CASES IN MANAGEMENT • 97

Change Management and Business Excellence at Titan

Company Background

T itan Company is the fifth largest integrated own brand watch

manufacturer in the world. It is a part of Tata Group of Industries.
Titan Company brought about a paradigm shift in the Indian watch
market, when it introduced its futuristic quartz technology,
complemented by international styling. In addition to ‘Titan’, the
watch brand, Titan Company has also built ‘Tanishq’ the leading
Jewellery brand in the country. Both these brands are among the most
recognized and loved brands in India. The success story began in 1984
with a joint venture between the Tata Group and the Tamil Nadu
Industrial Development Corporation. After Sonata, a value brand of
functionally styled watches at affordable prices, T itan Company
launched Fastrack, its third brand, to reach out to the youth market.
The company has sold 150 million watches world over and
manufactures over 15 million watches every year. With a license for
premium fashion watches of global brands, Titan Company repeated
its pioneering act and brought international brands into the Indian
market. Tommy Hilfiger, FCUK, Timberland & Police as well as the
Swiss made watch – Xylys owe their presence in the Indian market to
Titan Company.

Entering the largely fragmented Indian Jewellery market with no

known brands in 1995, Titan Company launched Tanishq, India’s most

Copyright © 2015 Shri Dharmasthala Manjunatheshwara

Research Centre for Management Studies (SDMRCMS),
SDMIMD, Mysore. This case is published as a part of
‘Cases in Management Volume 4 (2015)’ with
ISBN 978-93-83302-14-7

The case writer(s) Rajendra Todalbagi, Associate Professor - Operations,

Nilanjan Sengupta, Professor - OB/HRM, and Mousumi Sengupta, Professor -
OB/HRM, may be reached at [email protected], [email protected]
and [email protected] respectively. Author(s) have prepared this case
as the basis for class discussion rather than to illustrate either effective or
ineffective handling of the situation. This publication may not be digitized,
photocopied, or otherwise reproduced, posted, or transmitted, without the
permission of SDMRCMS, SDMIMD, Mysore. For Teaching Notes please contact
[email protected].
98 • CASES IN MANAGEMENT

trusted and fastest growing jewellery brand. Gold Plus, the later
addition, focuses on the preferences of semi-urban and rural India.
Completing the Jewellery portfolio is Zoya, the latest retail chain in
the luxury segment. Titan Company has also made its foray into
eyewear, offering a variety of differentiated products to the end
consumer consisting of frames, lenses, contact lenses and accessories.
Frames are available in both international brands (Levis, Esprit, Hugo
Boss etc.) and in-house brands – Titan, Eye+ and Dash which is an
offering for children. The company has leveraged its manufacturing
competencies and branched into precision engineering components
& sub-assemblies, machine building & automation solutions, tooling
solutions and electronic sub-assemblies. With over 1100 retail stores
across a carpet area of over 1.5 million sq. ft. Titan Company has India’s
largest retail network spanning over 220 towns. The company has over
400 exclusive ‘World of Titan’ showrooms and over 150 Fastrack stores.
It also has a large network of over 740 after sales-service centers.
Titan Company is also the largest jewellery retailer in India with over
160 Tanishq boutiques and 2 Zoya stores, over 30 Gold Plus stores. It
also sports over 300 Titan Eye+ stores. In addition the company retails
personal accessories such as bags, belts, wallets and most recently
perfumes under Skinn Brand.

Titan has two exclusive design studios for watches and jewellery, 12
manufacturing units, and innumerable admirers’ world over, Titan
Company continues to grow and set new standards for innovation
and quality (http://titan.co.in/company-profile).

Titan being the fifth largest manufacturer of watches in the world has
evolved as a strong player in the business over the last thirty years of
its existence. It also had its share of turbulent and tough times with
ever changing market conditions, liberalization and opening up of
Indian economy along the way. Most importantly it has navigated itself
successfully through this period and has stood the test of time and
emerged successful. Company having established in 1984 has clocked
revenue of around USD 2 billion and a market cap of USD 5 billion for
the FY 2015 with 7500+ employees.
 CASES IN MANAGEMENT • 99

Titan has transformed itself several times along the way to achieve
and retain leadership through growth in business both in terms of top
line and bottom line. Company which started primarily as a watch
company in 1984 has now grown as life style and fashion Accessories
Company. Company has leveraged its strengths, seized market
opportunities, and carefully crafted its strategy and execution plan
ongoing basis, to diversify in to Jewellery, Eyewear and Precision
engineering businesses.

