Our brand philosophy is to keep community at the centre: Harish Bhat, Tata Sons

At the e4m India Brand Conclave, Harish Bhat, the Brand Custodian of Tata Sons, spoke about the importance of being connected with the community and how Tata Sons as a brand has managed to build one of the oldest brands in the world.

Associated with the Tata Group for over 34 years, Bhat has played a key role in the launch and nurturing of iconic brands such as Titan, Fast Track, Tanishq and Tata Tea. He was also instrumental in the successful turnaround of the brand’s jewellery business, and the milestone acquisition of brand Tetley.

Speaking about Tata Sons as a brand, Bhat said, “The Tata brand is 154 years’ old and was founded in 1968 by Jamshedji Tata. The average age of a brand on the Fortune 500 list is 40 years, while the average age of a medium-sized brand in this world is 18 years. Companies come and go. The Tata Group and the Tata brands have lived on, flourished and grown from strength to strength, and it continues to do so.”

He further said, “Tata is India’s most valuable brand today with a brand valuation of more than $26 billion, and the only Indian-origin brand in the top 100 in the world, as per Brand Finance Annual Report 2023.”

Narrating the history of Tata Group and the importance of keeping community at the centre, Bhat said, “Jamshedji introduced the concept of provident fund and few people asked him the reason behind it as the wealth belongs to the shareholders. During one of his speeches in 1895, Jamshedji said that we are not more generous or more philanthropic than others. We believe that the success of the shareholders and wealth we create for the shareholders is indeed very important but we also believe that the welfare of our workers and the welfare of our community is central to our enterprise and it is very important to us.”

He further said, “Jamshedji believed that the community is at the centre of an organization. He said the organization exists for the sake of the community. Brands have to make a lot of profit and economic wealth but Jamshedji believed that eventually the wealth should go back to the community and he set out a vision of the group and a brand in which the community is the prime stakeholder.”

"The Tata brand and its trademark is owned by Tata Sons but emotionally and for many other reasons it is owned by the people of India and it belongs to the people of India. This happens only after you keep community at the centre, and this is the reason that people resonate with us," he added.