Tata Steel (formerly TISCO and Tata Iron and Steel Company Limited) is a multinational steel company headquartered

in Jamshedpur, India and part of Tata Group. It is the world's seventh-largest steel company, with an annual crude steel capacity of 31 million tonnes, and the largest private-sector steel company in India measured by domestic production. Tata Steel is also India's second-largest and second-most profitable private-sector company, with consolidated revenues of 118,753 crores (US$24.08 billion) and net profit of over 8,983 crores (US$1.82 billion) in the year ended March 31, 2011. Tata Steel is the eighth mostvaluable Indian brand according to an annual survey conducted by Brand Finance and The Economic Times in 2010. It is currently ranked 410th in the Fortune Global 500. Tata Steel's largest plant is located in Jamshedpur, Jharkhand, with its recent acquisitions; the company has become a multinational with operations in various countries. The Jamshedpur plant contains the DCS supplied by Honeywell. The registered office of Tata Steel is in Mumbai. The company was also recognized as the world's best steel producer by World Steel Dynamics in 2005. The company is listed on Bombay Stock Exchange and National Stock Exchange of India, and employs about 82,700 people. In August 2007 Tata Steel won the bid to acquire the UK-based steel maker Corus in what was, to date, the largest international acquisition by an Indian company. It made the Tata Group the world's fifth largest steel maker, and catapulted them to the global league. Channel Partners: A channel partner is a company that partners with a manufacturer or producer to market and sell the manufacturer's products, services, or technologies. This is usually done through a cobranding relationship. Channel partners may be distributors, vendors, retailers, consultants, systems integrators (SI), technology deployment consultancies, and value-added resellers (VARs) and other such organizations Many companies today make use of some form of third party channel in their overall sales strategy. They could be distributors, value added resellers, resellers or OEMs. In some businesses, a great percentage of the overall business is being brought in by channel partners. The Major Channel partners for Tata Steel are mentioned below: Stockist Wholesaler Distributor Retailer

Figure1: Basic Channel Network

Figure 2: Different flows between Customer and Company. Today a Channel Partner is not just someone you sign up as a distributor and expect leads from. There is a very close bond that is established and managing this relationship also introduces additional complexity to the overall sales process. Selecting the right mix of sales channels and optimizing their performance is a critical issue. All organizations have to work in maximizing the effectiveness of direct sales organizations, representative, distributors, and resellers. Assessing the performance of the sales channels, recommending alternative means of reaching customers and developing the capabilities of the sales organization are important aspects. Exploiting the latest electronic and non- electronic means of reaching customers directly is an increasingly important part in developing distribution channel effectiveness. In todays globalized world managing the channel partner is one of the most basic criteria for success especially for any manufacturing industry. It is not possible for an industry to directly reach to all the target customers. Finance and time constrain are the main reasons for which industries go for channel partners. It will be uneconomical and time consuming for a company to develop their own distribution network where all the employees work directly for the company. One of the success reasons behind the Tata Steel is ability to manage its channel partners. The main tools used by them to manage their channel partners are motivation and control.

The motivation tools used by Tata Steel are mentioned below: Capacity Building Training Promotions supports Marketing Research supports Incentives

Capacity Building Tata Steel believes in capacity building. It helps the channel partner in capacity building through financial and technical supports. It help the partner to build and increase their capacy at all the given level.

Individual level- Capacity-building on an individual level requires the development of conditions that allow individual participants to build and enhance existing knowledge and skills. It also calls for the establishment of conditions that will allow individuals to engage in the process of learning and adapting to change. Institutional level- Capacity building on an institutional level involve aiding preexisting institutions and supporting them in forming sound policies, organizational structures, and effective methods of management and revenue control. Societal level- Capacity building at the societal level helps to support the channels to educate them of societal benefits and incentivise them for these types of activities.

For Tata Steel capacity building of channel partner is all about creating knowledge, leadership and accountability and helps them to grow both internally and externally.