Titan’s Journey of Three Decades

In its journey of three decades, Titan has gone through its ups and
downs, and reinvented itself and come out successful and achieved
leadership position in its business. Company has continuously
realigned itself to changing market conditions and customer
expectations. As stated by CEO, Mr. Bhat who took over in April 2002
from Mr. Desai, Titan always believed in redefining the rules of the
game in the business the company is in, and doing so with a focus on
the customer. And competition is used as a metric to measure
performance. This has helped the company to lead the customer and
achieve leadership position in their business.

Company’s journey of three decades can be broadly classified in to

four distinct phases as below.

Phase 1: 1984 to 1993

Phase 1 of the company is characterized by single business, single

brand and single country. Company focused and worked on building
watch business during this period. Technical skills of watch
manufacturing were acquired by hiring talent from HMT which was
then leader in watch business in the country. All other skills were
acquired from outside of watch Industry, in-line with the vision of
trying to revisit and redefine the watch business. Though technical
prowess came from HMT, even they needed to unlearn and relearn
Quartz watch technology as HMT was in mechanical watch
manufacturing business. T itan tied up with French movement
100 • CASES IN MANAGEMENT

manufacturing company to start with Quartz watch manufacturing

business. Titan built the whole watch business from the scratch and
introduced quartz watches to the country which was contemporary
technology across the world and also cheap.

Phase 2:1993 to 1998

Phase 2 of the company is characterized by two businesses, two brands

and four geographies. It also explored international markets like east
Europe, South Asia for watches. Company made huge capital
investments in building manufacturing capability in high end watches
meant for European market. It also entered in to a joint venture
partnership with Timex to enter mass market locally. In this period
company also made an entry in to high end Jewellery business under
the brand name of Tanishq and extended its Titan brand to clock
business. Europe strategy really did not work and clock business was
also not successful due to availability of low priced alternate products
in the market, which forced company to abandon the clock business
down the line.

Phase 3: 1999 to 2005

In the third phase company worked on aligning business to market

realty and created independent divisions for each business viz: Watch
and Jewellery. R&D and Innovation became bedrock of growth in
phase3 and the company grew at CAGR of 18 %.

Company’s product Edge watch became a design marvel which was

launched in 2002. This also became the slimmest watch in the universe.
Company always believed in building world class manufacturing
prowess and R&D capabilities benchmarking themselves with the best
in class in the world like Rolex. Company also went through rough
patches during this period. Their strategy of Europe did not work-out
well. Strategy on Jewellery business also did not work, which it had
entered in 1995. Company tried to replicate the strategy adapted for
Watches to Jewellery business which did not work well. Initial strategy
of selling golden Jewellery by fixed price and trying to build
 CASES IN MANAGEMENT • 101

manufacturing facility did not quite work as the customer was not
willing to change his habit on gold buying. Customers always bought
gold as investment and not for design and adornment. Also the industry
worked on huge flexible capacity available in the market through
traditional craftsmen. Company realized that while watches are all
about engineering and jewellery is all about craft. Business model
had to be reworked to succeed in the business and it had to be
converted to a retail business.

Starting FY02, company went through lot of turbulence with stagnated

growth, decline in profits and low morale of people. Many initiatives
were taken by the company to kick start the transformation. Initiatives
like Mission Impossible (MI), cross functional teams with stiff targets,
energizing teams, encouraging team work, cost reduction, working
capital management through net positive cash-flows by the end of
every month. Company did restructuring by announcing VRS package,
and employee strength was reduced by 17%. Soon after this company
faced labour unrest which led to factory lockout at Hosur for 67 days
between Feb’03 and April’03. However company had realized the dire
need to recalibrate aspirations, identify wastages and eliminate
wastages to transform the company in to a wealth creator for all the
stake holders.

