Innovation and intrapreneurship through re-invention for sustainable competitive advantage: the case of Tata steel

This paper describes the lessons learnt by Tata steel, one of India´s largest and most respected companies, to foster innovation and corporate entrepreneurship, as part of its efforts to reinvent the company. The company has been able to leverage the creativity of its workforce and transform its employees into effective co-creators of the reinvented company. The results have been spectacular. The company has emerged as one of the top steel manufacturers in the world. The paper presents a roadmap the company adopted to create a pervasive innovation culture. It presents the lessons learnt and the future challenges. The paper is based on the actual experience in leading change in the company, and the insights that the company has gained from managing over a hundred teams that have been innovating in different sub-systems in the organisation. Cumulatively, over 5000 people have been involved in the various innovations undertaken by the company during the last about fifteen years. The methodology used is case study research (Eisenchardt, KM, 1989). Company-specific proprietary information has been deliberately kept out of the scope of this paper while presenting the results.