ASSIGNMENT 1

FAMILY BUSINESS MANAGEMENT &

SUCCESSION PLANNING

SUBMITTED TO: SUBMITTED BY:

MS.SAVITA SINDHU BARBIE BAJAJ
 GODREJ FAMILY

The Godrej family is an Indian Parsi family, that manages and largely owns the
Godrej Group, a conglomerate founded by Ardeshir Godrej and his brother
Pirojsha-Burjorji Godrej in 1897, spanning sectors as diverse as real estate,
consumer products, industrial engineering, appliances, furniture, security and
agricultural products. Headed by Adi Godrej alongside his brother, Nadir Godrej,
and cousin, Jamshyd Godrej, the family is one of the richest in India; with an
estimated net worth of $11.6bn as of 2014.

HISTORY
The family's presence in business began in Bombay in 1897, when Ardeshir
Godrej, after reading a newspaper article about rising citywide crime rates, began
developing and selling locks, with the assistance of his brother Pirojsha. Ardeshir
Godrej died childless; Pirojsha Godrej's sons Burjor, Sohrab, and Naval succeeded
in the second generation. Today, grandsons Adi, Nadir, and Jamshyd manage the
group. The initial venture, Godrej Brothers, has since diversified across sectors and
evolved into multiple companies under the umbrella of the Godrej Group,
including Godrej Industries, Godrej Agro vet, Godrej Consumer Products, Godrej
Properties, Godrej Info-tech, and the holding company Godrej & Boyce.

ESTATE IN MUMBAI
Among the family's most valuable assets is a 3,500-acre estate in Vikhroli,
Mumbai, the value of which is estimated at $12 billion if developed; in 2011, the
family announced plans to develop three million square feet by 2017, through an
internal joint venture composed of Godrej Industries and Godrej Properties. For
decades, the family has preserved some 1,750 acres of mangrove swamps within
the estate, leading to the 2012 inclusion of Adi Godrej and Jamshyd Godrej in
Forbes magazine's list of the richest green billionaires. On 18 June 2014, Godrej
family bought the iconic bungalow of Homi J. Bhabha, Mehrangir, for Rs. 372 Cr
through an auction initiated by the National Center for the Performing Arts in
Mumbai.

MEMBERS
Ardeshir Godrej, cofounder of Godrej Brothers
Pirojsha-Burjorji Godrej, cofounder of Godrej Brothers
Burjor Godrej
SohrabPirojsha Godrej, chairman of the Group
Naval Godrej
Adi Godrej, chairman of the Godrej Group
Parmeshwar Godrej, socialite and AIDS activist
PirojshaAdi Godrej, Managing Director & CEO of Godrej Properties Limited
Nadir Godrej, managing director of Godrej Industries and chairman of Godrej
Agrovet
Jamshyd Godrej, chairman of Godrej & Boyce.

HISTORY OF CONFLICT
Mumbai’s corporate circles have been abuzz over the last few days ever since
reports surfaced of apparent differences of opinion within the much-respected
Godrej family, one of the best-known business groups in the country. What seems
to have surprised India’s corporate sector is that the reports pertain to a family
which is revered for the manner in which it conducts itself and is a reference point
in good governance practices.
The reports pointed to the development of the large mass of land the group holds as
an area where differences appear to have arisen between Jamshyd Godrej on the
one side, and his cousins Adi Godrej and Nadir Godrej on the other. Jamshyd is the
chairman of Godrej & Boyce, the family holding company, while Adi Godrej is the
group chairman and Nadir is the chairman of group company Godrej Agro-vet.
Importantly, while the group uses a common logo, the managements of Godrej &
Boyce and Godrej Consumer Products Ltd (which Adi and his side of the family
runs) are distinct.
According to the reports in the media, Jamshyd is not in favour of the large-scale
development of the land which Godrej & Boyce owns (around 3,400 acres in all) in
Mumbai. However, Godrej Properties, the listed real estate arm run by Adi’s son
Pirojsha has been developing the land and paying a portion of the revenue to
Godrej & Boyce as part of an agreement. It is essentially this element which is
seen as the point of difference between the two sides. External advisors have also
been appointed to resolve the issue.
However, a day after the reports surfaced, Adi and Jamshyd Godrej issued a joint
statement which said the group had been working on a long-term strategy plan for
several years and had sought advice from external partners to help it think through
options. This, they said, was normal and a part of private family discussions. This
joint statement seems to have settled the matter for now, though corporate circles
are keenly awaiting the outcome of the negotiations. Major corporate names like
UdayKotak, NimeshKampani, Zia Mody, and Cyril Shroff are being mentioned as
those who are helping the family work through this.

Godrej Properties climbs over 4.5% to hit 52-week high despite dispute in Godrej
family

Adi Godrej is the Chairman of Godrej group, while Nadir Godrej is the Chairman
of Godrej Agro-vet. Jamshyd Godrej, who's Adi and Nadir's cousin, is the
Chairman of Godrej & Boyce.

The family group, which is the biggest land owner in Mumbai, has now appointed
top firms to address the landholding issue. Godrej & Boyce owns 3,400-acre land
in Mumbai's Vikhroli, of which only 1,000 acre can be developed. This piece of
land alone is estimated to be worth Rs 20,000 crore. According to an estimate, the
1,000 acre land alone could be turned into a real estate project worth over Rs 1-
lakh crore, and both Adi and Nadir Godrej are in favour of the development of the
area.

GOVERNANCE & SUCCESSION

Worth mentioning here is that the Godrej group was founded by Ardeshir Godrej
and his younger brother Pirojsha Godrej in 1897. The company started with the
sale of locks initially. Over the decades, the group diverged into several areas such
as soaps, appliances and real estate.

While Ardeshir died without a child, Pirojsha had four sons namely Sohrab, Dosa,
Burjor and Naval. Sohrab did not have any children either. Dosa’s son, Rishad, is
not involved in the business. However, he is a shareholder. Burjor’s children are
Adi and Nadir, who oversee Godrej Properties, Godrej Industries, Godrej
Consumer Products and Godrej Agrovet. 

Naval’s children are Jamshyd and Smitha. While Jamshyd is the chairman of
Godrej & Boyce, Smitha is not involved in the running of the business but her
husband (Vijay Crishna) and daughter (NyrikaHolkar) are. Adi’s three children
Tanya, Nisaba and Pirojsha are also involved with the business. Nadir’s two
children except the youngest Hormusji are also involved in running the business. 

Most of the Godrej family members are part of the boards of group companies.
They directly or indirectly hold stakes in all the group entities. The family
including Adi, Jamshyd, Nadir, Smitha and Rishad own between 9% and 10%
stake each in Godrej & Boyce, while about 24% stake is held by a philanthropic
trust which was created by the family. Rest 27% is owned by Godrej Investments.
In case there is a restructuring, the group would see a division of assets between
family members. 

Godrej family group have cropped up over the issue of landholdings owned by
Godrej & Boyce, suggest reports. The issue pertains to the alleged commercial
exploitation of the family's land holding in Godrej & Boyce by its subsidiary
Godrej Properties, reported The Economic Times. The report says Jamshyd Godrej
wants the land to be spared from over development, while Adi and Nadir Godrej
want it to fully develop under Godrej Properties, which aims to be a major
developer in Mumbai.

