The Ordinary Heroes of the Taj Hotel: Amazing Case Study

Not many in India have perhaps come across this case study, but its amazing. Do see the video…around 18 minutes.

Taj terror attack has become a massive psychology case study in Harvard. Not ONE Taj employee abandoned the hotel and ran right through the attack. They helped guests escape and many died . 1100 guests, 600 employees. Over 1600 managed to escape safe. Only 34 people died, of which half were staff members.

Probably defense personnel are trained to deal with such situations. May be some in the police may also show courage and stay put. But employees in a city like Mumbai staying put when terrorists have entered their premises?

It confounds psychologists.

The speaker talks about 3 recruitment strategies.

1) Taj did not recruit from big cities , they recruited from smaller cities where traditional culture still holds strong
2) They did not recruit toppers, they spoke to school masters to find out who were most respectful of their parents, elders , teachers and and others .
3) They taught their employees to be ambassadors of the guests, to become their ears to the organisation, and not to become ambassadors of the company (which is usually the norm).

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