Pathway towards Competitiveness through Sustainable Enterprise: A Study of Tata Group

Abstract

As the globe is changing so as the business opportunities that sustainability has brought to the corporates. Some companies have started addressing the pressing need of building a sustainable and healthy life for communities and future generations by reducing carbon footprints, recycling, water and waste management as part of their sustainability strategies. Some international firms have identified these strategies as upcoming sources of competitive advantage. In this direction, few consulting and media companies have developed few sustainability indices to rank global corporations on select dimensions of sustainability, however, Indian companies are lagging in these rankings. This article aims at investigating sustainability initiatives of one of India's top conglomerate groups, i.e., Tata Group. The emphasis of investigation is to analyze this group's sustainability initiatives on select dimensions of sustainable enterprise adopted from Corporate Knight's 14 Key Performance Indicators (KPIs). The case analysis reveals that Tata Group companies are consistently performing on crucial environmental and social dimensions of water conservation, energy productivity, waste management, renewable energy, community development, employee safety, and performance. However, there is a need to focus upon certain other issues as leadership diversity, and linkage of targets or rewards with clean capitalism that stress action from not only senior management but also other managerial levels.