The annual Tata Business Excellence Convention (BEC) for this year took place at Taj Lands End, Mumbai, on December 6-7, 2023. The event, which brings together CEOs, Team Leaders, Deputy Team Leaders, Assessors, and various Tata employees from across the world, witnessed a robust participation with 385+ attendees in person and more than 2,300 virtual participants from across the Tata group.
Day 1 of the 29th edition of BEC commenced with Loveleen Mishra, Senior Manager, TBExG, setting the stage for the theme of the year, 'Shaping the Future for Long-term Value Creation,' emphasising the role of inclusion in the TBEM movement.
The first of the two notable speakers for the day was Dilshad Master, an adventurer, explorer, and cancer survivor, who recounted her remarkable life journey. She became the first woman to lead a trekking expedition on the Siachen glacier and left the audience awe-struck while recollecting how she completed an Everest base camp trek while still in recovery from cancer. Her story conveyed valuable lessons about grit, persistence, and the importance of stepping out of our comfort zones for innovation and invention.
The second speaker, Jonty Rhodes, a renowned South African cricketer and popular fielder, shared insights from his cricketing journey, playing for South Africa and coaching Mumbai Indians. The key takeaway from his speech included the notion that one doesn't need to be a captain to assume responsibility. He also emphasised the significance of emotional stability, consistency in processes, and honesty with oneself as crucial elements for effective leadership.
After a networking break, the contributions of employees to the excellence journeys of the Tata group were acknowledged with a glittering recognition ceremony for Business Excellence, Data and Cyber Excellence Assessment Teams, Star Teams as well as Star Assessors.
At the start of Day 2, the host Subhrajit Basu, General Manager, TBExG welcomed participants and set the context for the day. The second half of the Convention featured insights from guest speakers Robert Fangmeyer, Director of the Baldrige Performance Excellence Programme at NIST; and Simon Anderson, International Futurist and Applied Foresight Expert.
Click here to see the BEC 2023 photographs
Click here to see the list of recognitions in BEC 2023
Mr Fangmeyer commended Tata businesses for their commitment to excellence and highlighted upcoming changes to the Baldrige programme, emphasising a shift towards resilience and long-term success, urging proactive preparation for disruptions. Mr Anderson outlined the futurist's role in guiding leaders for tomorrow, akin to TBExG. He emphasised the 3A thinking – Attention, Anticipation, Action – as a roadmap for future readiness, and highlighted the swift development of AI and its imminent importance for businesses.
These sessions were interspersed with recognitions across Best Practices and Webinars, including Most Popular EDGE Webinars, Most Popular Practices and Maximum Number of Best Practices Sessions Conducted.
Following the guest speakers, Sanjeev Singh, Head, TBExG, took the stage to throw light on the progress in the various Excellence journeys – Business, Data, Cyber, Social, Safety – within the Tata group. In Business Excellence, 15 companies participated in the cycle for 2023, which involved 180+ Assessors from 45+ companies, 23% of whom were women, and 29% being new Assessors. In Data Excellence, Tata Play crossed the threshold of Significant Adoption, the first company to do so. Cyber Excellence Assessments are gaining traction, with 5 Group companies participating in 2023. Mr Singh also talked about the impact of the Best Practices Programme, through which there were 21 Best Practice Implementations across 7 companies, resulting in 13 tangible business benefits.
The TBEM 2.0 Reference Manual was then launched by Group Chairman, N Chandrasekaran along with Mr Singh. Group Chairman then presented the recognitions for Business Excellence, Data Excellence, Cyber Excellence, Best Practices and Improvement Intervention Programmes.
In an inspiring and insightful address, the Group Chairman emphasised the importance of investing in artificial intelligence, data maturity, and cyber-readiness. He highlighted the importance of these technologies and the hiring of young experts, empowering them for impactful contributions. Mentioning Project Aalingana, he said that companies need to give importance to sustainability goals. With customer experience becoming a critical aspect of business, Mr Chandrasekaran also emphasised on the need to focus on it, especially for B2C companies that are rapidly scaling up.
The Convention came to a close with a vote of thanks.