Established in 1897, the Godrej Group has its roots in India's Independence. Its
founder, Ardeshir Godrej, lawyer-turned-serial entrepreneur failed with a few
ventures before he struck gold with a locks business with his brother Pirojsha
Godrej. While Ardeshir had no children, Pirojsha Godrej's sons Burjor, Sohrab,
and Naval expanded the group's business. Today, the group caters to consumers
across FMCG, real estate, appliances, agriculture and many other businesses.

WALMART

Walmart Inc. ( /ˈwɔːlmɑːrt/; formerly Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.) is an American

multinational retail corporation that operates a chain of hypermarkets, discount
department stores, and grocery stores, headquartered in Bentonville, Arkansas. The
company was founded by Sam Walton in 1962 and incorporated on October 31,
1969. It also owns and operates Sam's Club retail warehouses. As of July 31, 2019,
Walmart has 11,389 stores and clubs in 27 countries, operating under 55 different
names. The company operates under the name Walmart in the United States and
Canada, as Walmart de México y Centroamérica in Mexico and Central America,
as Asda in the United Kingdom, as the Seiyu Group in Japan, and as Best Price in
India. It has wholly owned operations in Argentina, Chile, Canada, and South
Africa. Since August 2018, Walmart only holds a minority stake in Walmart
Brasil, which was renamed Grupo Big in August 2019, with 20 percent of the
company's shares, and private equity firm Advent International holding 80 percent
ownership of the company.

Walmart is the world's largest company by revenue, with US$514.405 billion,

according to Fortune Global 500 list in 2019. It is also the largest private employer
in the world with 2.2 million employees. It is a publicly traded family-owned
business, as the company is controlled by the Walton family. Sam Walton's heirs
own over 50 percent of Walmart through their holding company Walton
Enterprises and through their individual holdings. Walmart was the largest U.S.
grocery retailer in 2019, and 65 percent of Walmart's US$510.329 billion sales
came from U.S. operations.

Walmart was listed on the New York Stock Exchange in 1972. By 1988, it was the
most profitable retailer in the U.S., and it had become the largest in terms of
revenue by October 1989.The company originally was geographically limited to
the South and lower Midwest, but it had stores from coast to coast by the early
1990s. Sam's Club opened in New Jersey in November 1989 and the first
California outlet opened in Lancaster, California in July 1990. A Walmart in York,
Pennsylvania opened in October 1990, the first main store in the Northeast.

Walmart's investments outside America have seen mixed results. Its operations and
subsidiaries in the United Kingdom, Central America, South America and China
are highly successful, whereas its ventures failed in Germany and South Korea.

HISTORY AND EVOLUTION

1945–1969: Early history

Picture of Sam Walton's original Five and Dime store in Bentonville, Arkansas,
now serving as The Walmart Museum.

Sam Walton's original Walton's Five and Dime Store in Bentonville, Arkansas,
now serving as The Walmart Museum, seen in September 2006.

In 1945, businessman and former J. C. Penney employee Sam Walton bought a

branch of the Ben Franklin stores from the Butler Brothers. His primary focus was
selling products at low prices to get higher-volume sales at a lower profit margin,
portraying it as a crusade for the consumer. He experienced setbacks because the
lease price and branch purchase were unusually high, but he was able to find
lower-cost suppliers than those used by other stores and was consequently able to
undercut his competitors on pricing. Sales increased 45-percent in his first year of
ownership to US$105,000 in revenue, which increased to $140,000 the next year
and $175,000 the year after that. Within the fifth year, the store was generating
$250,000 in revenue. The lease then expired for the location and Walton was
unable to reach an agreement for renewal, so he opened up a new store at 105 N.
Main Street in Bentonville, naming it "Walton's Five and Dime". That store is now
the Walmart Museum.

Original logo, 1962–1964

On July 2, 1962, Walton opened the first Walmart Discount City store at 719 W.
Walnut Street in Rogers, Arkansas. The building is now occupied by a hardware
store and an antiques mall, while the company's "Store #1" has since expanded to a
Supercenter several blocks west at 2110 W. Walnut Street. Within its first five
years, the company expanded to 24 stores in Arkansas and reached US$12.6
million in sales. In 1968, it opened its first stores outside Arkansas in Sikeston,
Missouri and Claremore, Oklahoma.

1969–1990: Incorporation and growth as a regional power

The company was incorporated as Wal-Mart, Inc. on October 31, 1969, and
changed its name to Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. in 1970. The same year, the company
opened a home office and first distribution center in Bentonville, Arkansas. It had
38 stores operating with 1,500 employees and sales of $44.2 million. It began
trading stock as a publicly held company on October 1, 1970, and was soon listed
on the New York Stock Exchange. The first stock split occurred in May 1971 at a
price of $47 per share. By this time, Walmart was operating in five states:
Arkansas, Kansas, Louisiana, Missouri, and Oklahoma; it entered Tennessee in
1973 and Kentucky and Mississippi in 1974. As the company moved into Texas in
1975, there were 125 stores with 7,500 employees and total sales of $340.3
million.

In the 1980s, Walmart continued to grow rapidly, and by the company's 25th
anniversary in 1987, there were 1,198 stores with sales of $15.9 billion and
200,000 associates.

This year also marked the completion of the company's satellite network, a $24
million investment linking all stores with two-way voice and data transmissions
and one-way video communications with the Bentonville office. At the time, the
company was the largest private satellite network, allowing the corporate office to
track inventory and sales and to instantly communicate to stores. By 1984, Sam
Walton had begun to source between 6% and 40% of his company's products from
China. In 1988, Walton stepped down as CEO and was replaced by David Glass.
Walton remained as Chairman of the Board.
With the contribution of its superstores, the company surpassed Toys "R" Us in toy
sales in 1998.

1990–2005: Retail rise to multinational status

While it was the third-largest retailer in the United States, Walmart was more
profitable than rivals Kmart and Sears by the late 1980s. By 1990, it became the
largest U.S. retailer by revenue.

Prior to the summer of 1990, Walmart had no presence on the West Coast or in the
Northeast (except for a single Sam's Club in New Jersey which opened in
November 1989), but in July and October that year, it opened its first stores in
California and Pennsylvania, respectively. By the mid-1990s, it was far and away
the most powerful retailer in the U.S. and expanded into Mexico in 1991 and
Canada in 1994. Walmart stores opened throughout the rest of the U.S., with
Vermont being the last state to get a store in 1995.The company also opened stores
outside North America, entering South America in 1995 with stores in Argentina
and Brazil; and Europe in July 1999, buying Asda in the United Kingdom for
US$10 billion.

In 1997, Walmart was added to the Dow Jones Industrial Average.

In 1998, Walmart introduced the Neighborhood Market concept with three stores
in Arkansas. By 2005, estimates indicate that the company controlled about 20
percent of the retail grocery and consumables business.

In 2000, H. Lee Scott became Walmart's President and CEO as the company's sales
increased to $165 billion. In 2002, it was listed for the first time as America's
largest corporation on the Fortune 500 list, with revenues of $219.8 billion and
profits of $6.7 billion. It has remained there every year except 2006, 2009, and
2012

In 2005, Walmart reported US$312.4 billion in sales, more than 6,200 facilities
around the world—including 3,800 stores in the United States and 2,800
elsewhere, employing more than 1.6 million associates. Its U.S. presence grew so
rapidly that only small pockets of the country remained more than 60 miles (97
kilometers) from the nearest store.