Other initiatives like 3P Programme (Prosperity, Progress and Pride),

Future Shock which became a template for strategy and execution
and engaging people by leveraging their commitment to company.
Bottom-up budgeting process, bringing ownership, Think Tank (where
every business is challenged on its business plan) played a significant
role in turning around the company and putting on the right track.
FY04 was kind of a watershed year for the company with a tall target
of Rs 1,000 Crore turnover and Rs 35 Crore in profit, which was almost
achieved with profitability being on target and topline with a small
shortfall of the goal. This gave a YOY growth of 20% in sales. This was
taken further with an initiative of P2P (promise 2 perform) during
FY05 with a target of Rs 50 crore plus profits. This transformation was
brought about by making people think big, instill sense of ownership
102 • CASES IN MANAGEMENT

and finally awareness of being profitable. (J. Ramchandran, Anirvan

Pant)

Commitment to processes, and innovation became the bedrock of

performance and changed the trajectory of company’s performance.

Phase 4: 2006 to 2015

In phase 4, company went on to diversify in to Eyewear and Precision

engineering leveraging on its strengths. Company continued with its
strategy of focusing on under penetrated market, research thoroughly
and enters the business with a big bang, to make a big change and
difference to the customer. Company’s strengths in attention to detail
and quality consciousness took it to precision engineering as an
offshoot of watches. Eyewear business focused on cosmetic and
technology for vision correction along with style and imaging. PED
catered to automation, aerospace and automotive industry with
capability to manufacture high precision components and subassembly
units for the industry. All the customers are multinational companies
in the space and it predominantly addressed export market with a
huge potential to scale up significantly leveraging capabilities built
over the years in precision engineering.

Operation Strategies and Execution Excellence

Company’s belief had been to achieve manufacturing excellence. It

also believed to produce only if it is faster and cheaper as compared
to anywhere in the world. In this direction Titan has a strategy of
sourcing its parts globally right from the early days whichever made
sense in terms of delivering more value to customer. It has been
sourcing variety of raw materials such as stainless steels, tool steels,
engineering plastics, tools, consumables, components and specialty
movements for its watch manufacturing through vendors spread across
20 countries from Asia and Europe.

Titan also believed from day one that it is imperative to bring down
the cost on a continuous basis to be competitive and improve
 CASES IN MANAGEMENT • 103

profitability. Further company believed that along with keeping costs

low it is equally important to launch products which are technologically
superior and innovative in nature. In order to improve Quality and
Productivity Company also worked on automation of select manual
and semi-automatic processes in movement and case manufacturing.
Company embraced various philosophies of Toyota Production System
(TPS) like, Just-in-time (JIT) manufacturing, Kanban and Total
productive maintenance (TPM).

In 1998 company exited the lower segment of clocks business. During

the year company renewed its emphasis on JIT manufacturing by
focusing on Quality, Cost, Delivery and Productivity. The greater focus
was on customer satisfaction and profitability.

In order to meet the demands of changing market dynamics,

smart sourcing was a must for the company. Fast changing
market scenario did put heavy demand on the manufacturing
investment which was huge. Nevertheless, company had to bite
the bullet and move on with outsourcing and changing the decision
to buy from make wherever it made business sense. The company
had to move on keeping cost, speed and quality in mind to be a
profitable at all the time. Company kept responding to market changes
swiftly by taking corrective measures keeping business realities in
mind.

However, the company’s focus on operational efficiency remained

intact. Company did put in place robust processes w.r.t. enhancing
productivity of people and machines, supply chain management
processes (vendor selection, negotiation, inventory control) and
believed in continuous improvement to retain leadership and enhance
profitability. Company managed to reengineer the watch
assembly process and reduced the cycle time to ten days from earlier
seventeen days. Also process cycle time of surface treatment for
watches was brought down to 1 hour from 62 hour through process
improvements.
104 • CASES IN MANAGEMENT

With respect to Jewellery business, initially company did set up its

own manufacturing facility which really did not work out owing to the
wrong assumption that company will be able redefine the Jewellery
business. Finally company had to rework their business model based
on guaranteed product quality, superior craftsmanship and exclusive
design. In the reworked business model company had to operate as a
retail business.

