Win-Win Corporations

When terrorists attacked Mumbai on 26/11, Ratan Tata chose to cover the costs for every victim, whether they were hurt at the Taj or somewhere else in the city. Hindustan Unilever built a cheaper and better product to take on its rival Nirma. TVS Motor Company found a way to recover after its split from Suzuki. Larsen & Toubro finished the Tirumala Water Supply Project in just seventy-seven days. This book asks what lies behind stories like these.

Shashank Shah spent more than a decade studying Indian businesses and settled on six that stand out: the Taj Hotels, Hindustan Unilever, TVS Motor Company, Larsen & Toubro, HDFC Bank and Bharat Petroleum. What sets them apart is how they treat the people they depend on. Customers, employees, investors, vendors, dealers and the wider society all matter to them, and the book shows that serving these groups well need not come at the company's own expense. Often the two interests reinforce each other, which is the idea behind the title's win-win approach.

The chapters draw on anecdotes, the management thinking of respected business leaders and the histories of the organisations themselves. Together they show what drives these firms and why they stand ahead of their peers.

The book also looks outward at the reader's own workplace. An implementation toolkit offers a way to apply these lessons and move a company toward the same kind of stakeholder-minded practice.