Building on Belief

Read the campaign story

TCS announced Building on Belief on 30 March 2021. Later that year, the Belief Song extended the platform through music, with employees and families appearing in the video and Siddharth Mahadevan credited as its creator. The company presented collaboration and shared purpose as central to its positioning. The anthem belongs to this broader platform, not a second case counted simply because it used a different medium.

Editorial interpretation: an enterprise-services brand can address employees as participants in its identity rather than treating them only as distribution channels. Music may provide a shared cultural object that is easier to revisit than a corporate statement. Yet participation has meaning only when it is voluntary and when the relationship between the celebratory message and ordinary working life is credible. Emotional expression cannot substitute for the conditions employees actually experience.

The source interviews describe intentions and production choices, not independent evidence of improved morale, retention or client performance. The anthem’s release during a difficult historical period does not establish that it relieved distress. This analysis does not reuse lyrics or music. Its proposed test concerns comprehension and voluntary participation in a modest adult community setting, without asking employees to perform enthusiasm for their employer.

Choose a format people can use on their own terms

A song, short film or shared ritual has a different participation contract from a memo. People may enjoy it, ignore it or reinterpret it. Decide whether the aim is to explain a strategy, create a shared occasion or invite creative contribution; these are not interchangeable goals. Give people an easy way to receive the practical information without engaging with the expressive format. For distributed teams, provide captions and language access rather than assuming a single cultural reference travels everywhere. The creative should offer an additional route into the message, not turn participation into an informal test of belonging or loyalty.

Keep the people larger than the brand role

Featuring real staff can make a corporate story less abstract, but it also creates obligations around consent, credit and future reuse. Explain where footage will appear, how long it may be used and whether declining has any workplace consequence. Avoid presenting a few enthusiastic volunteers as a representative survey of the workforce. Family participation requires additional care and is unnecessary for a small pilot. A more defensible starting point is an adult-only contribution with explicit review rights. The organisation should be able to explain why each person’s presence adds meaning rather than simply making an advertisement seem authentic.

Connect shared language with everyday practice

A belief-oriented promise can be inspiring but difficult to evaluate. Translate it into a small number of observable behaviours, such as explaining trade-offs or sharing credit with collaborators. Do not turn those examples into universal claims about every employee or engagement. Ask whether the campaign gives audiences a clearer understanding of how the organisation works, not merely whether they like its tone. If the communication raises expectations that operations cannot meet, narrowing the promise is more responsible than increasing production value. The strongest internal and external stories can coexist with candid acknowledgement of constraints and unfinished work.

A bounded test for another brief

Proposed adaptation: a volunteer adult makers’ club could invite optional contributions to an original thirty-second audio introduction about learning together. Provide a plain-language version with identical practical information and make clear that participation is unrelated to membership privileges. Compare how newcomers understand the club’s activities after hearing each version. Use newly commissioned or properly licensed music, captions and explicit recording consent. Do not involve minors, employment evaluations or personal accounts of distress. The exercise tests whether a shared creative format communicates a community’s working approach, rather than claiming that music improves wellbeing or proves organisational culture.

Measure correct understanding of activities, perceived freedom to decline and recall of the practical next step. Record enjoyment separately from belonging, and do not infer mental-health or retention effects.

Stop if people feel pressured to appear, participation affects access or the finished piece implies that volunteers speak for every member.