However, company brought in significant changes to the age old

practices of Jewellery manufacturing by focusing on building
partnership with craftsmen and standardizing and improving
processes. Company gave all together new life to these craftsmen by
organizing them and providing a very conducive work environment
and bringing processes and standardization to the table, while
craftsmen brought skill to the table company brought design, better
workplace, process approach thereby improving productivity
significantly and also pushing life style for craftsmen many notches
above. Company formed Karigar Parks around each T itan
manufacturing unit and provided them a very comfortable workplace,
which otherwise they would be working in a small place by squatting
on the ground. They could earlier work only for about 15 years after
they started working and now they can work easily for double the
period with less strain under better working conditions. Their
productivity improved and their earnings improved with the
intervention of the company by way of adopting processes and better
manufacturing methods. Craftsmen could lead much better life.
Karigars are remunerated based on the conversion of gold to Jewellery.
With the help of systems and processes their productivity went up to
1.5Kg/month/person while market average is of 0.6kg/mth/person.
There were three models of manufacturing which were conceived by
the company to reduce the operation cost by reducing Gold in WIP
and also reducing the risk associated with higher gold under process.
Three models are Made to Order (MTO), Made to Replenishment (MTR)
and Made to boutique Indent (MBTI) which is region specific. This is a
business specific effective way of materials planning and inventory
 CASES IN MANAGEMENT • 105

control for Jewellery business. This partnership model with Karigar

has worked very well providing inclusive growth and brought in
operational efficiencies to the table with a fair play and win-win
relationship by increasing their self-esteem and reducing their fatigue.

A few examples of continuous improvement are, company has

implemented two bin system of inventory control and has reduced
the process time to 3 minutes from 6 hours using black wax moulding.
Company’s capital to the tune of 60 crore has got released due to
these process innovations and forecasting frame has reduced to 3
days from 30 days brining it closer to JIT operation providing benefits
to all the stake holders by eliminating wastage in the process.

Metrics for Operational Efficiency

Operational efficiency can be measured by various metrics like

Productivity which is directly tied to business which can be further
measured by Gross margin (Revenue-COGS) which signifies the what
% of revenue goes to sourcing raw materials which go in the making
of a product. Higher the gross margin better is the leeway for a company.
Followed by this is the Operating margin, which is (Gross margin –
Operating expenses) this could be taken as EBITDA (Earnings before
Interest, Tax, Depreciation and Amortization) or EBIT (Earnings before
Interest and Tax). In order to get the full picture of profitability one
may take EBIT. Higher the EBIT better for the company.

Additionally, one would also look at operating cash flow (Net cash
flow generated from the business), expected to be net positive and
higher on a daily basis, which is most desirable and speaks of healthy
operations.

Further one would look at Inventory turnover which is an indication

of efficiency in inventory management which is measured by how
many times the inventory is turned around in a year to achieve a
specific sales, which indirectly measures cash to cash conversion cycle
and tells how fast your money is working for you. Higher the turnover
better for the business so that you are not blocking funds and working
106 • CASES IN MANAGEMENT

capital requirements will come down and hence the cost of doing
business.

Along with this one can also look at Debtor velocity or Debtor turnover
and Creditor velocity or creditor turnover which tell us how quickly
you are able to collect your money from the customer and how fast or
slow you are paying your vendors. Hypothetically if you buy on credit
and sell on cash your working capital requirements are funded by
your vendor.

Going forward one would also look at customer satisfaction score as

well as employee satisfaction score which is softer issue of operations
and raises early warning signals if there are any, which can impact
sustainability and helps to address hygiene factors related to
operations.

In this case data for the last 25 years has been taken and analyzed for
Gross Margin (GM), EBITDA, EBIT, Inventory turn and cash flow for
quantitative reflection of operations for Titan.

Analysis of Metrics (Refer Annexure-1)

Gross margin: Gross margin has always remained between 54% and
59% until 1999 where main business was only watches and Jewellery
was in its early stage with less variety of products and product range.
Subsequently margin has dropped up to 40% by 2005. It is also the
period while company has gone through its turbulent phase.
Eventually it has dropped up to 26% in the last ten years. This can be
attributed to highly diversified business as well as wide range and
variety of products and businesses like Jewellery having high input
costs and forming a significant part of the overall business.

Operating margin: Initially company operated at high margin of 15%

to 19% until 1999. Starting 2000 it declined to 13% and then to a single
digit of 8% in 2003 which was a turbulent period of operations and
went down up to 6% in 2005. In the next 5~6 years it was almost stable
with hovering between 6% and 8%. Starting 2011 onwards, it has
 CASES IN MANAGEMENT • 107

recovered to 9-10% and stabilized. This can again be attributed to

diversified businesses and having different margins. The dip and then
an increasing trend definitely prove the initiatives under operational
improvements having worked well.