As Walmart rapidly expanded into the world's largest corporation, many critics
worried about its effect on local communities, particularly small towns with many
"mom and pop" stores. There have been several studies on the economic impact of
Walmart on small towns and local businesses, jobs, and taxpayers. In one, Kenneth
Stone, a professor of economics at Iowa State University, found that some small
towns can lose almost half of their retail trade within ten years of a Walmart store
opening. However, in another study, he compared the changes to what small town
shops had faced in the past—including the development of the railroads, the advent
of the Sears Roebuck catalog, and the arrival of shopping malls—and concluded
that shop owners who adapt to changes in the retail market can thrive after
Walmart arrives. A later study in collaboration with Mississippi State University
showed that there are "both positive and negative impacts on existing stores in the
area where the new supercenter locates."

In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in September 2005, Walmart used its

logistics network to organize a rapid response to the disaster, donating $20 million,
1,500 truckloads of merchandise, food for 100,000 meals, and the promise of a job
for every one of its displaced workers. An independent study by Steven Horwitz of
St. Lawrence University found that Walmart, The Home Depot, and Lowe's made
use of their local knowledge about supply chains, infrastructure, decision makers
and other resources to provide emergency supplies and reopen stores well before
the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) began its response.While
the company was overall lauded for its quick response amidst criticism of FEMA,
several critics were quick to point out that there still remained issues with the
company's labor relations.

2005–2010: Initiatives

Solar modules mounted on a Walmart Supercenter in Caguas, Puerto Rico in

December 2010

Environmental initiatives

In November 2005, Walmart announced several environmental measures to

increase energy efficiency and improve its overall environmental record, which
had previously been lacking.The company's primary goals included spending $500
million a year to increase fuel efficiency in Walmart's truck fleet by 25 percent
over three years and double it within ten; reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 20
percent in seven years; reduce energy use at stores by 30 percent; and cut solid
waste from U.S. stores and Sam's Clubs by 25 percent in three years. CEO Lee
Scott said that Walmart's goal was to be a "good steward of the environment" and
ultimately use only renewable energy sources and produce zero waste.The
company also designed three new experimental stores with wind turbines,
photovoltaic solar panels, biofuel-capable boilers, water-cooled refrigerators, and
xeriscape gardens. In this time, Walmart also became the biggest seller of organic
milk and the biggest buyer of organic cotton in the world, while reducing
packaging and energy costs. In 2007, the company worked with outside consultants
to discover its total environmental impact and find areas for improvement.
Walmart created its own electric company in Texas, Texas Retail Energy, planned
to supply its stores with cheap power purchased at wholesale prices. Through this
new venture, the company expected to save $15 million annually and also to lay
the groundwork and infrastructure to sell electricity to Texas consumers in the
future.

Branding and store design changes

In 2006, Walmart announced that it would remodel its U.S. stores to help it appeal
to a wider variety of demographics, including more affluent shoppers. As part of
the initiative, the company launched a new store in Plano, Texas, that included
high-end electronics, jewelry, expensive wines and a sushi bar. On September 12,
2007, Walmart introduced new advertising with the slogan, "Save money. Live
better.", replacing "Always Low Prices, Always", which it had used for the
previous 19 years. Global Insight, which conducted the research that supported the
ads, found that Walmart's price level reduction resulted in savings for consumers of
$287 billion in 2006, which equated to $957 per person or $2,500 per household
(up 7.3 percent from the 2004 savings estimate of $2,329).

On June 30, 2008, Walmart removed the hyphen from its logo and replaced the star
with a Spark symbol that resembles a sunburst, flower, or star. The new logo
received mixed reviews from design critics who questioned whether the new logo
was as bold as those of competitors, such as the Target bulls eye, or as instantly
recognizable as the previous company logo, which was used for 18 years. The new
logo made its debut on the company's website on July 1, 2008, and its U.S.
locations updated store logos in the fall of 2008.Walmart Canada started to adopt
the logo for its stores in early 2009.

Acquisitions and employee benefits

On March 20, 2009, Walmart announced that it was paying a combined US$933.6
million in bonuses to every full and part-time hourly worker. This was in addition
to $788.8 million in profit sharing, 401(k) pension contributions, hundreds of
millions of dollars in merchandise discounts, and contributions to the employees'
stock purchase plan. While the economy at large was in an ongoing recession,
Walmart reported solid financial figures for the most recent fiscal year (ending
January 31, 2009), with $401.2 billion in net sales, a gain of 7.2 percent from the
prior year. Income from continuing operations increased 3 percent to $13.3 billion,
and earnings per share rose 6 percent to $3.35.

On February 22, 2010, the company confirmed it was acquiring video streaming
company Vudu, Inc. for an estimated $100 million.

2011–present: Continued developments

Truck converted to run on biofuel in March 2009

Walmart's truck fleet logs millions of miles each year, and the company planned to
double the fleet's efficiency between 2005 and 2015.The truck pictured is one of 15
based at Walmart's Buckeye, Arizona, distribution center that was converted to run
on biofuel from reclaimed cooking grease made during food preparation at
Walmart stores.

In January 2011, Walmart announced a program to improve the nutritional value of

its store brands over five years, gradually reducing the amount of salt and sugar
and completely eliminating trans fat. Walmart also promised to negotiate with
suppliers with respect to nutritional issues, reduce prices for whole foods and
vegetables, and open stores in low-income areas, so-called "food deserts", where
there are no supermarkets. On April 23, 2011, the company announced that it was
testing its new "Walmart To Go" home delivery system where customers will be
able to order specific items offered on their website. The initial test was in San
Jose, California, and the company has not yet said whether the delivery system will
be rolled out nationwide.

On November 14, 2012, Walmart launched its first mail subscription service called
Goodies. Customers pay a $7 monthly subscription for five to eight delivered food
samples each month, so they can try new foods. The service shut down in late
2013.

In August 2013, the firm announced it was in talks to acquire a majority stake in
the Kenya-based supermarket chain, Naivas.

In June 2014, some Walmart employees went on strike in major U.S. cities
demanding higher wages. In July 2014, American actor and comedian Tracy
Morgan launched a lawsuit against Walmart seeking punitive damages over a
multi-car pile-up which the suit alleges was caused by the driver of one of the
firm's tractor-trailers who had not slept for 24 hours. Morgan's limousine was
apparently hit by the trailer, injuring him and two fellow passengers and killing a
fourth, fellow comedian James McNair. Walmart settled with the McNair family
for $10 million, while admitting no liability. Morgan and Walmart reached a
settlement in 2015 for an undisclosed amount, though Walmart later accused its
insurers of "bad faith" in refusing to pay the settlement.

In 2015, the company closed five stores on short notice for plumbing repairs.
However, employees and the United Food and Commercial Workers International
Union (UFCW) alleged some stores were closed in retaliation for strikes aimed at
increasing wages and improving working conditions. The UFCW filed a complaint
with the National Labor Relations Board. All five stores have since reopened.

