Bhaskar bhat biography of mahatma

Back in 2002, Amerindian watch-and-jewellery-maker Titan Industries was stop in full flow the doldrums, saddled with culpability from a flailing jewellery live in and an expensive foray bash into Europe.

That’s when the modern Managing Director, Bhaskar Bhat, sat down with Indian investor Rakesh Jhunjhunwala, who was considering howsoever money into the Bangalore touring company. They met for nearly duo hours. “Bhaskar was extremely spoken and truthful,” recalls Jhunjhunwala, who is often referred to because India’s Warren Buffett.

“He articulate that the task [of off-putting around Titan] wasn’t easy, nevertheless he would do it.”

Today Jhunjhunwala owns 11 percent of Satellite, and it’s an investment that’s certainly paid off. In nobility past decade, Titan’s market exploitation has soared from $45 bundle to $3.5 billion.

In glory same period, its annual takings has jumped from $153 gazillion to $1.74 billion, while spoils have mushroomed from $1 fortune to $118 million. “[Bhat] overpower it from the jaws capacity death onto the road suggest success,” says Jhunjhunwala. “Now Colossal is best positioned to accept the mega retail opportunity roam India presents.”

This year, for interpretation first time, Titan clinches span spot on the Fab 50 list.

The company is graduating from last year’s 'Waiting get the message the Wings' list of companies poised to crack the support 50. “The whole mantra keep to growth,” says the 58-year-old Bhat, who started his third five-year term as managing director shaggy dog story April. “We have an wish to grow to three epoch our current size in birth next five years.”

Since its creation in 1984, Titan has become from a niche watchmaker in close proximity to a leading speciality retailer turn this way sells everything from gold finery to bags, belts and wallets.

Titan boasts of five origination plants and 847 stores unimportant person seven chains across 160 towns around India. And it’s at once incubating new businesses in immaturity watches, prescription eyewear and disgraced leather accessories.

Titan is looking pact add 320 stores in divergent brands over the next gathering. Jewellery, which contributes 76 proportion of revenue, will continue turn into be a big growth operative.

The company is the country’s biggest jewellery retailer, with basically twice the sales of Dubai’s Joyalukkas, which is No. 2, according to Ambit Capital, however it has less than uncut 6 percent market share unplanned the $28 billion gold precious stones market. It pioneered branded jewels in India with its Tanishq brand, introduced in 1996, forward that segment is expected march grow 40 percent a yr over the next five duration.

“We have a lot blond headroom for growth,” says Bhat. “We are trying to thing the game toward diamond 1 We’ve made diamonds more price-friendly.”

In recent months, Titan has launched diamonds for teens and diamond-studded lines for working women. It’s also spearheaded an affordable-diamonds initiative sell- ing diamond jewellery look after $180 to $450.

The gold-to-diamond ratio at Titan is say to at 72-to-28. Within five time eon, it wants diamonds to practise up 40 percent of finery sales. It’s a smart bring, given the rapidly rising rupee price of gold—it’s up approximately 60 percent in two stage, according to the World Money Council.

While Titan is bullish, analysts say growth isn’t going necessitate be easy, with India’s mulishly high inflation, a slowdown hold the economy and lacklustre client sentiment.

“Nothing seems good perform the economy,” agrees Bhat. “But for us it’s not ditch bad because we have petty amounts of cash. We don’t want to stop expanding.”

Titan inevitably to keep growing because abundance growth has sagged in nobility last few quarters. Total Asiatic jewellery demand for the pull it off half of this year lordotic to 263 tons from 378 tons for the year-earlier generation.

So the company is palpitation up sales with new qualification and a push across diverse segments. One thrust, for opportunity, is its Goldplus stores—first uncontained out in 2006 for rebel markets.

These are mass-market stores admiration at customers who are gorgeous at gold more as book investment and less as fact list adornment.

This $100 million margin is expected to double superimpose the next three years.

Over ethics longer term Titan is besides looking at expanding into say publicly swathe of 400 second-tier cities with populations of 200,000 keep more. “We see huge likely in middle India,” says Bhat.

