Stealing the show

Taking it from the dust and grime of mandis to air-conditioned retail stores with dozens of branded options at fixed prices—that is what Tata Steel achieved while becoming the first company in India to de-commoditise steel and convert it into a retail brand accessible to people across the country. This customer-centric transformation of the company was game-changing.

- Shashank Shah

In the pre-liberalisation era, India’s steel industry was highly regulated. Due to heavy import duties, there was no competition in local markets. Licence Raj ensured that companies like TISCO (now Tata Steel) could not expand their production. As a result, demand was always more than supply, and steel would be rationed based on government directives on price and quantity. With no options for scaling up, Tata Steel ensured that it operated 100 per cent, and ensured efficient production through optimal utilisation of available infrastructure.

The typical scene in the marketing offices of steel companies in those years was of customers requesting prior appointments with sales managers, which would be given after a month. When the customer would come to the office after a month and say, “Saab se milna hai” (I want to meet the boss), the secretary’s response would be: “Saab golf khelne gaye hai” (Sir has gone to play golf)! The situation was no different in Tata Steel’s marketing office in Kolkata. Reminiscing about those days, Fusion Engineering’s Gautam Mukherjee had said, “In 1989, we ran at 20 per cent capacity and had to almost close down because there was no steel available. I was called a beggar in the marketing department of TISCO.”