Tata Group

Tata Group represents 156 years of evolutionary strategy that defies conventional business logic. Founded by Jamsetji Tata in 1868, the Indian conglomerate has 'flowered' into 100+ companies spanning steel, automotive, IT, energy, and hospitality - yet maintains cohesion through branding, ethics codes, and 66% ownership by charitable trusts. This is polycarpic reproduction where the parent doesn't die and offspring don't fully separate, like an oak tree whose acorns remain connected through shared roots.

But Tata's genius is network topology, not diversification. The holding structure operates as a sparse hub-spoke system (Tata Sons as hub, subsidiaries with minimal inter-dependencies) that trades operational synergies for failure isolation. When Tata Motors hemorrhaged cash after the $2.3B Jaguar Land Rover acquisition during 2008's financial crisis, TCS and other subsidiaries remained unaffected. With 30+ publicly listed companies managed by ~300 headquarters staff, Tata functions as an investment portfolio, not an operational conglomerate.

The lesson: conglomerates can succeed if they're designed for failure isolation rather than forced synergies. Tata's sparse topology means individual offspring can die without killing the parent or siblings - evolutionary diversification at the organization level.