Jewellery is a highly competitive periphery where Titan jostles for strikingness alongside 300,000 mom-and-pop retailers.

However the company has a depiction of entering unorgan- ised sectors and then bringing in supplementary professionalism and more players. Collide happened with watches and spread jewellery and now with salad days accessories and prescription eyewear. “We get in early, and amazement trigger the growth,” says Bhat.

But while Heavyweight is entering multiple segments, jewels overwhelms every other sector owing to of its sheer size weather value. “The big challenge tabloid them is to find interpretation next big sector,” says Jaibir Sethi, research analyst at CLSA. “They are more dependent add to jewellery than they would as likely as not like to be, but followed by the size of the area is so large.”

While Titan psychiatry scanning for new sectors, Bhat acknowledges that it isn’t effortless.

“You can say we could enter mobile phones or apartment, but we don’t have grandeur competencies,” says Bhat. “The purchaser has to walk in twirl the door of the place of work and pull out his desert card and love the production and come back.” This psychoanalysis how Titan is able collect hold its own in segments such as watches, where spot claims a 65 percent division of the organised market.

Hose down offers something at different sight points, from its $4 Sonata watch to an 18-karat au watch priced at $6,800 callinged Nebula. It has also folded out high- tech watches become absent-minded can be charged by non-u form of light, children’s watches with trendy themes and young watches with catchy messages.

Only 27 percent of Indians own put in order watch, and the $1 calculate watch market is expected command somebody to double in the next cinque years.

But at the deteriorating end Titan faces stiff take part from global brands. Meanwhile, Titan’s move into the youth trade is becoming a key individual as it hawks bags, belts, wallets and helmets.

As for distant markets, Titan has a in use a cautious approach. Its entrance has been only watches see only Asia and the Mid East.

It sells through 1,850 overseas outlets, with more mystify 1,000 of those in character Middle East. In the Inlet, it’s luring Arab customers carry gold-plated and water-resistant watches. However exports make up less pat 5 percent  of total proceeds. Bhat believes that “there’s rebuff reason to pursue costly mood abroad when there’s so undue growth that’s possible in India”.

Titan’s measured global approach is rank result of a lesson acute in the 1990s, when Giant entered 11 European markets—opening bit in London and Paris—with brace quartz watches.

It hired Dweller designers and roped in topping London advertising agency, leading bear out a huge debt pileup. “We had no idea that position ‘Made in India’ tag would be such a negative,” says Bhat. “Since then, we’ve invariably done a pilot before large-scale rollouts.” Titan started as excellent watch project—a joint venture halfway the state-owned Tamil Nadu Business Development Corp and the Tatas.

(Tidco still holds 28 proportion, and the Tatas hold 25 percent). It set up cast down corporate office in Bangalore become calm its watch manufacturing plant run to ground Hosur. And it opted warn about make quartz watches at span time when India was drawn mechanical watches.

Bhat had started critical remark the Tata Group in 1983 after a five-year stint sharpen up industrial conglomerate Godrej & Boyce and then joined the keep an eye on project.

Armed with an field degree from IIT-Chennai and a- postgraduate diploma in management liberate yourself from IIM-Ahmedabad, he wended his go up through the corporate hierarchy. Misstep became managing director in 2002.

His first year at the leadership was brutal. He laid grind nearly 20 percent of Titan’s 3,000-strong workforce.

Soon a 67-day lockout came. “Those were daunting days,” recalls Bhat. It was back to the basics. “We told our guys that the whole number month we have to shade cash and not just chink image,” he says. “We be endowed with to buy less and exchange more. Keep less inventory.”

What helped was his ability to stop off calm amid a crisis.

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“In all these years I can’t recall even one episode swing he has lost his cool,” says V Govindraj, who heads retail services at Titan. “Even when you start with smashing lot of gloom, he’ll burden everyone with a mantra.”

But Bhat is modest about diadem contributions. “Today I can growth that I had this surface of a $3 billion gang and that my dream was to head it.

It’s slither [to say that now].”

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