In 2015, Walmart was the biggest US commercial producer of solar power with
142 MW capacity, and had 17 energy storage projects. This solar was primarily on
rooftops, whereas there is an additional 20,000 m2 for solar canopies over parking
lots. On January 15, 2016, Walmart announced it would close 269 stores in 2016,
affecting 16,000 workers. One hundred and fifty-four of these stores earmarked for
closure were in the U.S. (150 Walmart U.S. stores, 115 Walmart International
stores, and 4 Sam's Clubs). Ninety-five percent of these U.S. stores were located,
on average, 10 miles from another Walmart store. The 269 stores represented less
than 1 percent of global square footage and revenue for the company. All 102
locations of Walmart Express, which had been in a pilot program since 2011, were
included in the closures. Walmart planned to focus on "strengthening Supercenters,
optimizing Neighborhood Markets, growing the e-commerce business and
expanding pickup services for customers". In fiscal 2017, the company plans to
open between 50 and 60 Supercenters, 85 to 95 Neighborhood Markets, 7 to 10
Sam's Clubs, and 200 to 240 international locations. At the end of fiscal 2016,
Walmart opened 38 Supercenters and relocated, expanded or converted 21 discount
stores into Supercenters, for a total of 59 Supercenters, and opened 69
Neighborhood Markets, 8 Sam's Clubs, and 173 international locations, and
relocated, expanded or converted 4 locations for a total of 177 international
locations. On August 8, 2016, Walmart announced a deal to acquire e-commerce
website Jet.com for US$3.3 billion Jet.com co-founder and CEO Marc Lore stayed
on to run Jet.com in addition to Walmart's existing U.S. e-commerce operation.
The acquisition was structured as a payout of $3 billion in cash, and an additional
$300 million in Walmart stock vested over time as part of an incentive bonus plan
for Jet.com executives. On October 19, 2016, Walmart announced it would partner
with IBM and Tsinghua University to track the pork supply chain in China using
block chain.
On February 15, 2017, Walmart announced the acquisition of Moose jaw, a leading
online active outdoor retailer, for approximately $51 million. The acquisition
closed on February 13, 2017. On June 16, 2017, Walmart agreed to acquire the
men's apparel company Bonobos for $310 million in an effort to expand its fashion
holdings. On September 29, 2017, Walmart acquired Parcel, a technology-based,
same-day and last-mile delivery company in Brooklyn. The acquisition
announcement saw Walmart shares rise more than 1%. On December 6, 2017,
Walmart announced that it will change its corporate name to Walmart Inc. from
Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. effective February 1, 2018.

On January 11, 2018, Walmart announced that 63 Sam's Club locations in cities
including Memphis, Houston, Seattle, and others would be closing. Some of the
stores had already liquidated, without notifying employees; some employees
learned by a company-wide email delivered January 11. All of the 63 stores were
gone from the Sam's Club website as of the morning of January 11. Walmart said
that ten of the stores will become e-commerce distribution centers and employees
can reapply to work at those locations. Business Insider magazine calculated that
over 11,000 workers will be affected. On the same day, Walmart announced that as
a result of the new tax law, it would be raising Walmart starting wages, distributing
bonuses, expanding its leave policies and contributing toward the cost of
employees' adoptions. Doug McMillon, Walmart's CEO, said, "We are early in the
stages of assessing the opportunities tax reform creates for us to invest in our
customers and associates and to further strengthen our business, all of which
should benefit our shareholders."

In March 2018, Walmart announced that it is producing its own brand of meal kits
in all of its stores that is priced under Blue Apron designed to serve two people.

It was reported that Walmart is now looking at entering the subscription-video

space, hoping to compete with Netflix and Amazon. They have enlisted the help of
former Epix CEO, Mark Greenberg, to help develop a low-cost subscription video-
streaming service.

In September 2018, Walmart partnered with comedian and talk show host Ellen
DeGeneres to launch a new brand of women's apparel and accessories called EV1.

On February 26, 2019, Walmart announced that it had acquired Tel Aviv-based
product review start-up Aspectiva for an undisclosed sum.
In May 2019, Walmart announced the launch of free one-day shipping on more
than 220,000 items with minimum purchase amount of $35. The initiative first
launched in Las Vegas and the Phoenix area.

THREATS & CONFLICTS

In the mid-1990s, Walmart tried with a large financial investment to get a foothold
in the German retail market. In 1997, Walmart took over the supermarket chain
Wertkauf with its 21 stores for DM 750 million and the following year Walmart
acquired 74 Inters par stores for DM 1.3 billion. The German market at this point
was an oligopoly with high competition among companies which used a similar
low price strategy as Walmart. As a result, Walmart's low price strategy yielded no
competitive advantage. Walmart's corporate culture was not viewed positively
among employees and customers, particularly Walmart's "statement of ethics",
which attempted to restrict relationships between employees, a possible violation
of German labor law, and led to a public discussion in the media, resulting in a bad
reputation among customers. In July 2006, Walmart announced its withdrawal
from Germany due to sustained losses. The stores were sold to the German
company Metro during Walmart's fiscal third quarter. Walmart did not disclose its
losses from its German investment, but they were estimated to be around €3
billion.

A Hiper Bompreço in Natal, Brazil in May 2008

In 2004, Walmart bought the 118 stores in the Bompreço supermarket chain in
northeastern Brazil. In late 2005, it took control of the Brazilian operations of
Sonae Distribution Group through its new subsidiary, WMS Supermercados do
Brasil, thus acquiring control of the Nacional and Mercadorama supermarket
chains, the leaders in the Rio Grande do Sul and Paraná states, respectively. None
of these stores were rebranded. As of January 2014, Walmart operated 61
Bompreço supermarkets, 39 HiperBompreço stores. It also ran 57 Walmart
Supercenters, 27 Sam's Clubs, and 174 TodoDia stores. With the acquisition of
Bompreço and Sonae, by 2010, Walmart was the third-largest supermarket chain in
Brazil, behind Carrefour and Pão de Açúcar.
Walmart Brasil, the operating company, has its head office in Barueri, São Paulo
State, and regional offices in Curitiba, Paraná; Porto Alegre, Rio Grande do Sul;
Recife, Pernambuco; and Salvador, Bahia. Walmart Brasil operates under the
banners TodoDia, Nacional, Bompreço, Walmart Supercenter, MaxxiAtacado,
Hipermercado Big, HiperBompreço, Sam's Club, Mercadorama, Walmart Posto
(Gas Station), SupermercadoTodoDia, and HiperTodo Dia. Recently, the company
started the conversion process of all HiperBompreço and Big stores into Walmart
Supercenters and Bompreço, Nacional and Mercadorama stores into the Walmart
Supermercado brand.

Since August 2018, Walmart Inc. only holds a minority stake in Walmart Brasil,
which was renamed Grupo Big on August 12, 2019, with 20% of the company's
shares, and private equity firm Advent International holding 80% ownership of the
company.

Corruption charges

An April 2012 investigation by The New York Times reported the allegations of a
former executive of Walmart de Mexico that, in September 2005, the company had
paid bribes via local fixers to officials throughout Mexico in exchange for
construction permits, information, and other favors, which gave Walmart a
substantial advantage over competitors.Walmart investigators found credible
evidence that Mexican and American laws had been broken. Concerns were also
raised that Walmart executives in the United States had "hushed up" the
allegations. A follow-up investigation by The New York Times, published
December 17, 2012, revealed evidence that regulatory permission for siting,
construction, and operation of nineteen stores had been obtained through bribery.
There was evidence that a bribe of US$52,000 was paid to change a zoning map,
which enabled the opening of a Walmart store a mile from a historical site in San
Juan Teotihuacán in 2004. After the initial article was released, Walmart released a
statement denying the allegations and describing its anti-corruption policy. While
an official Walmart report states that it had found no evidence of corruption, the
article alleges that previous internal reports had indeed turned up such evidence
before the story became public. Forbes magazine contributor Adam Hartung also
commented that the bribery scandal was a reflection of Walmart's "serious
management and strategy troubles", stating, "[s]candals are now commonplace ...
[e]ach scandal points out that Walmart's strategy is harder to navigate and is
running into big problems".

