The Ordinary Heroes of the Taj Hotel: Rohit Deshpande at TEDxNewEngland

Summary

On November 26, 2008, the Taj Mahal Palace Hotel in Mumbai was attacked by terrorists, resulting in a three-day siege. Despite the chaos, the hotel's staff, many of whom knew escape routes, chose to stay and protect the guests. Their bravery and adherence to the Indian hospitality principle of treating guests like gods led to the safe evacuation of over 1,600 people. This incident, initially a symbol of terror, has become a beacon of hope and an example of extraordinary leadership from below.

Takeaways

• 😷 The 2008 Mumbai attacks targeted multiple locations, including the historic Taj Mahal Palace Hotel, resulting in a three-day siege with significant loss of life.
• 👥 The terrorists were organized and heavily armed, using automatic weapons, explosives, and grenades to terrorize and kill guests and staff.
• 📞 Hotel staff, despite the chaos, managed to coordinate responses, instructing guests to stay in their rooms and avoid the attackers.
• 🏨 The Taj Mahal Palace Hotel's staff demonstrated extraordinary bravery and commitment to their guests' safety, choosing to stay and assist rather than flee.
• 🔄 The staff's knowledge of the hotel's layout was crucial in helping guests escape, as they knew the back routes, exits, and entrances.
• 🤝 The hotel's telephone operators played a vital role in communication, providing instructions to guests and maintaining contact throughout the ordeal.
• 🍽️ A group of chefs formed a human chain to evacuate guests, risking their lives and ultimately suffering heavy casualties.
• 🙏 The Unilever board members and their spouses were among the guests, and their experience highlighted the staff's composure and dedication to safety.
• 🛑 The hotel's general manager, Karambir Singh Kang, emphasized the responsibility of leadership, comparing himself to the captain of a ship who should be the last to leave.
• 🏆 The Taj Hotels' human resource policies focus on attitude over grades, training employees to be 'guest ambassadors,' and rewarding them with prompt recognition for exceptional service.
• 🌟 The story of the Taj Mahal Palace Hotel staff's actions during the Mumbai attacks serves as a beacon of hope and an example of leadership from below.

Q & A

What event took place on November 26, 2008, in Mumbai, India?

On November 26, 2008, a group of 10 terrorists attacked the city of Mumbai, including the iconic Taj Mahal Palace Hotel, causing havoc, terrorizing guests, and resulting in many casualties.

How did the terrorists manage to enter the Taj Mahal Palace Hotel?

The terrorists circumvented the metal detectors and entered the lobby, later joined by two more attackers who broke through a back door from the nearby Leopold Cafe.

What was the initial response of Hemant Oberoi upon learning about the shooting?

Hemant Oberoi, upon receiving the first call about the shooting, instructed his chef to close all the kitchens and restaurant doors to secure the area.

How did the hotel staff react to the chaos and danger during the attack?

The hotel staff displayed remarkable bravery and composure, choosing to stay and help guests rather than fleeing for their own safety.

What role did the hotel's telephone operators play during the siege?

The telephone operators became the hub of communication, calling every guest room to instruct them to stay in, not step out, and lock their doors, even after being initially evacuated.

Why were the guests at the Unilever event advised to separate and stay in different corners of the room?

The staff advised guests to separate to reduce the risk of being targeted together, increasing their chances of survival in case of an attack on their location.

How did the hotel staff assist in the evacuation of guests during the attack?

The hotel staff, including chefs, formed human chains to escort guests down stairs and away from danger in the darkness, risking their lives to ensure guest safety.

What tragic event occurred to General Manager Karambir Singh Kang's family during the siege?

General Manager Karambir Singh Kang's wife and two young sons died in a fire that swept through their living quarters on the hotel's sixth floor.

What was the outcome of the siege in terms of casualties among the guests and staff?

Out of approximately 1,700 people present, over 1,600 escaped safely. Thirty-four people died, half of whom were staff members of the hotel.

What cultural or organizational values are suggested as potential explanations for the staff's actions during the crisis?

Possible explanations include the Indian national culture of treating guests like God ('Atithi devo bhava'), the corporate culture of the Tata group, and the industry culture of hospitality, which emphasizes service to customers.

