LEADERSHIP IN TODAY’S time is all about navigating myriad disruptions and challenges and bracing oneself to deal with the unknown. So, when Titan Company managing director, C.K. Venkataraman, says he has seen growth coming ‘joyously’ and ‘smoothly’ during his 35-year journey at the firm, it feels like a whiff of fresh air.

Fondly referred to as C.K.V, his first leadership role in the company was in 2005 when he became the COO of the jewellery brand, Tanishq. From then until now, the country’s biggest lifestyle company has grown from ₹1,000 crore to ₹57,143 crore in net sales. “The growth has come without any issue of work-life balance or huge levels of stress. It has been an exceptional growth, and that’s rare. Usually, one needs to pay a price for this kind of growth,” he says with immense satisfaction.

One wonders if the reason for this ‘stress-free’ growth is because Titan built a large part of its business when there was hardly any competition. Titan was India’s most dominant and trusted organised watchmaker for a long time. Similarly, Tanishq was the first major organised jewellery brand that offered certified products across the country.

But the last decade has been all about competition, unprecedented, from all quarters. “We did have a first-mover advantage, but we also realised that making businesses successful and sustainable takes much longer than one thought. It’s not easy. So, we decided to be patient and not be irrational,” C.K.V. says.

The 65-year-old is all set to pass the baton to his mentee, Ajoy Chawla (currently, Tanishq CEO), by the year-end. C.K.V.’s greatest pride is his team’s ability to spot opportunities and build brands organically, unlike most global lifestyle companies that have grown on the back of acquisitions. Be it growing Tanishq into a ₹46,571-crore brand or creating sari labels (Taneira) or the eyewear business, Titan Company has stuck to one template — making brands out of highly commoditised categories.

The strategy has paid off. In the last three years (FY22-25), Titan Company has seen 26% net sales CAGR and 15% PAT CAGR, according to Capitaline data. The surge was aided by its premiumisation strategy. But then, what has been most satisfying for C.K.V. in the last few years? Pat comes the reply — the international growth of Tanishq and the premiumisation of the watch business. The company’s earlier foray into foreign territories had been a failure and it had to shut operations. “We were pre-occupied with domestic, and didn’t have leaders of a certain stature who thought and breathed international all the time,” says C.K.V. Spinning the international business into a separate unit was the game changer. Tanishq now has stores across the U.A.E., Singapore, and the U.S. Its ninth store in the U.S. opened in Orlando a few weeks ago, and the eureka moment was a Colombian couple buying a fine piece of jewellery on the day of opening.

“We are so happy since we have been wanting to expand our reach outside the diaspora. All our stores are located in multicultural localities; they are visible to every nationality. Internationalisation of Tanishq is a big satisfaction,” he adds. The watch business, meanwhile, grew 17.2% year-on-year to ₹4,576 crore and registered a 39.3% Ebit growth, on the back of the company’s premiumisation strategy.

A few months ago, Titan launched its most expensive watch ever — the ₹40.5-lakh ultra-luxury Nebula Jalsa. The limited-edition series, crafted in 18-carat rose gold, has a hand-painted depiction of Hawa Mahal in Rajasthan’s famed miniature painting style. It is also a tribute to the Tourbillon watch movement, mastered by Abraham-Louis Breguet over 200 years ago.

Does Titan plan to position itself as an uber-luxury brand? Not exactly. But there is a plan to premiumise Titan watches across the board. Even Sonata, its mass brand, has premium variants. So does Fastrack. But more importantly, the idea is to reimagine the analog watch. The watch business suffered several quarters of tepid growth with the entry of smartwatches. Titan did try to focus on smartwatches and wearables, but still struggled. That’s when it realised that the only way to steer the ship away from turbulence was to do what it did the best: create great analog timepieces and make each watch a fashion statement.

“We got into a new belief in the analog category. Today, I chose this (he flaunts his blue Titan Edge Squircle) because I was wearing a black jacket and jeans. I would have worn a bright yellow strap had it been some other kind of occasion, or if I wanted to show another side of me. Analog watches are an expression of one’s personality; there are multiple roles of an analog watch,” says C.K.V. He believes smartwatches and wearables have limited lives. “Even a phone with which we are so attached, we upgrade. An analog watch has emotional settings. It often comes at a special occasion or time in life and we preserve it. It can’t be compared with smartwatches.”