In 2012, there was an incident with CJ's Seafood, a crawfish processing firm in
Louisiana that was partnered with Walmart, that eventually gained media attention
for the mistreatment of its 40 H-2B visa workers from Mexico. These workers
experienced harsh living conditions in tightly packed trailers outside of the work
facility, physical threats, verbal abuse and were forced to work day-long shifts.
Many of the workers were afraid to take action about the abuse due to the fact that
the manager threatened the lives of their family members in the U.S. and Mexico if
the abuse were to be reported. Eight of the workers confronted management at CJ's
Seafood about the mistreatment; however, the management denied the abuse
allegations and the workers went on strike. The workers then took their stories to
Walmart due to their partnership with CJ's. While Walmart was investigating the
situation, the workers collected 150,000 signatures of supporters who agreed that
Walmart should stand by the workers and take action. In June 2012, the visa
workers held a protest and day-long hunger strike outside of the apartment building
where a Walmart board member resided. Following this protest, Walmart
announced its final decision to no longer work with CJ's Seafood. Less than a
month later, the Department of Labor fined CJ's Seafood "approximately $460,000
in back-pay, safety violations, wage and hour violations, civil damages and fines
for abuses to the H-2B program. The company has since shut down."

As of December 2012, internal investigations were ongoing into possible violations

of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. Walmart has invested US$99 million on
internal investigations, which expanded beyond Mexico to implicate operations in
China, Brazil, and India. The case has added fuel to the debate as to whether
foreign investment will result in increased prosperity, or if it merely allows local
retail trade and economic policy to be taken over by "foreign financial and
corporate interests".

Corporate affairs

Home office in Bentonville, Arkansas in June 2009

Walmart is headquartered in the Walmart Home Office complex in Bentonville,
Arkansas. The company's business model is based on selling a wide variety of
general merchandise at low prices. Doug McMillon became Walmart's CEO on
February 1, 2014. He has also worked as the head of Sam's Club and Walmart
International. The company refers to its employees as "associates". All Walmart
stores in the U.S. and Canada also have designated "greeters" at the entrance, a
practice pioneered by Sam Walton and later imitated by other retailers. Greeters
are trained to help shoppers find what they want and answer their questions.

For many years, associates were identified in the store by their signature blue vest,
but this practice was discontinued in June 2007 and replaced with khaki pants and
polo shirts. The wardrobe change was part of a larger corporate overhaul to
increase sales and rejuvenate the company's stock price. In September 2014, the
uniform was again updated to bring back a vest (paid for by the company) for store
employees over the same polo's and khaki or black pants paid for by the employee.
The vest is navy blue for Walmart employees at Supercenters and discount stores,
lime green for Walmart Neighborhood Market employees and yellow for self
check out associates; door greeters and customer service managers. Both state
"Proud Walmart Associate" on the left breast and the "Spark" logo covering the
back. Reportedly one of the main reasons the vest was reintroduced was that some
customers had trouble identifying employees. In 2016, self-checkout associates,
door greeters and customer service managers began wearing a yellow vest to be
better seen by customers. By requiring employees to wear uniforms that are made
up of standard "street wear", Walmart is not required to purchase or reimbursement
employees which is required in some states, as long as that clothing can be worn
elsewhere. Businesses are only legally required to pay for branded shirts and pants
or clothes that would be difficult to wear outside of work.

Unlike many other retailers, Walmart does not charge slotting fees to suppliers for
their products to appear in the store. Instead, it focuses on selling more-popular
products and provides incentives for store managers to drop unpopular products.

From 2006 to 2010, the company eliminated its layaway program. In 2011, the
company revived its layaway program.Walmart introduced its Site-To-Store
program in 2007, after testing the program since 2004 on a limited basis. The
program allows walmart.com customers to buy goods online with a free shipping
option, and have goods shipped to the nearest store for pickup.

On September 15, 2017, Walmart announced that it would build a new

headquarters in Bentonville to replace its current 1971 building and consolidate
operations that have spread out to 20 different buildings throughout Bentonville.

FINANCE AND GOVERNANCE

For the fiscal year ending January 31, 2019, Walmart reported net income of
US$6.67 billion on $514.405 billion of revenue. The company's international
operations accounted for $120.824 billion, or 23.7 percent, of its $510.329 billion
of sales. Walmart is the world's 29th-largest public corporation, according to the
Forbes Global 2000 list, and the largest public corporation when ranked by
revenue.

Walmart is governed by an twelve-member board of directors elected annually by

shareholders. Gregory B. Penner, son-in-law of S. Robson Walton and the
grandson-in-law of Sam Walton, serves as chairman of the board. Doug McMillon
serves as president and chief executive officer. Current members of the board are:

Gregory B. Penner, chairman of the board of directors of Walmart Inc. and general
partner of Madrone Capital Partners

Cesar Conde, chairman of NBCUniversal International Group and

NBCUniversalTelemundo Enterprises

Stephen J. Easterbrook, president, CEO and member of the board of directors of

McDonald's Corporation

Sarah Friar, CEO of Nextdoor

Timothy P. Flynn, retired CEO of KPMG International

Carla A. Harris, Vice chairman of Wealth Management, head of multicultural

client strategy, managing director and senior client advisor at Morgan Stanley
Tom Horton, senior advisor at Warburg Pincus, LLC, and retired chairman and
CEO of American Airlines

Marissa A. Mayer, Co-founder of Lumi Labs, Inc., and former president and CEO
of Yahoo!, Inc.

Doug McMillon, president and CEO of Walmart

Steven S. Reinemund, retired dean of business at Wake Forest University and

retired chairman and CEO of PepsiCo, Inc.

S. Robson "Rob" Walton, retired chairman of the board of directors of Walmart

Inc.

Steuart Walton, founder of RZC Investments, LLC.

Notable former members of the board include Hillary Clinton (1985–1992)[293]

and Tom Coughlin (2003–2004), the latter having served as vice chairman. Clinton
left the board before the 1992 U.S. presidential election, and Coughlin left in
December 2005 after pleading guilty to wire fraud and tax evasion for stealing
hundreds of thousands of dollars from Walmart.

After Sam Walton's death in 1992, Don Soderquist, Chief Operating Officer and
Senior Vice Chairman, became known as the "Keeper of the Culture"

Ownership

Walmart Inc. is a joint-stock company registered with the U.S. Securities and
Exchange Commission. As of March 2017, it has 3,292,377,090 outstanding
shares. These are held mainly by the Walton family, a number of institutions and
funds.

 43.00% (1,415,891,131): Walton Enterprises LLC

 5.30% (174,563,205): Walton Family Holdings Trust[343]
 3.32% (102,036,399): The Vanguard Group, Inc
 2.37% (72,714,226): State Street Corporation
 1.37% (42,171,892): BlackRock Institutional Trust Company
 0.94% (28,831,721): Vanguard Total Stock Market Index Fund
  0.77% (23,614,578): BlackRock Fund Advisors
 0.71% (21,769,126): Dodge & CoxInc
 0.68% (20,978,727): Vanguard 500 Index Fund
 0.65% (20,125,838): Bank of America Corporation
 0.57% (17,571,058): Bank of New York Mellon Corporation
 0.57% (17,556,128): Northern Trust Corporation
 0.55% (16,818,165): Vanguard Institutional Index Fund-Institutional Index
Fund
 0.55% (16,800,850): State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Co
 0.52% (15,989,827): SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust

CRITICISM & CONTROVERSIES

Walmart has been subject to criticism from various groups and individuals,
including labor unions, community groups, grassroots organizations, religious
organizations, environmental groups, firearm groups, and the company's own
customers and employees. They have protested against the company's policies and
business practices, including charges of racial and gender discrimination. Other
areas of criticism include the company's foreign product sourcing, treatment of
suppliers, employee compensation and working conditions, environmental
practices, the use of public subsidies, the company's security policies, and slavery.
Walmart denies doing anything wrong and maintains that low prices are the result
of efficiency.

