100th Annual Report 2006-2007 - Tata Steel

“A steel works, where men battle with fi ery
metals by day and by night signifi es a world
of incessant toil and giant forces to compel
nature to release her treasures for the benefi t
of mankind”.
- Text from a panel illustrating Tata Steel’s activities
at an exhibition in 1935.
The thought was simple. The message, powerful.
It encompassed the whole of mankind as the
customer base. Steel was yet a commodity then.
Times have changed, customer mindsets have
evolved and the metal itself has been redefined.
The focus however, remains – to recognise the
value of customer relationships.
If pioneering steel making in India was a pathbreaking
step by Tata Steel then de-commoditising
steel is a quantum leap. The company has
introduced brands like Tata Steelium (the world’s
first branded Cold Rolled Steel), Tata Shaktee, Tata
Tiscon, and many others.
Branding is only one of the many initiatives taken
by Tata Steel towards unlocking customer value
and product optimisation. In the late 1990s,
the company undertook internal campaigns to
focus the attention of its workforce on customer
orientation and service. Tata Steel also made
changes in its distribution system and introduced
the hub and spoke model to reduce expenditure
on logistics.
With an aim to create new paradigms in steel
retailing, Tata Steel launched ‘steeljunction’ - India’s
first organised steel retail store. The company has
also derived significant value from initiatives like
Retail Value Management and Customer Value
Management.
Tata Steel adopted direct and simple messages that effectively advertised
iron and steel goods in India in the late 1930s.
Tata Steel has successfully created high brand
recall. It is continuously working towards building
new business models by forging alliances with
customers and suppliers to strengthen the value
chain that in turn will help the company to reduce
operating costs, improve service levels and offer
new products and services.
The R & D laboratory was set
up in 1937. Today, Tata Steel
is the first in India to develop
galvannealed skin panels.
It is the only Indian supplier of
bake hardening steel for
body panels.
In 1952, Tata Steel
applied Statistical
Quality Control to
improve its products
to suit customers’
requirements more
effectively.
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