What unique approach does the Taj Hotels take in training their frontline employees?

Taj Hotels train their frontline employees to be 'guest ambassadors,' focusing on being the voice of the customer to the company, rather than just brand ambassadors.

How does the Taj Hotels' recognition and reward system differ from traditional monetary incentives?

The Taj Hotels' recognition and reward system emphasizes personal recognition, with employees being acknowledged within 48 hours of a guest commendation, rather than waiting for periodic bonuses.

Outlines

00:00

🏨 The 2008 Mumbai Terror Attacks and Taj Mahal Palace Hotel Siege

The script begins with a recount of the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks, focusing on the Taj Mahal Palace Hotel as one of the targeted locations. On November 26, 2008, a group of 10 terrorists launched a coordinated assault on various sites across the city, including the iconic 103-year-old hotel. The attackers, armed with automatic weapons and explosives, terrorized guests and staff for three days and nights. The hotel's staff, led by General Manager Karambir Singh Kang, showed immense courage and composure during the crisis, attempting to protect and evacuate guests amidst the chaos. The narrative includes firsthand accounts from the hotel's staff and guests, highlighting the harrowing experiences and the hotel's response to the attack.

05:04

🛡️ Unwavering Bravery: Taj Staff's Response to the Siege

This paragraph delves into the extraordinary actions of the Taj Mahal Palace Hotel staff during the siege. Despite the instinct to flee, all staff members chose to stay, with some even re-entering the hotel to assist more guests. The staff's dedication to their roles is underscored by their efforts to calm and evacuate guests, with telephone operators acting as a vital communication hub throughout the ordeal. The narrative also includes the story of a group from Unilever's board of directors who were trapped in the hotel, illustrating the staff's exceptional composure and guidance that helped ensure the safety of guests. The paragraph concludes with a reflection on the staff's commitment, even in the face of personal loss, as exemplified by General Manager Kang, who lost his family in the attack.

10:05

🏆 Leadership and Sacrifice: The Taj's Response to Crisis

The third paragraph highlights the leadership displayed by the Taj Mahal Palace Hotel staff during the crisis, with a particular focus on the selfless acts of sacrifice. The narrative recounts the tragic loss of several chefs who formed a human chain to evacuate guests, ultimately losing their lives in the process. The staff's actions are contrasted with the natural instinct to flee, emphasizing their commitment to ensuring guest safety. The paragraph also includes perspectives from Ratan Tata, the head of the Tata group, who owns the Taj Hotels, and others, who express their admiration for the staff's conduct. The low survival rate among the staff, compared to the high number of guests who escaped safely, underscores the bravery and dedication of the hotel's employees.

15:08

🌟 Culture of Service: The Taj's Human Resource Philosophy

The final paragraph explores the underlying cultural and organizational factors that may have contributed to the Taj staff's heroic actions. It discusses the hotel's unique human resource policies, including their recruitment strategy, which focuses on attitude over academic grades, and their training approach, which positions frontline employees as 'guest ambassadors.' The narrative also touches on the hotel's motivation system, which emphasizes personal recognition over monetary rewards, and the rapid response to acknowledging employee efforts. The paragraph concludes by drawing lessons from the Taj's experience, suggesting that the company's approach to customer service, employee relations, and corporate culture could serve as an inspiration for businesses worldwide.

Keywords

💡Terrorist attack

A terrorist attack refers to a deliberate act of violence against civilians or non-combatants with the aim of intimidating or coercing societies or governments. In the video, the 2008 Mumbai attacks are highlighted, where terrorists targeted the Taj Mahal Palace Hotel, causing chaos and loss of life, illustrating the devastating impact of such acts on both people and places.

💡Taj Mahal Palace Hotel

The Taj Mahal Palace Hotel is an iconic, historic hotel located in Mumbai, India. It is depicted in the video as one of the primary targets during the terrorist attack, emphasizing its significance and the tragic events that unfolded there, including the loss of life and the hotel's staff's heroic efforts to protect guests.

💡Havoc

Havoc describes a scene of great chaos and confusion. The term is used in the script to convey the state of panic and disorder within the hotel during the attack, where guests were terrorized, and the normalcy of the hotel's operations was violently disrupted.