Inventory turnover: It has been fairly consistent between 2 and 3 in

the early years which went up to 6 for some years in the early 2000.
Eventually has remained fairly stable between 3 and 4 as a good sign
of inventory management, which can possibly go up with the
reinforcement of effective JIT manufacturing practices.

Debtor turnover: It was good in the early years during 90s and went
down significantly post mid 90s to single digit and continued to be so
till mid 2000. However has seen highly significant upward movement
year on year from 2005 onwards, obviously contributing to better
working capital management and reduced cost of doing business by
reducing debtor cycle very significantly.

Total asset turnover: It has been very low in the 90s (between 0.8 and
1.5) and even up to 2004. Starting 2005 it has improved from 2.28(2005)
to 6.8(2012) very consistently year on year. However there has been
some decline in the last three years and touched down up to 4.Overall
asset utilization has been on upward trend confirming improved
operations and move towards excellence.

The trend analysis of all the operational metrics shows the business
cycle which Titan has gone through its life cycle of three decades of
initial growth and the decline then followed by recovery and
consolidation in the last decade. These metrics also reflect the
challenges company has gone through the years and the operational
excellence initiatives taken by the company and its effect on the
performance over the years.

Human Resources Policies and Practices at Titan

There are a number of factors relating to human resources

management at Titan Industries which make it one of the most
108 • CASES IN MANAGEMENT

employee-friendly organizations. It makes the organization an

employer of choice for prospective talents in the industry and is also
known as a company which stresses on creating a non-hierarchical
environment, focused on growing in-house talent, and at the same
time, providing a healthy work-life balance for their employees. In
this company, people are allowed to innovate and also make mistakes
and learn from them. Based on some recent research the authors
have been able to unravel the key HR practices at Titan, which are as
follows:

(http://www.tata.com/media/interviewsinside/At-Titan-people-are-
given-the-space-and-opportunity-to-grow, accessed on 5/8/2015)

HR Philosophy and Policies at Titan

The HR practice at Titan has focuses on five broad areas. The first is to
make sure that that the values and the philosophy of the company are
upheld. This translates itself into having respect for the individual
and giving people space to work, innovate and grow. Nurturing internal
talent and building the leadership pipeline is part of the succession
planning process in the company. The majority of the people in
managerial and leadership positions are, therefore, those who have
come through the ranks.

The second is maintaining healthy employee relations, wherein it is

ensured that there is a robust employee reward system and a healthy
relationship with the union. Third, in keeping with the company’s
growth ambitions, the right talent is brought on board. On average
the company adds about 1,000 to 1,200 people a year, which is a
reasonably large number (this is primarily at the front line).

Fourth, the company takes utmost care to see that their compensation
and reward and recognition policies are equitable and the differences
between the levels are not too high. It is ensured that the reward
systems are such that there are certain timed rewards and there is
also space for spontaneous rewards. The fifth is creating a good, sound
culture that withstands the test of time. The stated ambition of the
 CASES IN MANAGEMENT • 109

company is to generate revenue of Rs300 billion by 2018. This also

means that the company has to increase its size of manpower since it
is looking to grow organically.

Leadership Development at Titan

Titan believes in practical training and hands on approach or as
they call it a feet-on-the-ground approach to develop leaders
from within. The company believes that training contributes only
10 percent to one’s evolution and development, 20 percent
comes through coaching and mentoring and 70 percent is contributed
by on-the-job experience. People are given the space to grow,
the opportunity to take on multiple and varied roles and helped in
evolving into new ones. There is awareness in the company that the
person might not deliver 100 percent in the initial period, but it is
worth the risk.

Helping Employees with Ethical Issues at Titan

The company takes pride in having a good ethics management

structure. People who are seen as fair, logical individuals are on the
company’s ethics council, which is headed by the chief ethics
counsellor. The ethics function is run in a transparent manner and this
approach to ethics handling and robust practices has been much
appreciated in the industry circles.