In April 2016, Walmart announced that it plans to eliminate eggs from battery
cages from its supply chain by 2025. The decision was particularly important
because of Walmart's large market share and influence on the rest of the industry.
The move was praised by major animal welfare groups but a poultry trade group
representative expressed skepticism about the decision's impact. Walmart's cage-
free eggs will not come from free range producers, but rather industrial-scale farms
where the birds will be allotted between 1 and 1.5 square feet each, a stressful
arrangement which can cause cannibalism. Unlike battery cages, the systems
Walmart's suppliers will allow the hens to move around, but relative to battery
cages they have higher hen mortality rates and present distinct environmental and
worker health problems.

In March 2018, Walmart was sued by former Director of Business Development

Tri Huynh for claims of reporting misleading e-commerce performance results in
favor of the company. Huynh stated the company's move was an attempt to regain
lost ground to competitor Amazon.
In September 2018, Walmart was sued by Equal Employment Opportunity
Commission alleging that Walmart denied requests from pregnant employees to
limit heavy lifting.

In July 2019, the Walmart subreddit was flooded with pro-union memes in a
protest to the firing of an employee who posted confidential material to the
subreddit. Many of these posts were angry with Walmart surveying its staff on the
Internet. The posting of the union content is in response to the aforementioned
alleged anti-union position Walmart has taken in the past.

2000s crime problem

According to an August 2016 report by Bloomberg Business week, aggressive

cost-cutting decisions that began in 2000 when Lee Scott took over as CEO of the
company led to a significant increase in crime in stores across the United States.
These included the removal of the store's famed greeters, which are in part seen as
a theft deterrent at exits, the replacement of many cashiers with self-checkout
stations, and the addition of stores at a rate that exceeded the hiring of new
employees which led to a 19% increase in space per employee from a decade
previous. While these decisions succeeded in increasing profits 23% in the decade
that followed, they also led to an increase in both theft and violent crime.

In 2015, under CEO Doug McMillon, Walmart began a company-wide campaign

to reduce crime that included spot-checking receipts at exits, stationing employees
at self-checkout areas, eye-level security cameras in high-theft areas, use of data
analytics to detect credit fraud, hiring off-duty police and private security officers,
and reducing calls to police with a program by which first-time offenders caught
stealing merchandise below a certain value can avoid arrest if they agree to go
through a theft-prevention program.

Law enforcement agencies across the United States have noted a burden on
resources created by a disproportionate number of calls from Walmart. Experts
have criticized the retailer for shifting its security burden onto the taxpayers. They
found that 25% of arrests overall in St. Petersburg, Florida are made at just one
Walmart. Across three Florida counties, approximately 9,000 police calls were
logged to 53 Walmart stores but resulted in only a few hundred arrests. In Granite
Falls, North Carolina, 92% of larceny calls to local police were from the Walmart
store there. The trend is similar in rural, suburban, and urban areas. Police are
called to Walmart stores 3 to 4 times as much as similar retailers such as Target.
Experts say the chain and its razor-thin profit margins rely heavily on police to
protect its bottom line. Walmart Supercenters top the list of those most visited by
police.

In addition to hundreds of thousands of petty crimes, more than 200 violent crimes,
including attempted kidnappings, stabbings, shootings, and murders occurred at the
4,500 Walmarts in the U.S. in 2016. In 2019, 22 people were killed in a mass
shooting at a Walmart store in El Paso, Texas.

Walmart second-gen Rob Walton has appointed son-in-law Greg Penner to vice
chairman of the family business, putting him in line to gain control of the
multinational corporation.

Speaking at the annual shareholders meeting in Arkansas on Friday, Walton

revealed Penner, a board member since 2008, would act as chairman during
periods of absence and use his expertise in technology and e-commerce to develop
a range of smaller stores.

The move solidifies the Walton family’s control of Walmart but comes in the wake
of a number of proposals from board members for an independent chairman.

“One of the board’s most important responsibilities is long-term succession

planning, and the company spends considerable time planning for stability and
continuity,” Walton said in a statement.

“I’m excited about Greg working closely with me, the board and the management
team in guiding Walmart into the future.”

The Walton family currently owns 51% of the discount department store business
and with over two million employees is considered the largest retailer in the world.

In spite of its size, Walmart has come under fire in recent years for their poor
treatment of product suppliers and poor working conditions.
Before Walton took to the stage, long-serving employee and shareholder
Charmaine Givens-Thomas introduced a proposal for the family patriarch to be
voted off the board, saying she was unable to feed her family on her $23,000
annual wage.

“Something is wrong when the richest of family in America pays hundreds of

thousands of workers so little that they cannot survive without public assistance,”
she told reporters, adding that keeping the role in the family stifled the company’s
creativity. Walton briefly addressed protestors during his speech, saying that
employees seeking a higher wage were a distraction from the good work his
company does for the community. Walton also read a letter from a single mother
that thanked the company for enriching her life.

Walmart’s annual shareholders meeting takes place at the Arkansas’s Bud Walton
Arena in Fayetteville – named after the co-founder of Walmart and uncle of Rob
Walton – where guest speakers and celebrity performers entertain more than
14,000 employees. Penner, 44, joined Walmart in 2002 where he served as senior
vice president and CFO of their Japan division. He holds an MBA from Stanford
University and is a keen triathlete.

“I am committed to the long-term success of Walmart,” Penner told reporters. “I

look forward to contributing to a stronger Walmart in anyway possible, including
how we develop new digital capabilities to add to our store offerings.”

In 2014, Walmart posted revenues of $476.1 billion – a 1.6% increase over the
previous financial year.

AMBANI FAMILY
2017 ASIA'S RICHEST FAMILIES NET WORTH
$44.8B

HISTORY AND EVOLUTION

The Ambani family tree begins with the pillar, DhirajlalHirachandAmbani, also
known as DhirubhaiAmbani. He is the main man behind the legacy that the family
owns. Born in a ModhBaniya family on December 28, 1932, he was the second
child of HirachandGordhanbhaiAmbani (father) and JamunabenHirachandAmbani
(mother).

As a teenager, he reflected the skills in retailing, selling oil and setting up fritters
stalls. He used to spend his earning to help his impoverished family. Despite being
an average student academically, DhirubhaiAmbani displayed exceptional
leadership expertise. At the age of 16, he showed an avid interest in socialism and
politics, and envisioned a progressive India.

Known for his hard work, Dhirubhai took his business where it is today. The
business tycoon believed in taking risks and increasing profits. In 1955, the
entrepreneur got married to Kokilaben and started his family.

The magnate became a father of four – sons: MukeshAmbani and Anil Ambani,
and daughters: Nina Ambani and DiptiAmbani. Both his sons, Mukesh and Anil
are at present the most influential members of the Ambani family tree.