The rationale was to offer consumers a really good quality analog watch they couldn’t refuse. The thrust was on product innovation and fresh looks all the time, using material, movements, calibers and different mechanical technologies. The watchmaker also upped its retailing game. Titan and Helios stores were upgraded. A luxe offering of Helios followed. Did the mass-market allegiance to smartwatches have anything to do with the premiumisation strategy? “The belief in the premium journey of the country is what drove us,” C.K.V. says.

“The macro outlook for India in terms of the top two income segments growing from 13% in 2020 to 26% in 2030 means the number of such households and the per capita of those households is also exploding. If people are spending ₹5,000 on eating out, ₹10,000 on a bottle of wine, ₹4,000 for a shirt, then why not ₹25,000 for a watch? But what you offer in the ₹25,000 price point needs to be exciting, stunning, and different,” he adds. “The thinking has been about accessorising and investing in design, engineering, and manufacturing. We have also upgraded a lot of our manufacturing capabilities, vendor partnering.”

While the ₹25,000-45,000 price point is its current sweet spot, the brand is also looking at upping its game in the ₹2-4 lakh price point, considered entry level for most luxury brands. Here, the thinking is that of a company CEO who operates in an emerging market: provide the value that a ₹10-lakh luxury watch would provide at ₹2-3 lakh. “If we create products for ₹2.5 lakh or ₹4 lakh, but intrinsically, they have materials, calibers, dials, water-resistance, sapphire crystals — all which any international brand gives for ₹10 lakh — it will work,” he quips.

Though a distant second to Lenskart in market share, premiumisation has helped Titan’s eyewear business grow in value, C.K.V. says. The company has also launched Runway, a premium multibrand store for sunglasses. “Here, we sell Cartier at ₹1,00,000 and Ray-Ban at ₹7,000-8,000.” He terms such moves as seeds the brand has sown to become a “full-blooded lifestyle products company”. Titan can afford to sow such “seeds” because of its deep pockets, courtesy Tanishq that contributes 80% to its business. “It helps us to seed these new businesses, have patience, have a long-term view of viability, profitability without being irrational.”

According to C.K.V., his biggest win as Tanishq CEO, is the jeweller’s emotional connect with consumers. “Most Tanishq customers when asked what it is that they are wearing, would say, I am wearing Tanishq. In every other case, they will say, I bought this piece of jewellery from a particular store. Tanishq is a brand with not just functional benefits, but emotional pay-off for the customer as well.”

When C.K.V. took over Tanishq in 2005, it was struggling to stay afloat in the midst of thousands of jewellers across the country. The challenge was not just to build a brand proposition in a highly commoditised category, but also to get consumers to emotionally connect with the brand. He recalls campaigns where the brand celebrated second marriages to the more recent one where it recognises what it takes for a young mother to get back to work post maternity. “Other brands are making beautiful, good quality jewellery. Their practices are transparent too, but this thing of ‘my brand’ isn’t there. We have been at it from day one, whereas, other brands have relied on celebrities giving assurances rather than building an emotional connect,” he says. The company has used the same template to scale its eyewear business and Taneira.

“C.K.V. carries none of the airs of a corporate titan — he still cycles to work, lives in the same house he has for 30 years, and exudes an unhurried calm. But beneath that quiet exterior is a laser sharp mind — unwavering in focus on the customer, the product, and the bottom line,” says Alpana Parida, founder, Tiivra Ventures Pvt. Ltd, and former marketing head, Tanishq.

While eyewear has been a moderate success, C.K.V. admits scaling Taneira hasn’t been easy. Despite its cultural similarities with the sari business, jewellery commands greater attraction because of its investment potential. “Our decision to get into Taneira was driven by similarities with Tanishq. By the time we really got success in Tanishq, it was about 7-8 years, but Taneira has taken longer than what I myself thought.”

“We have 80-90 Taneira stores. But for that number, the scale is less. The per-store sale is less and hence, there are viability and profitability challenges,” he adds, assuring that the company is at work to fix the impeding factors. Though Titan Company’s portfolio of new businesses (perfumes, ethnic wear, and bags) is fast growing, he feels given the company’s scale they could have grown faster.

But a few businesses outperforming the others are a way of life in any organisation. C.K.V. is pleased with Titan’s premiumisation journey in the last few years. “It’s a string of pearls or bouquet of flowers, where jewellery dominates. Watches will never be as big, but it’s a super prestigious category. We touch the customer with various products and delight her.”