As someone who was fortunate enough to be involved with Titan in its early years from 1986 to 1992,the series based on a book written by Chennai-based veteran journalist Vinay Kamath, inspired a different kind of introspection. The deeper narrative was never about watches. It was about people.
Before HR policy was vogue
Long before terms such as human capital, talent management, inclusion, leadership pipelines, employee engagement and learning organisations entered management vocabulary, Titan was quietly practising them. The company’s early balance sheets focused as much on people as on financial results. The message was unmistakable and the greatest competitive advantage was not the machines, technology, or capital but the people.
A Lesson on the Shop Floor
Looking back, I see the journey through what I call the three-win model where business, people and the society win. One incident from the late 1980s remains etched in my memory. J R D Tata spent considerable time interacting with employees on the shop floor. Curious as always, he asked detailed questions. The employees responded with confidence and technical depth. Impressed, he assumed they were engineering graduates and asked where they had studied. Their answers surprised him. Many were first-generation industrial workers educated in Tamil-medium government schools. Yet, they were discussing sophisticated manufacturing concepts as experienced engineers would. JRD’s response was profound: India’s future lay in identifying such talent early and creating opportunities for them to flourish. That became the fundamental for Titan.
Under-Hire for Over-Performance
Nearly four decades before it became a recognised strategy, Titan practised what I now call under hire for over performance. The organisation never confused qualification with capability. Many young people from government schools and economically disadvantaged backgrounds were recruited. They lacked impressive resumes but it was overshadowed by their curiosity, resilience, discipline, dexterity and a hunger to learn.
One remarkable example was Alphonse, a former leftist union leader recruited into the HR team. His thinking was unconventional and always understood employees’ pulse. Halasyam Sundaram joined as a typist, but through his understanding of people and employee welfare, eventually rose to lead employee relations.
8% of workforce was differently-abled then!
The same philosophy shaped Titan’s approach to inclusion. At a time when employing differently-abled individuals was largely viewed through the lens of sympathy, Titan viewed it through the lens of capability. Jaganath, a pioneer within the organisation, challenged conventional assumptions about visual impairment. Through practical demonstrations, including performing tasks while blindfolded, he showed that visually challenged individuals could excel in watch-packing operations. Similar innovations enabled hearing-impaired employees to thrive in high-noise environments, while individuals with other disabilities found meaningful roles across manufacturing and warehousing.
Nearly eight per cent of Titan’s workforce comprised differently-abled employees, long before legal mandates, diversity targets, or CSR requirements existed. Women constituted sixty per cent of the workforce. The community around the factory received outsourced businesses like washing uniforms, making watch straps, etc. This ecosystem development was deliberate.
Perhaps the most touching example was Vijayalakshmi and Murali. Both differently-abled, met at work, fell in love and married. They could neither hear nor speak, yet built a life of dignity and purpose. Today, their children are highly accomplished professionals.
Leadership from Within
Titan’s commitment to talent development extended to leadership succession. In 1985, a young manager named Bhaskar Bhat was selected by Xerxes Desai as Titan’s first sales manager. In an appraisal written as early as 1988, Desai noted that Bhaskar was future MD material. Years later, that prediction became reality. Even more remarkably, Bhaskar himself became aware of this assessment only during his retirement.
Bhaskar Bhat, C K Venkataraman, Ajay Chawla and numerous others emerged from Titan’s internal talent ecosystem. The soft-spoken graduate engineer trainee Palani Kumar of 1986 eventually retired as Vice President after successfully handling eighteen diverse roles. Many who left Titan went on to become CEOs and senior leaders in multinational corporations.
The most important lesson from Titan’s journey is that people-centricity is not charity but a strategy. As we enter the age of Artificial Intelligence, this lesson becomes even more relevant. The future will belong not merely to organisations that recruit the most qualified people, but to those that discover and nurture native intelligence. In today’s language, many organisations speak of hiring for potential. Titan was practising it nearly four decades ago.
Personal Debt
For me personally, those six years became a lifelong leadership education. Over the subsequent three decades, I consciously adopted the same hiring approach. Many have gone on to become outstanding leaders. No symbol captures this philosophy of Titan better than the final wish of Xerxes Desai. He chose to have his mortal remains laid to rest in Hosur, amidst the very community whose lives he had helped shape. For him, Titan was never merely a company. It was a community.