The elder daughter Nina Ambani got married to BhadrashyamKotharia and is

currently a Chairperson of Kothari Sugars and Chemicals Ltd. Besides, she is also
a mother of two – daughter, Nayantara (Married) and son, Arjun B Kothari.Her
husband, BhadrashyamKotharia passed away on February 22, 2015.

Whereas, the younger daughter,DiptiAmbani got married to DattarajSalgaocar and

is a homemaker. She is also a mother of two, daughter IshikaSalgaocar (Married)
and son, VikramSalgaocar. Her husband,DattarajSalgaocar is the owner and
Managing Director of VMSalgaocar Group of Companies. The company mainly
deals in iron ore mining, coal mining and wind energy.

Founded by DhirubhaiAmbani, Reliance Industries Limited (RIL)was handed over

to his sons, MukeshAmbani and Anil Ambani. DhirubhaiAmbani made this
decision after his first stroke, in 1986. However, it was at the age of 69 that he died
due to a major stroke, on July 6, 2002.

MukeshAmbani, born on April 19, 1957, became the owner of Chairman and
Managing Director of Reliance Industries Limited. He had been a part of Reliance
from a very early age. Moreover, he also withdrew his MBA from Stanford
University to help his father in the business.

In 1985, MukeshAmbani tied knot with Nita Dalal (now, NitaAmbani), a graduate
in Commerce. She is the founder and chairperson of the CSR arm of Reliance
Industries, Reliance Foundation. Both of them became proud parents to three
children – sonsAnantAmbani andAkashAmbani and daughter IshaAmbani.

Anil Ambani, on the other hand, became the Chairman of the conglomerate,
Reliance ADA Group (Reliance Anil DhirubhaiAmbani Group). Born on June 4,
1959, the business magnate has been the part of Reliance since he completed his
masters from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.

In 1991, Anil Ambani got married to the former Bollywood actress, Tina Munim
(now, Tina Ambani). She is three roles in one, that is, actor, activist, and a
philanthropist. At present, she Chairperson of Reliance Group, Mumbai-based
KokilabenDhirubhaiAmbani Hospital, Harmony for Silvers Foundation, and
Harmony Art Foundation.

Anil Ambani and Tina Ambani became parents of media shy sons, Jai
AnmolAmbani and Jai AnshulAmbani.

ANY HISTORY OF CONFLICT

Both the brothers, Mukesh and Anil Ambaniwere managing the company well,
when in November 2004 the elder brother admitted having differences with his
brother over ownership issues. It was in 2005 when the Reliance Industries Limited
was demerged between both the brothers.

In June 2005, the family reaches a settlement to split the Reliance business in a
deal announced by their homemaker mother Kokilaben. The formal split happens
in 2006.

Mukesh gets the flagship Reliance Industries, with interests in petrochemicals, oil
and gas exploration, refining and textiles. He has since launched a retail venture.
Anil gets telecoms, power, entertainment and financial services businesses. The
Anil DhirubhaiAmbani Group (ADAG) now includes Reliance Communications
Ltd, Reliance Infrastructure Ltd, Reliance Capital Ltd, Reliance Natural Resources
Ltd and Reliance Power Ltd.

GOVERNANCE PRACTICES

RIL strives to conduct business and strengthen relationships in a manner that is

dignified, distinctive and responsible. The company adheres to ethical standards to
ensure integrity, transparency, independence and accountability in dealing with all
stakeholders. Some of these codes and policies are:

 Code of Conduct

 Code of Conduct for Prohibition of Insider Trading

 Health, Safety and Environment (HSE) Policy

 Vigil Mechanism and Whistle Blower Policy

 Policy on Materiality of Related Party Transactions and on Dealing with

Related Party Transactions

 Corporate Social Responsibility Policy

 Policy for Selection of Directors and determining Directors Independence

 Remuneration Policy for Directors, Key Managerial Personnel and other

Employees

 Policy for determining Material Subsidiaries

MANAGEMENT INITIATIVES FOR CONTROLS AND

COMPLIANCE
The Company has established the Reliance Management System (RMS) as part of
its transformation agenda. RMS incorporates an integrated framework for
managing risks and internal controls. The internal financial controls have been
documented, embedded and digitised in the business processes. Internal controls
are regularly tested for design and operating effectiveness.

BEST CORPORATE GOVERNANCE PRACTICES

RIL maintains the highest standards of Corporate Governance. It is the Company’s

constant endeavour to adopt the best Corporate Governance practices keeping in
view the international codes of Corporate Governance and practices of well-known
global companies. Some of the best implemented global governance norms include
the following:

 The Company has a designated Lead Independent Director with a defined

role.

 All securities related filings with Stock Exchanges and SEBI are reviewed
every quarter by the Company’s Stakeholders’ Relationship Committee of
Directors.

 The Company has independent Board Committees for matters related to

Corporate Governance and stakeholders’ interface and nomination of Board
members.

 The Company’s internal audit is also conducted by independent auditors.

 The Company also undergoes quarterly secretarial audit conducted by an

independent company secretary who is in whole-time practice. The quarterly
secretarial audit reports are placed before the Board and the annual
secretarial audit report placed before the Board, is included in the Annual
Report.

SUCCESSION
MukeshAmbani’s children, Akash and Isha, have joined Reliance Jio board.
AnantAmbani, the youngest son of Mukesh, is yet to join any company.

Anil Ambani is planning to induct his younger son, Jai AnshulAmbani, on the
board of Reliance Infrastructure (RInfra) as an executive director. Anil Ambani’s
elder son Jai AnmolAmbani has already been inducted on the board of Reliance
Capital in 2016.

TATA FAMILY
The Tata family is a prominent Indian business family, based in the city
of Mumbai. The parent company is Tata Sons, which is the main holding
company of the Tata Group, and about 65% of stock in these companies is owned
by Tata charitable trusts, mainly the Ratan Tata Trust and the Dorab Tata Trust.
Approximately 18 percent of shares are held by the Pallonji Mistry family, and the
rest by various Tata Sons. The Tatas are a Parsi family who originally came
to Mumbai from Navsari in the state of Gujarat. The founder of the family’s
fortunes was Jamsetji Tata. The Tatas are the original founders of the Tata Sons
and Tata Group.
The Tata family is related to the prominent Petit baronets, a Parsi family, through
Sylla Tata, who married Sir Dinshaw Maneckji Petit, 3rd Baronet.

