Published on March 26, 2026
The Tata Business Excellence Model (TBEM) has consistently evolved to remain relevant to the changing priorities of the Tata group and the dynamic business environments in which Tata companies operate. Built on the strong foundation of the globally respected Baldrige framework and enriched with Tata-specific perspectives on leadership, ethics, and long-term value creation, TBEM continues to guide organisations in their journey towards performance excellence.
As organisations grow in scale, complexity and digital maturity, the nature of assessment conversations must also evolve. Assessments today must move beyond verifying the presence of systems and processes to understanding their depth, maturity and real impact on organisational performance.
As part of the TBEM 2.0 enhancements introduced in 2026, additional Level-2 questions have been incorporated across select TBEM categories. While the primary framework questions establish the core requirements of the model, Level-2 questions act as structured probes that help Assessors and organisations explore the ‘how’ and ‘how well’ of organisational practices. These questions are designed to enable deeper and more contextual explorations. The intent behind introducing Level-2 questions is twofold.
For organisations, these questions encourage reflection on the maturity of their systems, highlight opportunities to strengthen integration and deployment, and help surface improvement areas aligned with evolving TBEM priorities.
For Assessors, they provide structured prompts that support deeper exploration of organisational practices, enable greater alignment across assessment teams, and help generate richer insights during assessment dialogues. By deepening assessment conversations, Level-2 questions help ensure that TBEM assessments remain meaningful, insightful and strongly connected to organisational context.
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Following are the changes that have been incorporated as Level-2 Questions:
Customer (Category 3)
Customer expectations today are shaped by rapidly evolving markets, digital experiences and increasing competition. Organisations must therefore continuously strengthen their understanding of customer needs and translate those insights into differentiated value propositions and superior experiences.
The Level-2 questions in Category 3 help organisations and Assessors explore how companies engage with customers across both B2B and B2C environments. They enable deeper understanding of how organisations define, communicate and continuously refine their value proposition. Organisations and Assessors are encouraged to examine how companies articulate the value they create for different customers and how consistently that value proposition is delivered across products, services and customer touchpoints.
Another important dimension explored through these questions is customer listening. Organisations may deploy multiple mechanisms such as surveys, digital feedback platforms, customer advisory boards, complaint systems and social listening tools. Level-2 questions help understand how effectively these listening mechanisms capture meaningful insights and how those insights are analysed and translated into improvements.
The questions also probe how organisations segment their customers and design experiences tailored to different customer groups. This includes understanding how organisations personalise offerings, improve customer journeys, and ensure seamless engagement across physical and digital channels.
Additionally, Level-2 questions examine how organisations manage customer complaints and service recovery. Strong organisations treat complaints not merely as issues to resolve but as opportunities to learn and improve. By exploring these aspects in greater depth, the questions help gain richer insights into how customer knowledge drives innovation, improvement and long-term customer loyalty.
Operations (Category 6)
Operational excellence remains central to organisational performance and competitiveness. As businesses increasingly operate in complex supply networks and digitally enabled environments, understanding the maturity of operational systems becomes even more critical.
The Level-2 questions introduced in Category 6 enable deeper examination of how organisations design, manage and continuously improve their core operational processes. They help explore operational practices across different contexts, including manufacturing, services and digitally enabled business models.
One key focus area added to TBEM2.0 is the deployment of operational technologies and digital capabilities. Organisations are increasingly adopting automation, analytics, artificial intelligence and advanced monitoring systems to enhance efficiency, reliability and decision-making. Level-2 questions help understand how effectively such technologies are integrated into operational systems and how they contribute to improved outcomes.
Another important dimension is supply network management. Organisations rarely operate in isolation; they depend on complex networks of suppliers, partners and service providers. The questions therefore probe how organisations collaborate with partners, manage risks within supply networks, and ensure continuity of operations even in uncertain conditions.
The Level-2 questions also explore organisational capabilities related to operational resilience and adaptability. It helps to understand how organisations prepare for disruptions, manage operational risks and build agility into their processes.
People – Organisational Culture (Category 5)
Sustainable organisational performance is ultimately driven by people and the culture that guides their behaviour. The Level-2 questions in Category 5 focus on how organisations build and nurture cultures aligned with the core values of the TBEM framework.
These questions help explore how leadership behaviours shape organisational culture. Leaders play a critical role in reinforcing values such as integrity, accountability, collaboration and transparency. Level-2 questions examine how leaders role-model these behaviours and how these values are translated into everyday organisational practices.
Another area of focus is employee engagement and involvement. Organisations are encouraged to demonstrate how they create an environment where employees feel valued, heard and empowered to contribute. Mechanisms such as communication forums, feedback channels, recognition systems and learning opportunities are explored to understand how engagement is nurtured.
The questions also examine how organisations embed ethical practices and responsible conduct across the enterprise. This includes policies, training, governance mechanisms and cultural reinforcements that promote ethical decision-making and responsible leadership.
Creating Awareness and Enabling Adoption
To ensure that organisations and Assessors can effectively leverage these enhancements in the TBEM Criteria, TBExG has initiated several awareness and capability-building initiatives across the Tata ecosystem. The Level-2 questions have already been introduced through the APL 2026 programme, helping the Team leaders understand their intent and application.
The upcoming EAP sessions will further familiarise assessors with the enhanced framework and its practical implications. In addition, First-Time Assessor programmes will strengthen the capability of new assessors to apply these questions during assessments in a consistent and insightful manner. Through an orientation session, TBExG is also planning to build awareness among BEHs on the usage of the Level-2 questions.
Through these initiatives, Level-2 questions are expected to help companies identify meaningful improvement opportunities, enrich assessment conversations, generate deeper organisational insights. Ultimately, this enhancement strengthens TBEM assessments by making them more contextual, rigorous and aligned with the evolving priorities of the Tata group.
To know more about TBEM2.0 please write to us at assessments@tata.com