees are guided through mentors, as well as classroom and on-the-job training. Emphasis is placed on technical skills, hygiene factors, and customer management. The training aims to produce highly empathic employees that can provide a seamless and personalised customer experience.
• Boosting motivation through recognition – The heart of delighted customers lies with satisfied employees. With that in mind, Taj Hotels created STARS (Special Thanks and Recognition System), which links customer delight to employee rewards. Through the system, points are collected on compliments from guests and colleagues, leading to an award for their outstanding service.

Digital experience

• Zero-touch economy – IHCL has rolled out a new system across its hotel chains, the IHCL Zero-Touch Service Transformation (I-ZEST). The system enables touchless services and interfaces with customer safety in mind. I-ZEST’s digital features ensure that guests can have secure and seamless engagement, ranging from digital invoicing and online payments to QR codes for restaurant menus.
• Mobile-first hotel – Taj has implemented keyless room entries to expand on the hotel’s frictionless experience. With mobile technologies such as Bluetooth 4.0 and the Taj mobile app, customers can now access their room with an in-app room key. This frugal innovation has made the customer journey easier, as it removes concerns usually raised with a physical key, such as loss or key recognition failure.

Brand experience

• Fostering brand partnership to expand customer base – In 2016, The Taj Group and Shangri-La joined forces to offer the best of both worlds to their customers via a loyalty-led programme known as Warmer Welcome. Through this partnership, customers can enjoy collecting and converting points between the hotels. Additionally, they enjoy benefits across 200 hotels and 131 destinations worldwide.
• Empowering community – In the aftermath of the terrorist attack in 2008, Taj Hotel established the Taj Public Service Welfare Trust (TPSWT) with the purpose to support individuals and communities affected by disasters. TPSWT has contributed INR 10 million (USD 0.14 million) towards the Kerala and Kodagu flood relief in 2018. The Group ensures continuity in the founder’s social legacy and aids communities with the motto “Giving Back to Society” on the forefront.
• Taj has an employee retention rate of 80%. This is an outstanding achievement, considering its base of 32,000 employees globally.
• The Group has a unique digital path with its customers. There is 95% customer engagement, with a record of 10 million unique website visitors and two million social media users to-date.
• Mobile web revenue has seen a full 100% increase since 2016.
• Customer loyalty revenues have gone up by 29% through the Taj InnerCircles and Warmer Welcomes programmes.

Key takeaways

• Empowering employees to deliver CX aspirations should be a business’ strategic focus. There is intense competition among enterprises to elevate their customer experience, either through services, products, or processes. To materialize their CX aspirations, companies need to first empower their employees. In the case of Taj Hotels, value-driven recruitment, extensive training, and appropriate recognition have helped build an outstanding experience for their guests.
• The post-COVID future lies in a contactless economy. Customer experience is now an integral part of any business’ decision-making process. Taj Hotels was swift in navigating the pandemic by putting CX at the heart of their product innovations. The Group has introduced multiple mobile and contactless solutions, making guest experience both secure and seamless.
• Businesses need to connect brands to the people – The pandemic has catalysed a major shift in customer consumption, behaviour, and expectation. Similarly, businesses should switch focus from their shareholders to stakeholders. Customers also tend to lean towards brands that contribute towards the greater good, which in turn translates to strengthened brand loyalty.

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Mumbai Police arrests man for making threat call to blow up Taj Hotel, airport

The mumbai police arrested a man from uttar pradesh in connection with a hoax call that was made claiming that a bomb had been placed in the taj hotel and the city's airport..

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• Accused arrested by Mumbai Police from Uttar Pradesh
• Police received a call with a bomb threat to Taj Hotel, Mumbai airport
• Recently, several places in Delhi received hoax bomb threats

The Mumbai Police on Friday arrested a man for allegedly making a call to the police control room, threatening to blow up the iconic Taj Mahal Palace Hotel and Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport.

The accused, identified as Arvind Rajput, was arrested from Uttar Pradesh.

In a statement, police said that the motive behind the threat call was not yet known.

"His mobile phone had also been seized," police said in a statement.

On May 27, the Mumbai Police received a call about a bomb being planted at the Mumbai International Airport and Taj Mahal Palace Hotel.

After the call, police searched both the places, but did not find anything suspicious there.

Earlier in March this year, the Mumbai Police arrested a 42-year-old man for allegedly giving a bomb threat to Akasa Air as he wanted to delay a flight for his wife who had reached the airport late. Published By: Sudeep Lavania Published On: Jun 1, 2024 Also Read | Mumbai Police on alert after message claims bombs placed at 6 locations in city

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