HISTORY AND EVOLUTION

Tata family, family of Indian industrialists and philanthropists who founded
ironworks and steelworks, cotton mills, and hydroelectric power plants that proved
crucial to India’s industrial development.
The Tata were a Parsi priestly family who originally came from the former Baroda
state (now Gujarat). The founder of the family’s fortunes was Jamsetji Nusserwanji
Tata (born March 3, 1839, Navsari [India]—died May 19, 1904, Bad Nauheim,
Germany). After an education at Elphinstone College in Bombay (Mumbai), he
joined his father’s export trading firm in 1858 and helped establish branches of the
company in Japan, China, Europe, and the United States. In 1872 he concentrated
on cotton manufacturing, founding mills at Nagpur in 1877 and, later, at Bombay
and Coorla. His enterprises were noted for efficiency, for improved labour-
protection policies, and for the introduction of finer grades of fibre. He also
introduced the production of raw silk to India and planned for the Bombay-area
hydroelectric power plants that became the Tata Power companies after his death.
Tata began organizing India’s first large-scale ironworks in 1901, and these were
incorporated in 1907 as Tata Iron and Steel Company. Under the direction of his
sons, Sir Dorabji Jamsetji Tata (1859–1932) and Sir Ratan ji Tata (1871–1932), the
Tata Iron and Steel Company became the largest privately owned steelmaker in
India and the nucleus of a group of companies producing not only textiles, steel,
and hydroelectric power but also chemicals, agricultural equipment, trucks,
locomotives, and cement. The family’s industrial facilities were concentrated in the
city of Jamshedpur, in Bihar state.
In 1898 Tata donated land for a research institute that was later founded by his
sons as the Indian Institute of Science, at Bangalore (Bengaluru). The Tata family
went on to become perhaps the most important private funder of technical
education and scientific research in India.
Upon the death of Sir Dorabji in 1932, Sir Naoroji Saklatvala, one of the founder’s
nephews, became chairman of the Tata Group. On his death in 1938, Jehangir
Ratanji Dadabhoy Tata (1904–93), whose father, R.D. Tata, had been a cousin and
partner of the founder, became chairman. J.R.D. Tata founded Tata Airlines
(1932), which was nationalized in 1953 and split up to form India’s chief domestic
and international air carriers: Indian Airlines Corporation and Air-India,
respectively. By the late 1950s the Tata Group controlled the largest single
aggregation of Indian industry. J.R.D. Tata was succeeded as chairman by his
nephew, Ratan Tata, in 1991. Ratan aggressively sought to expand the Tata Group,
acquiring such companies as the London-based Tetley Tea (2000) and the Anglo-
Dutch steel manufacturer Corus Group (2007). In 2008 he oversaw Tata Motors’
purchase of the elite British car brands Jaguar and Land Rover from the Ford
Motor Company. In 2012 Ratan retired as chairman and was succeeded by Cyrus
Mistry. In October 2016 Mistry was abruptly dismissed, and Ratan took over
as interim chairman; media reports indicated that conflicts over business strategy
were the reason for Mistry’s ouster. In January 2017 Natarajan Chandrasekaran
was appointed as the new chairman of the Tata Group.

GOVERNANCE PHILOSOPHY

“The Tata philosophy of management has always been, and is today more than
ever, that corporate enterprises must be managed not merely in the interests of their
owners, but equally in those of their employees, of the consumers of their products,
of the local community and finally of the country as a whole.” JRD Tata, 1973
Our Governance Philosophy is to ensure fair, transparent, accountable and ethical
management in order to protect the interests of all stakeholders, including
shareholders, employees, customers, vendors, regulators and society. As a
responsible corporate citizen, Tata Sons follows the laws of the land in letter and
spirit. Tata Sons also goes beyond mere compliance to highlight certain behaviours
and norms to Tata group operating companies.
Our Governance Philosophy is based on resilience. Globally, organisations are
becoming vulnerable as businesses become complex, virtual and interdependent. It
is imperative to build a sustainable and resilient enterprise.
Tata Sons’ relationship with the group operating companies is governed by:
Shareholding in the group companies: Tata Sons is the principal investment
holding company and the promoter of its group operating companies.
Brand Equity & Business Promotion (BEBP) agreement: Every company that uses
the 'Tata' brand is a signatory to the Tata Sons’ BEBP agreement. The agreement
confers upon the operating companies the right to use the Tata brand in return for a
commitment from them to run their businesses ethically and with excellence. As
part of the BEBP agreement, the operating companies must adopt:

 Tata Code of Conduct (TCoC)

 Tata Business Excellence Model (TBEM)

Tata Code of Conduct

The Tata Code of Conduct provides an ethical road map and guidelines for Tata
employees and companies. All full-time employees of the Tata group are obliged
to follow the tenets of the code of conduct. It encapsulates our values of integrity,
responsibility, excellence, pioneering and unity. It lays down the principles of:

 the highest moral and ethical standards;

 highest standards of corporate governance;
 respect for human rights and dignity;
 professionalism, honesty, fairness and integrity

in all interactions with employees, customers, communities and the environment,

partners, financial stakeholders, government and regulators and other group
companies.
It also reaffirms our commitment to:

 the economic development of communities;

 highest standards of safety;
 maintaining a balance in the interest of stakeholders and treating them fairly
to avoid discrimination;
 not engaging in unfair or restrictive trade practices, and compliance with
applicable laws, rules and regulations;
 creating an environment free of the fear of retribution; thereby allowing all
stakeholders to raise ethics-related queries or concerns

PIRAMAL FAMILY
HISTORY OF EVOLUTION
Ajay Piramal, Chairman of the Piramal Group, has led its transformation into a $10
billion global business conglomerate. Piramal Group has diverse interests in
pharmaceuticals, financial services, real estate, information services and glass
packaging, with offices in 30 countries and its products sold in more than 100
countries. It was founded in 2006.

is regarded as a torchbearer for responsible entrepreneurship, with a strong focus

on 'Doing Well and Doing Good', a philosophy that has created long-term value for
the Group's stakeholders and the community as a whole.

Piramal Foundation, the philanthropic arm of the Piramal Group, is a Section 8

company that develops innovative solutions to resolve issues that are critical
roadblocks towards unlocking India's economic potential.

The Foundation believes that bringing impact at scale across diverse geographies
and communities can be achieved through partnerships with governments and like-
minded organisations. Therefore, all of its projects are in conjunction with state
and central governments, like-minded philanthropists, corporates, donors, NGOs
and social delivery organisations.

In line with the Millennium Development Goals, Piramal Foundation is committed

towards improving primary healthcare & nutrition, primary education and enabling
access to safe drinking water.

Each social initiative nurtured by Piramal Foundation, addresses one of the three
focus areas that include -

Primary Healthcare & Nutrition - Piramal Swasthya

Education - Piramal Foundation for Education Leadership

Safe Drinking Water - Piramal Sarvajal

HISTORY OF CONFLICT
The Mumbai-based Piramals went for a small split in 2004 with a large part of it
going to chairman Ajay Piramal and a much smaller portion to his sister-in-law
Urvi and her three sons. Ajay is likely to get Nicholas Piramal, which is effectively
the flagship company of the group, and Gujarat Glass. Urvi is expected to get some
of the smaller businesses, prominently shopping and entertainment mall chain
Crossroads.

GOVERNANCE PRACTICES

Corporate Governance is the combination of voluntary practices and compliance

with laws and regulations leading to effective control and management of the
organisation. Good Corporate Governance leads to long-term stakeholder value
and enhances interests of all stakeholders. It brings into focus the fiduciary and
trusteeship role of the Board to align and direct the actions of the organisation
towards creating wealth and stakeholder value.

The Company’s essential character is shaped by the values of transparency,

customer satisfaction, integrity, professionalism and accountability. The Company
continuously endeavors to improve on these aspects. The Board views Corporate
Governance in its widest sense. The main objective is to create and adhere to a
corporate culture of integrity and consciousness. Corporate Governance is a
journey for constantly improving sustainable value creation and is an upward
moving target. The Company’s philosophy on Corporate Governance is guided by
the Company’s philosophy of Knowledge, Action, Care and Impact.

The Board of Directors fully support and endorse Corporate Governance practices
as envisaged in the Listing Regulations.

The company’s oard comprises individuals who are reputed in respective fields of
general corporate management, science and innovation, public policy, business,
finance and financial services. From time to time, members of the Board receive
recognition from the Government, industry bodies and business associations.