Training Tata Steel recognises the importance of continuous enhancement of knowledge, skills and capabilities of its channel partners and has invested greatly in education, training and development. The Company's learning and development initiatives are geared to meet the Group's vision. The Tata Steel Group has continued to invest in and improve its managerial and technical capabilities through the development of its own channel partner across Europe, India and South East Asia. It has adopted a multi faceted approach in Training and Development of its channel partner and this area has gained lot of momentum in recent years. Every year Tata steel select different channel partners and educate them in both technical and managerial fields. It has opened a lot of training center for this purpose.

Promotions Supports Tata Steel provides promotional support to the entire channel partners. They provide this support through sign boards, billboards. They also give discounts on the promotion activities carried out by the channel partners.

Marketing Research Supports Tata Steel provides the marketing research support to their channel partners. It will help them to forecast the demand correctly. It will also help them to find out the customer new requirements and problems with the current products. It is beneficial to the both channel partners and Tata Steel. Incentives An incentive is any factor (financial or non-financial) that enables or motivates a particular course of action, or counts as a reason for preferring one choice to the alternatives. It is an expectation that encourages people to behave in a certain way. Incentive is one the most used tool for motivation for the channel partners. Some of the incentives are mentioned below: Financial incentives: like increased commission, some financial package (Tour Trip) Coercive incentives: like removing from channel partner, decreasing commission

Conflict Management Conflict management involves implementing strategies to limit the negative aspects of conflict and to increase the positive aspects of conflict at a level equal to or higher than where the conflict is taking place. Furthermore, the aim of conflict management is to enhance learning and group outcomes (effectiveness or performance in organizational setting). It is not concerned with eliminating all conflict or avoiding conflict. Conflict can be valuable to groups and organizations. It has been shown to increase group outcomes when managed properly. Tata Steel believes that conflict should be handled properly between the channel partners and company for successfully achieving the goal. Some of reasons for the conflicts are mentioned below:

A party is required to engage in an activity that is incongruent with his or her needs or interests. A party holds behavioural preferences, the satisfaction of which is incompatible with another person's implementation of his or her preferences. A party wants some mutually desirable resource that is in short supply, such that the wants of all parties involved may not be satisfied fully. A party possesses attitudes, values, skills, and goals that are salient in directing his or her behaviour but are perceived to be exclusive of the attitudes, values, skills, and goals held by the other(s). Two parties have partially exclusive behavioural preferences regarding their joint actions. Two parties are interdependent in the performance of functions or activities.

The Major tools used by Tata Steel for conflict management are mentioned below: Use of Power Base Channel Co-ordination (Collaboration) Compromising & Accommodating

Use of Power Base: Tata Steel uses this tool as a last resort. In this it pursues his own concerns despite the resistance of the other person. This may involve pushing one viewpoint at the expense of another or maintaining firm resistance to another persons actions. Tata uses this tool is given scenarios:

In certain situations when all other, less forceful methods, dont work or are ineffective When it need to stand up for its own rights, resist aggression and pressure When a quick resolution is required and using force is justified. As a last resort to resolve a long-lasting conflict

Collaboration: Collaboration involves an attempt to work with the other person to find a win-win solution to the problem in hand - the one that most satisfies the concerns of both parties. Tata follows this course of action when there is any conflict in the channel partners. It will help them to achieve their goals. Some of the cases where this tool is used by Tata Steel are mentioned below:

When consensus and commitment of other parties is important In a collaborative environment When it is required to address the interests of multiple stakeholders When a high level of trust is present When a long-term relationship is important When it don't want to have full responsibility

Compromising & Accommodating Compromising & Accommodating looks for an expedient and mutually acceptable solution which partially satisfies both parties. Tata Steel uses this tool in some of the instances as mentioned below:

When the goals are moderately important and not worth the use of more assertive or more involving approaches, such as forcing or collaborating. To reach temporary settlement on complex issues. To reach expedient solutions on important issues. As a first step when the involved parties do not know each other well or havent yet developed a high level of mutual trust.

At last we can say that with the help of given above motivational and controlling tools Tata Steel is able to manage it channel partners to achieve it business objectives and goals.