💡Automatic weapons

Automatic weapons are firearms designed to continuously fire rounds as long as the trigger is held down and there is ammunition. The script mentions these weapons in the context of the terrorists' arsenal, highlighting the lethality and threat they posed during the attack.

💡Human chain

A human chain refers to a line of people linked arm-to-arm or hand-to-hand. In the video, the chefs at the Taj Mahal Palace Hotel formed a human chain to guide and protect guests during an evacuation, demonstrating their bravery and commitment to the safety of others.

💡Evacuation

Evacuation is the process of emptying a building or area to ensure safety, typically in response to an emergency. The script describes the evacuation efforts at the hotel, where staff members risked their lives to lead guests to safety amidst the chaos.

💡Leadership from below

Leadership from below is a concept where leadership emerges from within the ranks of subordinates rather than being imposed from the top. The video showcases this through the actions of the hotel staff, who took initiative and displayed extraordinary leadership during the crisis, prioritizing the safety of guests.

💡Guest ambassadors

Guest ambassadors are frontline employees trained to represent and advocate for the interests of guests within an organization. The video explains how the Taj Hotels trains its staff to be 'guest ambassadors,' emphasizing the importance of customer-centric service and the employees' role in ensuring guest satisfaction and safety.

💡Recognition

Recognition refers to the act of acknowledging someone's achievements or contributions. In the context of the video, the Taj Hotels' employees are rewarded with personal recognition for their efforts to delight customers, which is a key part of the company's human resource policy and motivation system.

💡Corporate culture

Corporate culture encompasses the values, behaviors, and practices that characterize a company. The video discusses the corporate culture of the Taj Hotels, which is highlighted as being instrumental in shaping the staff's behavior during the crisis, with a strong emphasis on treating guests with the utmost respect and care.

💡Beacon of hope

A beacon of hope is a symbol or source of optimism and encouragement in difficult times. The video concludes by describing the Taj Mahal Palace Hotel as a beacon of hope, transforming from a site of terror to an inspiring example of courage, resilience, and exceptional service.

Highlights

On November 26, 2008, 10 terrorists attacked Mumbai, including the Taj Mahal Palace Hotel, causing a three-day siege with numerous casualties.

The Taj Mahal Palace Hotel was targeted due to its iconic status and was under attack for 60 hours, with guests terrorized and killed.

Hotel staff, despite being familiar with escape routes, chose to stay and help guests, demonstrating extraordinary bravery and commitment.

All 600 hotel employees knew the hotel layout well and could have fled but instead chose to protect and assist guests.

The staff's actions saved many lives, as they helped guests escape and even re-entered the hotel to assist more people.

Telephone operators at the hotel played a crucial role in communication, providing instructions to guests on how to stay safe.

A group of Unilever executives were among the guests, and their experience highlighted the staff's composure and service during the crisis.

The staff's training and corporate culture emphasized treating guests like gods, which influenced their heroic actions during the attack.

Taj Hotels' recruitment process focuses on attitude over grades, seeking individuals with respect for others, which likely contributed to their response.

Employees are trained as 'guest ambassadors,' ensuring they represent the interests of the guests to the company.

The hotel's reward system includes immediate recognition for employees who excel in customer service, fostering a strong service culture.

The siege resulted in 34 deaths, half of which were hotel staff, underscoring their sacrifice and dedication to guest safety.

The story of the Taj Mahal Palace Hotel staff's actions has been taught at Harvard Business School as a case study in leadership from below.

The incident has been analyzed for its lessons in customer-centric culture, employee-employer relationships, and crisis management.

The Taj Hotels' approach to human resource management, including their STARS program, has been internationally recognized.

The narrative of the Mumbai attack has transformed from a symbol of terrorism to a beacon of hope due to the heroic actions of the hotel staff.

Transcripts

Transcriber: Eunice Tan Reviewer: David DeRuwe

On the 26th of November 2008,

as you just heard,

a group of 10 terrorists attacked the city of Mumbai -

what used to be called Bombay -

in India.

They broke up into teams to attack about a dozen different locations.

One of those locations was the iconic, beautiful,

103-year-old Taj Mahal Palace Hotel

in South Bombay.

