Published on May 05, 2017
Did you know how Tata Motors filed the second highest number of patents in the automobile industry?
Did you know how Trent closes audit issues faster than others?
Did you know that Tata Communications has incubated 3 ideas with ‘Shape the Future’, its corporate innovation program?
The Tata Best Practices portal – EDGE – has details of all these best practices and much more…
The Tata Best Practices initiative is run by Tata Business Excellence Group (TBExG) to identify, share and replicate the learnings from good practices within and outside the Tata group. TBExG set up the Best Practices initiative as a platform to facilitate knowledge transfer and help group companies achieve operational improvements and overall business excellence. Today, the EDGE portal has more than 400 best practices and 100 webinars have been conducted to help companies know more about the practices available in areas like customer centricity, competitive intelligence, innovation, operations management, knowledge management, risk management and safety. In addition, the best practices team has also conducted learning missions to different companies so that other companies can interact with the practice owners directly.
The journey so far…
EDGE: TBExG developed an advanced digital platform called the EDGE portal, which promotes the sharing of best practices within the Tata group.
- More than 400 best practices identified and shared via the EDGE portal
- Over 22,000 users of the portal
- More than 80 new practices uploaded and 6,696 new users added in 2016-17
- The EDGE portal received more than 15,000 visits in 2016-17
Learning Missions: Learning Missions have a judicious mix of digital avenues of learning as well as direct interactions with practitioners. These programmes have helped employees from different group companies to interact closely with each other through a face-to-face process that makes it simpler to internalise learnings and imbibe best practices. An offshoot of the same programme is the Mini Learning Mission, which focuses on connecting companies in close proximity, so that a larger pool of companies can connect at shorter intervals. Learning Missions focus on important and deployable topics, such as risk management, customer centricity, business intelligence, etc.
- Till date, 6 Learning Missions and 4 Mini Learning Missions have been organised
- In 2016-17, the first external Learning Mission was held in Singapore with visits to world class companies and institutions
EDGE Webinars: TBExG regularly conducts webinars on topics such as customer centricity, competitive intelligence, innovation, general management, operational management, risk management, safety, etc.
- More than 100 EDGE webinars have been conducted till date
- In 2016-17, 50 EDGE webinars were held, with 38 Tata companies and 12 non-Tata companies as hosts
- The year saw over 16,000 participants with an average NPS score of 61
Best Practice Adaptation
The numbers above tell only part of the story. The participation that the initiative has generated among Tata companies has been phenomenal. Most Tata companies including Tata Motors, Tata Chemicals, Tata Steel, Tata Housing, Titan, Tata Technologies, Tata Steel Europe, JLR, TCS, Tata Global Beverages, Voltas, TPDDL, Tata Capital, Tata AIA, Tata AIG, etc. have shown extensive participation in the Best Practices initiative. A measure of the success of the Best Practices initiative can be gauged from the following:
- Adaptation of 18 best practices across 6 companies within the Tata group
- More than 50 Best Practices sourced from TBEM assessments
- Around 60 opportunities for adaptation were identified
The adaptations made by Tata companies were recognised at the annual Business Excellence Convention (BEC), with the top contributors, top implementers, top providers, and Best Practices champions being acknowledged for their important contribution. Without their participation, the initiative would not have been the grand success that it is now.
Looking forward…
In the future, TBExG plans drive its Best Practices initiative by focusing on adaptation of best practices within companies. It has also partnered with the American Productivity and Quality Center (APQC) – a world leader in transforming organisations – to enable Tata companies to learn from leading international organisations. With more than 40 years of experience, APQC is the world's foremost authority in benchmarking, best practices, process and performance improvement, and knowledge management.
To learn more about how you or your company can take advantage of the Best Practices initiative, please write to Devraj Chattaraj at dchattaraj@tata.com.