The Role of HR in Fostering Teamwork and Creating a Culture

of Collaboration

The company has HR business partners who work with both divisions
and geographies. The role of the HR is to ensure that the line managers
are adequately empowered and equipped with different methods,
tools and techniques to get more productivity out of their teams. It
runs training programs in team development to help people
understand the composition of their team, how to handle the different
personalities in a team, to make them synergize better and work
harmoniously.
110 • CASES IN MANAGEMENT

Role of HR Department in Dealing with Employee Frustration

in Recessionary Times

During the recent recessionary cycle, the company instituted a program

called ‘Army of one’, wherein people were encouraged to contribute
towards topline revenue, and generation and implementation of ideas
on reducing costs and wastes. This has led to a lot of productive and
enthusiastic activity, consequently leading to a sharp increase in
revenue and control of cost and waste. The company top management
feels confident that they will exceed the set targets in the present
cycles and in the near future, also.

Recruiting New Talent at Titan

As a brand Titan is an attractive proposition and attracting talent is

easy for the company. The company is not on the list of top-end
paymasters, but it offers the excitement in terms of working in diverse
businesses, with brands that are well known and in a culture that
allows employees to operate independently, learn from mistakes,
and take on greater responsibilities.

Managers with a high potential often feel the need to move to new
areas of work this recharges their faculties, strengthens their own
abilities and realizes their aspirations. The company encourages
internal mobility as a means of building expertise, generating synergy,
and promoting self-improvement. Internal mobility reinforces the
professionalism, diversity, and competitive spirit at the company, in
addition to providing satisfaction and choice to every individual.

Titan Company has been rated highly by the Gallup engagement survey
- with scores for satisfaction, loyalty and advocacy far higher than the
average scores of Gallup India. The Company has also been rated No.1
in Retail category and 24th overall by Great Places to Work (2009), an
institutional study, in the Economic Times (http://titan.co.in/careers
accessed on 5/8/2105).
 CASES IN MANAGEMENT • 111

Managing Work-life Balance

Keeping in view that the younger generations like to maintain work
life balance, the company encourages people to have a healthy work-
life balance. It offers flexible working hours to help in the corporate
office, factories and most of the other regional offices. The company
has facilities like libraries, a good gym and other facilities to support
the after- and before-work activities of employees. The company does
not have the practice of making people work for long hours, and now
the current debate is on as to whether it should have the lights turned
off at 6.30pm (http://www.tata.com/company/articlesinside/
bIMtebXy6VU=/TLYVr3YPkMU= accessed on 8/5/2105).

Employee Engagement Process and Company’s Response to

Employee Feedback
The company has the practice of participating in external surveys and
has scored reasonably well. It also has an internal employee
engagement survey. Reports and scores are shared with managers
and all teams. The primary focus is on improving engagement and on
the action that are needed to be taken at the organizational and team
levels.

The company has an annual survey conducted by the Managing

Director’s office called ‘Tell me’, which has been in operation for the
last 10 years. The feedback is presented to the Titan management
council and then to all the employees. The feedback is analyzed and
specific action is taken. The managing director has a fixed time slot
every week during which any employee can talk to him about any
issue. Members of the company’s management council also reach out
to employees on a regular basis. The company believes in maintaining
a non-hierarchical structure, so that the top management is
approachable and also sufficiently open to feedback.

Other Welfare Measures in the Company

The company provides a host of welfare measures to help retain talent
in the organization such as, a crèche facility at the manufacturing units,
112 • CASES IN MANAGEMENT

gymnasium, canteen, medical, transport, etc. Loans for marriage, house

deposit allowances, an interest subsidy on housing loans, vehicle
loans, internal and external accident benefits, death relief fund, etc.
are offered to unionized and non-unionized employees (http://
www.tata.com/company/articlesinside/bIMtebXy6VU=/TLYVr3YPk
MU=accessed on 8/5/2105).

A culture of camaraderie is evident in the enthusiastic celebration of

all Indian festivals and special occasions such as birthdays,
anniversaries, long service awards, cultural programs, sports
competitions, business meets, etc. The company also extends medical
facilities and provides highly subsidized food to workers who are not
on its rolls, an act of kindness that goes beyond statutory
requirements.

Family members are also made to feel welcome at Titan by including

them in awareness programs, factory visits, family picnics, and
celebrations such as Father’s Day, Spouse’s Day, and Children’s Day
and community initiatives. More than 1,000 children participate in
the Children’s Day program each year to display their talent in drawing,
painting, music, etc.

Occasions such as, these, are used by the management to

communicate the goals and aspirations of the organization. Company
representatives also visit newlyweds at their residence to
congratulate them and give them gifts, a practice that has helped in
bonding employees and their family members to the company.