For three nights, two days,

there was absolute havoc in that hotel.

Guests were terrorized; people wounded, shot, and killed.

This group of terrorists with automatic weapons,

plastic explosives, and grenades in backpacks

roamed freely through this old hotel.

Many of us, many of you,

witnessed or saw some of that coverage on television at home.

Let's take a closer look.

(Video) (Music)

Narrator: The evening of November 26, 2008,

was a typical busy Wednesday for the Taj.

More than 500 guests were registered at the hotel.

Another 500 to 600 were attending functions in banquet halls

or sitting down to dinner in the hotel's 10 restaurants.

(Explosion)

(Explosion)

Shortly after 9:00 PM, an explosion rocked the Leopold Cafe just around the corner,

less than 200 meters from the Taj.

(Siren)

(Gunshots)

Two young men pulled out automatic weapons

and began firing.

(Gunshots)

Crowds at the Gateway of India

and along the street in front of the Taj panicked,

many rushing the doors of the hotel.

In the ensuing chaos,

two heavily armed terrorists circumvented the metal detectors

and entered the lobby.

(Ominous music)

They were soon joined by the two attackers from the Leopold,

who broke through a back door.

Hemant Oberoi: 9:35 or 9:40 was the first call I got

from one of my chefs.

And he thinks some shooting is taking place:

"A person has been shot dead outside my restaurant."

Then we heard another gunshot, and I told him on the phone only -

I said, "Just close all the kitchens, all the restaurant doors."

Man 1: They were banging the doors.

They were alerting everyone: "Come out; otherwise we'll shoot you."

There were a few guests who, you know, they were scared,

and they came out by putting their hands up.

And they started hitting them; they started harassing them.

It was horrible.

(Fire crackles)

(Shouting)

Man 2: The situation, the entire scenario, was very scary.

We couldn't judge at that time,

OK, what is exactly happening in the hotel.

Man 3: It was a literally war situation.

You could hear grenades lobbing around and the gunshots also.

Karambir Singh Kang: We did not know the scale of the attack.

We did not know what exactly was going on,

where they were at that moment.

And there was total chaos.

My colleagues were trapped with guests in various places, asking me,

"What should we do next?"

(Shouting)

(Music ends)

(On stage) Rohit Deshpandé: So picture what's happening inside that hotel.

There are 500 guests who are registered at that hotel

this night of 26th November.

There are an additional 600 or so guests

who are in various restaurants, attending various banquets and functions.

There are about 600 or so staff members on duty that night -

young people, many of them very young:

20, 30-year-olds.

Some of them had -

these staff members had only been working for a few years at this hotel.

Many of them fathers and mothers,

the sole breadwinners in their families, with children at home waiting for them.

One of the things -

we don't know a lot about the detail about what happened there,

but one of the things we do know

is that all 600 of these employees knew all the back routes.

They knew the exits, they knew the entrances,

they knew the hallways, the kitchen galleys.

In other words, they knew how to get out and how to get out fast.

All the research we have in psychology would tell us

that the natural human instinct at a time of terror like this

is to flee.

So think about it ... what you would do.

So when I teach this case study at Harvard, I ask my students -

I say, "How many of these employees do you think fled,

and how many of them do you think stayed?"

And they would hazard guesses,

and the maximum they say that would stay would be maybe a quarter -

150 or so.

You know, but that's the maximum.

Everybody who can run away will run away.

Well, the truth of the matter is that nobody ran away.

They all stayed.

In fact, some of them not only stayed,

they helped guests out and came back in to help more guests.

It's an amazing story.

These are some of their stories.

(Video) (Music)

[Footage courtesy NDTV]

Narrator: The staff of the Taj stayed on duty throughout the siege,

calming frightened guests and assisting in their rescue.

Many even came back inside after leading guests out of the building.

Members of the hotel's team of telephone operators,

originally evacuated,

voluntarily returned to their stations and stayed on all night.

Man 4: They became the hub of communication at that point.

They were the ones calling every single guest room,

talking to the guests,

and telling them to stay in, don't step out, lock your door.

Narrator: As the terrorists roamed the halls,

telephone operators instructed trapped guests to pull their key cards

to turn off the illuminated "Occupied" button in the hallway outside their doors.

