Venkat Times It Right For Titan’s Global Foray

WHAT DOES IT take to build a complete lifestyle company? A brand ubiquitous, yet distinct in every possible fashion? Of all the factors, vision in leadership is the most crucial ingredient. Titan Company MD C.K. Venkataraman, 64, proves that to the core.

The Tata Group’s cultural ethos and his predecessors’ blueprint for Titan helped Venkat (as he is fondly known) go big on his mission. The Titanian, as he likes to call himself and the other 70,000 employees, joined the company 34 years back in 1990 as an advertising manager. After proving his mettle as a leader across its watches and jewellery divisions, he was appointed as Titan MD in October 2019. In the past five years, Venkat steered the company to new heights. Revenue and profit, both have surged around 2.5 times since then, and the company has become synonymous with India’s rising consumer power.

Having scaled Titan across most key segments in India, Venkat set his sights on global markets in FY24. This time, with much learning, greater firepower and a vast customer base of the ever-expanding Indian diaspora. Led by Venkat, the company embarked on a ‘Turbo Ambition and Strategy’, an expansion plan to take it global. Early signs are promising. Titan, says Venkat, is already eying an “impressive $500 million in UCP (uniform consumer price) value by FY27.” UCP is the maximum retail price of a product.

Leading the company’s global plans is its crown jewel — the jewellery business. Driven by Tanishq, jewellery, which Venkat headed for 14 years from 2005 to 2019, does the heavy lifting for Titan, accounting for 80% of its revenue and profit. It also comprises other brands, Mia by Tanishq, Zoya, and CaratLane.

A multi-pronged strategy for retail expansion, portfolio upgrade, and premiumisation, with a signature products pipeline, seems to be working well. Titan’s international business crossed ₹1,000 crore in revenue in FY24, up from ₹100 crore three years ago.

The company has high hopes from the jewellery segment, says Venkat. “Tanishq’s international foray has been strong. We went into the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) first (comprising Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the U.A.E.), and then into North America. From a company, which had $20-30 or $50 million — I don’t even remember it was that small — in FY19-20, we are dreaming of half a billion dollars by FY27-28 from the international business.”

Titan had an international run a decade back, which failed to take off. In 2006-07, it had an “erroneous view” that Indians would get assimilated into the U.S. culture. More than a decade later, the company relaunched with a renewed strategy focused on the Indian diaspora.

“We are the richest, the wealthiest ethnic community in the U.S. Today, we are influential and confident. We are wearing ‘Indianness’ on our shoulders. We are celebrating 60th birthdays, weddings, doing Diwali parades in New York City. The Indian jewellery and Indian outfits are back with a vengeance,” says Venkat.

Jewellery has helped Titan achieve its international ambitions. “Tanishq is an Indian jewellery brand. It can be the most powerful Indian jewellery brand in North America. In North America, Indians don’t buy Indian watches. They buy global brands. So an Irth (Titan’s premium women’s bag brand) is unknown in the U.S., at least for now. There’s nothing Indian about the Irth bag. Why would somebody give up a Coach or a Michael Kors, and buy Irth? Whereas, somebody can give up a local jewellery brand in L.A., and buy Tanishq. So, at the moment our international ambitions are anchored with Tanishq.”

Titan has all the ingredients to become a “well-rounded lifestyle products company” over the next three-four years, led by traditional watches and jewellery businesses, but driving customer value propositions from newer brands spanning ethnic wear, women’s bags, perfumes, and smart wearables. “We would become more of an international company because of Tanishq’s share outside India,” says Venkat.

Besides jewellery, watches & wearables and eyecare count as ‘mature businesses’ for Titan, the driving force behind the company’s growth in the past 20 years. In watches & wearables, Titan has a portfolio of 10 brands, catering to all market segments. The Bengaluru-based company, launched way back in 1984 under the name Titan Watches, has carved a niche in this category, despite intense competition, especially from international brands.

Venkat credits it to the ‘premiumisation’ of the analogue watch business. Titan offers three brands, Xylys, Edge and Raga, in premium, and Nebula in the luxury segment. It plans to add 10 new global brands and 50 more stores in the next 12-18 months under its premium and luxury watch retail format Helios. “The premiumisation of the analogue watch business is running according to plan. The Titan brand in particular and the Helios network are driving growth.”

Venkat agrees Titan is a “late entrant” in smart wearables. The category, dominated by global brands, has forced it to reimagine its strategy. “Our way to success is to have a differentiated customer value proposition. We do it by becoming a category expert. We have done it in most businesses except one or two. Smart wearables is one of them.”

The company is working to change all that. “We are hoping that should happen in the next 12 months. We will shape our play in the smart wearable space,” says Venkat.

All these reflect in the financials as well. Titan grew at a double-digit CAGR of 20.8% in profit and 19.8% in revenue in the past five years. Its share price increased 3.3x (234%) during the period. The company’s gross sales surged to ₹46,751 crore in FY24, while net profit went up to ₹3,496 crore.

Venkat credits the company’s success to “affection for the Tata name” in India. “It became stronger during Covid. The general formalisation accelerated, so we got the benefit of that. Our market share has climbed over the last two or three years. We have a strong Tanishq and growing Mia brand, CaratLane and Zoya. All those have continued to fire well.”

Within the company, Venkat’s colleagues and friends know him for his simple yet ‘empowering’ leadership style. He listens and invests in people. “His clarity of vision and thought process encourage all. He is a firm believer that if you take care of people, business would follow, and that doing good is good for business. Be it creating an enabling work environment or investing in people for their career growth and development, he is constantly thinking about ways to build an inclusive culture where employees could thrive,” says Swadesh Behera, chief people officer, Titan. For jewellery division CEO Ajoy Chawla, “Venkat is a rare blend of uncluttered thinking, deep empathy and egolessness that endears him to the many people he has touched.”

Suparna Mitra, who heads Titan’s watches and wearables division as its CEO, says Venkat’s most special quality is his ‘humanity’. “During Covid when business was in trouble for everyone, including us, he had no doubt we needed to reach out to our ecosystem partners, including franchisees, distributors and vendors and give out loans and grants to ensure employees survive the pandemic-induced economic stress. He reaches out personally to hundreds of employees in Titan each year under the ‘Tell Me’ programme and people share their concerns and joys with equal ease,” she adds.

Keeping up with the advanced tech, Venkat-led Titan is leveraging AI on efficiency and innovation. “AI is starting to help us in what I call ‘routine work’ — in gaps and refreshes.” It eases the physical work of rendering, and allows designers more time to generate new ideas, says Venkat. In innovation, AI is being used through its Titan Eye+ app. “You may be familiar with a rimless spectacle, where it does not have a frame that holds the two glasses. The glasses end up misaligned, a little bit. Let’s say it happened three months after you bought it. You get a headache but do not realise why. We are using an Eye+ app. Take a photo of your specs. It (the app) calculates the interpupillary distance... sends an alert to the Titan Eye+ store staff, and they will reach out to you.”

Venkat’s innings as Titan MD will come to an end in December 2025. The ‘Titan Lifer’ is now doubling down on his five-year strategy for the company — scaling new businesses and establishing Titan globally. He spends more time on ‘growth engines’ than mature businesses. “Three businesses are already ‘mature’. Customer value propositions have been established, and operating processes are matured. They can run without my intervention... it gives me space and time to spend on international, perfumes, women’s bags, and Taneira.”

The ‘Coimbatore boy’ plans a ‘relaxed life’ post-retirement, spending quality time with his family and putting more time into his interests: Singing, running, cycling and cooking. Yet, the foundations he’s laid will continue to shape Titan’s future.