The company has also created a structure consisting of small group

activities, suggestion schemes such as SEED and Idea Plus, and cross-
functional teams to help employees in expressing their ideas for
improvement within the company. This helps employees to play a
more active and constructive role in their work lives. Employees are
recognized and rewarded for taking the extra initiative, through a
well-drawn out three-tiered recognition program, called as Moment
of Fame, Outstanding Titanian, and Dream Team awards. Titan has
also instituted a special recognition program for frontline employees,
namely, ‘Face of Titan’, ‘Super Stars’ and ‘Look for Stars’.
 CASES IN MANAGEMENT • 113

Apart from this, the company has formed several committees through
which employees can express their talents. These committees are
related to the canteen, safety, sports, cultural activities, etc. While
the sports committee enables sportspersons to participate in local,
regional and national events, the cultural committee hones
employees’ talent and encourages them to perform at special events
within and outside the company. Employees with a flair for writing
are encouraged to contribute to in-house newsletters such as NEWS
BOX, Glitter Buzz, Retale, Champions.

The company also has a strong culture of volunteering. Over 300

volunteers participate in blood donation camps, eye camps, AIDS and
environmental awareness, and other community initiatives. The
efforts of volunteers are actively supported by the management too.

Titan’s HR structure is designed in a manner so as to capture and cater

to the needs of employees at every level. At the local level, there are
regional HR executives and Unit Personnel Executives (UPE). The UPEs
are entrusted with the task of taking care of specific units within the
company and acting as a single point of contact for employees. The
UPEs communicate with employees, enabling deployment of welfare
measures and larger HR initiatives, and help in resolving grievances
and are also instrumental in counselling employees.

The UPE system, which is well entrenched within the organization,

combines with the biannual open house interactions to instill
confidence in employees that their opinions and views are significant
to the company. The open house interactions are typically presided
over by the MD and heads of key functions.

Employees are free to directly communicate with the MD via email or

phone. They can also approach other managers to discuss official and
personal issues. According to company top management’s view, the
company has a formal documented grievance redressal procedure.
Often the management forms committees which specifically focus
on understanding and resolving employee grievances.
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[email protected] is another formal e-channel, which encourages

employees to express their concerns and complaints in a non-invasive
manner. These are centrally monitored by HR. There are other formal
structures that deal strongly with issues such as ethical conduct, sexual
harassment, etc. In addition, the presence of a formal union, with
designated office bearers and executive members representing
various units, ensures that employee needs are addressed
adequately.

Employee Training Initiatives at Titan

The growth and development of its people is very important to Titan.

They have a formal structure to impart knowledge and skills through
in-house as well as external training programs. All categories of
employees go through an average of two to five man days of training
each year. There is a structured Talent Management process in place
at T itan, which is meant for grooming future leaders in the
organization. The program ensures that the organization has a
continuous supply of high-potential individuals. The focus is to
recognize high performance, address the aspirations of the talent and
provide opportunities for career growth, which will help them, take
leadership roles.

Training is also provided on stress management and yoga, personality

development and grooming, English and Hindi speaking, etc.
Additionally, Titan encourages its employees to participate in public
events, seminars and competitions by providing additional training
and mentoring. The company also encourages employees to take up
higher studies.

The Tata philosophy is quite evident in Titan’s approach towards its

employees. Titanians, in turn, have acknowledged the approach by
naming it ‘a great workplace’.

(http://www.tata.com/company/articlesinside/bIMtebXy6VU=/
TLYVr3YPkMU= accessed on 8/5/2105)
 CASES IN MANAGEMENT • 115

Based on the above, one can draw following conclusions for a company
to be successful in terms of strategy and execution and sustain
excellence and leadership over a long time horizon under changing
market dynamics.
1. Customer is always first and always be customer-centric and use
competition only to benchmark performance which will help to
lead business and lead customer.
2. Re-define the rules of the business to be a leader in the business.
3. Leverage on the human capital and their commitment to the
company.
4. Always approach holistically and focus on business excellence than
functional excellence and adopt boundary-less approach with
customer in the center.
5. Create an environment which fosters thinking freely and thinking
out of the box which in turn encourages creativity and innovation.
6. Build cross-functional teams to crack business problems to
encourage collaboration and seamless working driving higher
productivity and speed.
7. Continuous and quick re-alignment with ever changing market
dynamics and customer expectations and work to surprise and
delight the customer by thinking ahead of him.
8. Last and not the least, a host of well designed HR policies, with
needed up-gradations helps the company to reinvent the wheel
each time it is faced with challenges and keeps it going with the
support of a largely committed and involved workforce capable
of addressing challenges and issues before they cross the next
hump.