Man 5: The attack started at 9:30 in the evening.

Till four o'clock, they were answering guest calls.

I think that speaks a lot for a hotel under attack.

Narrator: Among the guests at the Taj that night

were members of the global board of directors and senior management team

of Unilever,

who had gathered along with their spouses to honor incoming and outgoing CEOs.

Leena Nair: So we had this really elaborate seven-course meal,

and that was sort of the setting, the mood.

There was warmth, there was laughter,

there was a perfect setting for a nostalgic farewell,

and a perfect setting for a nice welcome.

And I heard what seemed to me, which is an untrained ear,

like firecrackers in the hotel.

Mallika Jagad: We started getting these text messages and phone calls.

There were some gunmen on the loose.

The only logical thing to do was to close the doors and just stay put.

LN: Mallika came to us and said,

"We think there's a problem; we're not sure what exactly it is.

But I'd request all of you to be on the ground right now."

The level of calm and composure that the staff displayed was amazing,

was absolutely amazing,

because they had the presence of mind to advise us, saying,

"Couples, please separate.

Don't stay at the same place; just be in different corners of the room."

MJ: 65 lives were at stake, so can't take a chance.

So obviously, we were in touch with security all the time and -

had a lot of alcohol in the room.

So that helped a little.

LN: This went on the whole night.

We were on the floor with our hearts in our mouths,

with debris falling all around us,

the noises of, you know, firecrackers all around.

And all through, the staff kept their composure,

kept coming to ask,

"Do you want some water? Do you want something?"

MJ: Well, I was scared.

But there was something more important to be done.

LN: This went on till 4:00 or 5:00 in the morning,

when the room filled with smoke.

So we had no choice but to find a way to escape.

MJ: The entire corridor outside the hall was on fire,

so there was no way we could get out.

The fire guys were outside,

and they were dousing the fire on the sixth floor,

and we happened to see Mr. Kang downstairs as well.

So he sort of ushered the fire guys to us.

LN: We sort of climbed onto the ledge

and did some stuff which in today's normality I wouldn't be able to do.

But we came onto the ledge, climbed down to the ladders,

which by then the fire brigade people had come.

The staff insisted that we would go first -

guests would go first.

And they kept like that till all of us had come down,

and then they all came down.

MJ: Well, in a way, because I was there, I was looking after the function,

I was responsible.

I could have been the youngest in the room -

and I know at one point in time I was the youngest in the room, but ...

I was still doing my job.

Abhijit Mukherji: The easiest thing for our staff to do at that point in time

was to drop whatever they were doing and run out of the hotel.

Not one did that.

Not one.

Karambir Singh Kang: I come from an army background -

not myself but my father -

he retired as a general in the army.

And he often used to say

when I was even appointed here as the general manager -

used to often tell me that

"You are now like the captain of the ship."

And I think that's the way you think -

that you're the captain of the ship and you have to be the last one to leave.

And if it sinks, you sink with it.

(Singing)

[Several hours into the siege,

General Manager Kang's wife and two young sons

would perish in a fire that swept through their living quarters

on the hotel's sixth floor.]

[Another tragedy would occur in the early morning hours of November 27

when a team of chefs and kitchen staff began to evacuate guests.]

(Singing ends)

Ajoy K Mira: At some point,

our kitchen brigade decided that it looked like a lull in the thing

and they could be taken out from the back of the kitchen

through the fire exit to the back road.

And our chefs had formed a human chain

to escort people in the darkness down those stairs.

And as hundreds of them were being evacuated,

somehow two of those terrorists got to know that this was happening.

And the terrorists arrived there

and saw these chefs lined up, herding people away,

and there was mayhem.

They cut loose, and that's where we lost -

we lost our biggest numbers there.

We had five or six of our chefs gunned down.

But they took the bullets.

R K Krishna Kumar: So they risked their lives

in just making sure that the guests were safe.

LN: I don't think we would have made it out of the hotel

without the support, the assurance,

the constant, you know, service orientation

that the staff provided, without doubt,

which is why we will continue to be so grateful to them.

Ratan Tata: I can't explain it.

There were no manuals, there were no instructions

for what should be done in the circumstances.

