Redefining the rules: profitably

Abstract

Titan Industries, a joint venture between the Tata Group and the Tamil Nadu Industrial Development Corporation, revolutionised the Indian watch industry when it arrived on the industry stage in 1987. Titan’s extensive product range, stylish watches, and innovations in the retailing arena captivated the Indian consumer like never before. However, having risen to a leadership position in the industry by 1995, Titan found itself hemmed in by its past strategic choices. Even as it launched a slew of new product initiatives, Titan was struck by a sharp fall in profitability and a decline in the growth rates of its businesses. An extended transformational process that lasted for several years succeeded in delivering a design-led and cost-driven organisation with profitable businesses in watches, jewellery, precision equipment, and accessories, retaining, at the same time, Titan’s enviable organisational culture and industry dominance. In a freewheeling discussion with Bhaskar Bhat, the chief architect of this remarkable transformation, J Ramachandran and Anirvan Pant sought to understand the underlying sequence and rationale of the changes on Titan’s internal as well as external fronts, and at a more fundamental level, what the multi-faceted company is really about. Coded in the DNA of the company, says Bhaskar Bhat, is the key to Titan’s strategic moves – the need to redefine the rules of the game and to do so with the customer, rather than the competition, in mind. This has helped them in not only establishing leadership, but also in staying ahead of the market. This passion for redefining is now supported by the company’s ability to learn from its mistakes and a decentralised culture conducive to dissent and exploration. The most important change in the process of Titan’s turnaround, Bhat says, was in the mindset of the people – moving from functional excellence to business excellence on the basis of the simple metrics of profit-consciousness on a day-to-day basis. This, he believes, obviates the need to sharply define or confine the diverse activities of the company, which are united by a common culture and the umbrella statement, ‘We craft functionality into style’.