Arun Maira, erstwhile member of the Planning Commission, tells an anecdote of the Tata brand’s distinction of earning the trust of society by its values. Soon after WW II ended in 1946, the board of KraussMaffei, a large German engineering conglomerate met chairman JRD Tata and Sumant Moolgaonkar (CEO of the fledgling Telco) on the platform of the bombed out Munich station. India was under British rule, and German and Indian companies could not any legal agreements among themselves. The Germans requested Tatas to take their jobless technicians and their families to India. They will teach you all they know; please take care of them them, is all we ask, they said. And thus Tatas learnt metal-working from the best of the best. Many years later when India gained independence, a letter arrived at the KraussMaffei HQ. Now that we can, how much shall we pay you for the technology you have provided us, it asked. That letter has become a legend in the company of what trust means. You honour your debt, even when it's not legally binding, and even when it's not demanded of you.
Learning
Trust is not built through legal contracts between parties. It is built by doing the right thing by others always.