So what seems to have happened

is individuals, from the waiters to the managers of the restaurants,

all had this goal of "Let's get the guests to safety."

(On stage) Rohit Deshpandé: To reiterate:

500 registered guests.

600 guests in restaurants and banquets,

like that Unilever board event that you just heard about.

600 employees.

It's about 1,700 people that night.

Of those 1,700, over 1,600 escaped safely.

Only 34 people died.

Of those 34, fully half were staff members of the hotel.

So when we were working on this case study,

I asked senior management how this happened, why this happened,

what explains the behavior of their staff.

And these are young people.

Mallika Jagad, the banquet manager for the Unilever event,

whom you saw speaking -

24 years old.

What explains it?

And you heard:

They can't explain it, senior management.

Mr. Ratan Tata, head of the Tata group of companies -

they own the Taj Hotels -

he couldn't explain it.

So I teach this at Harvard.

I bring this case study back,

and I teach this at the Harvard Business School

as a case study of leadership from below.

We teach usually about leadership

as being something from the top that filters down.

This is leadership from below - it's just amazing.

And I ask my students, "How do you explain it?"

And they have plausible explanations for the behavior of the employees.

Some of them say,

"Well, it must be the culture, the national culture, of India.

It must be something in the value system there that explains it."

And in fact, there is.

It turns out that there is a value or a belief

that says a guest is to be treated like God.

When a guest enters your home, treat her or him like God.

"Atithi devo bhava" in Sanskrit.

Other students say,

"No, no, no, it's not national culture; it's corporate culture."

If the Taj Hotels is owned by this family, the Tata group,

they have a long history in India

of very benevolent human resource policies -

a family of integrity in their business dealings.

It's the corporate culture.

And others say, "No, it's not that. This happened at a hotel.

It's the industry culture; it's hospitality."

Employees are trained to serve customers, so that's what's going on.

All of these are very plausible.

So along with another colleague,

I decided to go back into the Taj Hotel company records

to try to understand their human resource policy.

Who were these people? Who were these staff?

Where did they find them? How do they recruit them?

How do they motivate and train them?

And I learned lots of really, really intriguing things.

Let me share, in the interest of time, just three of them with you.

First, about recruiting.

You know, they recruit their first line, their frontline employees,

from high schools not from the major cities -

not from Bombay or Delhi or Calcutta or Madras.

They recruit them from small towns:

Haldia, Chandigarh, Nashik, Tiruchirappalli -

small towns.

And they recruit students, graduating students,

for attitude, not grades.

They ask their headmasters or their teachers,

"Who are the students that you teach

who have the most respect for older people, for their parents,

for the teachers?"

They're not looking for the students who do the best in grades

but, rather, for attitude.

Then, training -

this is fascinating.

You know, you've heard of brand ambassadors.

Lots of companies, many organizations perhaps that you represent,

train their frontline staff

to be ambassadors for the brand, for the company.

You know what they do at the Taj Hotels?

They train their frontline employees

to be ambassadors for the customer, for the guest.

It's very different; it's counterintuitive.

They call them "guest ambassadors."

They believe frontline employees

should be the voice of the client, of the customer, of the guest,

to the company.

And third and perhaps most importantly,

their motivation system -

their reward system, incentives -

is not just monetary.

They pay about average, a little above average,

in that hotel sector in India.

But they reward people with recognition, personal recognition.

So when an employee does something that delights customers

and the guest writes a note,

within 48 hours that employee is recognized.

48 hours!

They don't have to wait for a Diwali or a Christmas bonus;

it happens within 48 hours.

Amazing.

In fact, they won the international Hermes Award

for an innovation in human resource management for this STARS program.

So let me close by asking you

to think a little bit about the lessons that you take away from this -

from this company far away on the other side of the world -

the things that we can learn here in America, that we can bring home,

that we can scale to American businesses, American organizations.

Things like the way customers are treated:

building a customer-centric, guest-centric corporate culture, organizational culture.

Rethinking the relationship, the contract, between employer and employee.

And finally, let me close by saying this is an amazing, inspirational story -

that something that was supposed to be a symbol of terrorism

is today a beacon of hope.

Thank you.