Authors’ Note

The case provides an excellent example of a company which has learnt

to survive and sustain in the midst of rising competition, especially in
the context of global and Indian business scenario. The case clearly
116 • CASES IN MANAGEMENT

demonstrates the philosophical bindings and a strong corporate

culture which has been derived from the Tata Group of companies
dominated by strong values for people excellence, innovation,
operational excellence and customer relationship management.

As would be seen from the various discussions and the data provided
in the case, the company has endeavored to innovate, survive and
sustain in the growing competition in the watch making industry. The
primary focus to herald this initiative has been possible by the
company by redefining its positioning, branding and creating necessary
internal levers to accommodate the same. Specifically, in its initial
stages, the company focused on the brand factor by positing an image
in the market that the product created by them (watch) is something
which has more than a utility value , i.e.: it is an accessory. By doing so,
the company deviated from the usual notion prevalent in the minds
of the customers and replaced the same with the styling factor closely
associated with smart products capable of projecting certain brand
value in the mind of customers. Secondly, this exercise of projecting
the product as an accessory also gave the company an edge over its
competitors by helping them to segregate the market according to
certain demographic factors to create a variety of products, not only
suitable for various age groups, but also keeping in view the cultural
fabric of the Indian subcontinent - creating products for specific
occasions like religious festivities, marriages, birthdays, etc. The result
of this was felt in the company’s ability to spin up profits through
market segmentation in a product line traditionally associated only
with the utility aspect.

In the second stage the company further enhanced this organic

strategy by further cannibalizing their product base by redefining some
of the product offerings as lifestyle products. For doing so, as seen in
the case, the company needed to reinvent the wheel by rationalizing
and innovating its entire operational processes, which in turn affected
and forced them to change the way they viewed the human factor
within the company. Thus, at this stage the company embarked on a
strategic change management process focusing on three key areas,
 CASES IN MANAGEMENT • 117

by augmenting the human resource by talent development, learning

and development initiatives and provision of specific career paths to
the people ; revolutionizing their work methods by renewing their
operational dynamics in terms of product innovation, tie-ups with
other companies for technology transfer and looking at ways and
means to rationalize the operational efficiency for maximizing their
output ; diversifying their business by offering multitude of products
by moving away from watch making to jewelry design, production
and manufacturing, the need to serve the customers, keeping in view,
the various needs across cultures prevalent in the Indian subcontinent;
leveraging their manufacturing capabilities to cater to the needs of
precision engineering components for industries like automation,
aerospace and automobile.

Thus, it is clear that this case clearly demonstrates the efforts taken
by a company which refused to accept the traditional methods of
embracing change normally seen in companies like it, which have a
strong presence as a historical factor. This ability to move away from
functional towards organic change process is a clear sign of a winning
company, and not afraid to diversify into different product lines for
its growth, survival and sustenance. Truly, Titan has lived up to its
name.

References
http://titan.co.in, accessed during August and September 2015

http://titan.co.in/company-profile, accessed during August and

September 2015

http://www.icmrindia.org/free%20resources/casestudies/T itan-
The%20Outsourcing%20Journey.htm

http://www.managementexchange.com/story/rap-tap-tap-tap-join-
titan-and-you-are-leader

J Ramchandran, Anirvan Pant; Redefining the rules-profitably, in

conversation with Mr. Bhaskar Bhat; IIMB, Management Review,
June 2006 (pages 137 to 148)
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Cover story, Giant Strides, Business India magazine, March 16-29, 2015
Issue

Capitaline plus database (accessed during September 2015)

Titan Industries: Tata group’s super-innovator; Bhanu Pande, ET Bureau

Oct 9, 2009

http://www.tata.com/media/interviewsinside/At-Titan-people-are-
given-the-space-and-opportunity-to-grow accessed on 5/8/2015

http://titan.co.in/careers

http://www.tata.com/company/articlesinside/bIMtebXy6VU=/
TLYVr3YPkMU= accessed on 8/5/2105)
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