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Saloni Meghani
Different
Tata companies with different objectives embraced the singular
path of innovation to achieve breakthroughs and triumphs.
Perspectives on how innovation worked wonders for Titan
For the timekeepers of Titan,
every second matters. As does every third, fourth or even
120th. In 2002-2003, for one, the company marked
its time with no less than 122 new models. These contributed
15 per cent of its revenue in the same year. This year the
share of business from recent designs — those introduced in
the last four years — is ticking its way up to a whopping
72 per cent.
To be so many steps ahead of their
time, Titan requires processes that hinge on split second
precision. Before such method was established there was some
madness recalls B V Nagaraj, divisional manager, Design and
Development. "In the '90s, we did not have product or
project management or a design studio. To request for a design,
an employee would make a sketch and throw it across to the
next department, which would make some changes on it and pass
it on to the next," he says.
"In the last decade, we have developed
strictly monitored measures that enable us to launch so many
models in a year," says, B. G. Dwarakanath, vice president,
Horology and chief technical officer. "Individually,
not all models are complex. But the complexity arises from
handling multiple products," he says.
Titan has not only to upgrade existing
models and refurbish current collections, it also has to revamp
entire ranges with new styles or shapes. But the greatest
effort goes into breakthrough innovations that create segments
by themselves like Fastrack and Edge.
The cutting edge
Technology has moved from being the-bigger-the-better to small-is-beautiful.
In the age of minimalism, thin is clearly in. Edge, the world's
slimmest commercially available watch, has been a self-set
technological challenge for Titan and a major differentiator
in the market.
While ideas for innovation often come
out of keeping a finger on the customer's pulse and an eye
on the current competitive scenario, sometimes the pendulum
is set into motion from inside the company. The Edge was born
as a challenge from the senior management. "The process
was slightly different in that Edge was not driven by the
customer. We set ourselves the task and presented the idea
to the marketing department," says P. S. Bhat, divisional
manager R&D.
In 1999, Titan took drawings of the
3.5 mm product it had in mind and showed it to Swiss suppliers
in Basel. "Most of them refused to make the watch. The
ones who agreed quoted exorbitantly. So we said, 'Forget it.
Let's make it ourselves'. The next year, when we showed the
same suppliers what we had manufactured they could not believe
that an Indian company had pulled it off," says Mr Nagaraj.
The phrase 'concept to reality' in this case can safely be
interchanged with 'dream to reality'.
Manoj Chakravarti, general manager,
Corporate Affairs, says, "There are thinner watches in
the world but they are museum pieces and purely of academic
interest. In the mid '90s ultra thin watches were in vogue
in the global market. But the products in this category were
not stable and could not withstand temperature changes or
other hard conditions. The concept emerged only to disappear
later. The Edge is the only product that has created a category."
To achieve what its predecessors did
not, team Titan put the watch through the rigours of its painstakingly
polished processes. "Till about six years ago, we used
to make the product first only to have the marketing team
come back and tell us later that it did not meet their requirements.
Now after deliberation, we formulate a clear-cut brief and
sketch," says Mr Nagaraj. The brief documented is rigid
and precise and ensures that the product meets cost, delivery
and styling requirements. There are cross-functional teams
that reset the clock hands in case the product development
strays from its course.
The Edge had to pass all the stringent
criteria. One of these was that while the watch shed inches,
it had to remain water resistant like the other Titan products.
This was one of the things that put it in a league different
from the other ultra slim models.
When the pilot lot of Edge was being
developed, the manufacturing department faced a number of
challenges. The movement thickness in itself was a trial by
fire as only three brands in the world that could make the
innards of the chronometers almost wafer-thin.
"We needed to develop a micro set of motors that would
consume less power and yet drive the set. We could not have
used the regular batteries. But smaller ones would also have
a shorter life," points out Mr Dwarakanath.
Then came the issue of how to encase
the device. For instance, the sapphire crystal usually used
for the watch glass is 0.8 mm. Titan had to grapple with how
to take this down to 0.3 mm. Stainless steel was the only
material that could be used for the cross section to make
the watches sturdy. "In making the product thinner, the
increase in complexity was not linear but exponential,"
says Mr Nagaraj.
The balance of a mechanism so fine
could verge on the delicate. However, the person buying it
would treat it like any other watch, not like a newborn infant.
Hence the prototype had to be subjected to the regular tests
— including dropping it from a certain height. Titan has about
36 stages of such examination before the technology is certified
wearable, over and above the tests each component is put through
separately.
The product that emerged through all
these gates was sure to be a Titan. "While the design
may have attracted the buyer, quality had to back it up. If
a product bears the Titan brand, the customer expects this
to be a given," says Mr Chakravarti.
Whatever the value proposition of the
watch the design and quality can't be mutually exclusive.
Definitely not for a product like the Edge, which has a ripple
effect on the rest of the brands under the Titan umbrella.
Such ranges are key image builders for the company.
Formula One
Before the Titan image was made contemporary with Edge,
it was made to turn back the clock.
 "In
around 1998, Titan was not a young brand. We were looking
for something to make it youthful. The Fastrack range evolved
as the young Titan," says Michael Foley, head of design.
"Fastrack was very exciting for the Design Studio. We
had to look at a set of consumers different from the regular
ones," he adds.
The bridge between the years could
be crossed only with design innovation, which is among the
biggest differentiators for the watch markets. "Watches
are accessories. They are driven by technology but they make
a lifestyle statement," says Mr Foley. It is for this
that Titan houses the Design Studio that takes care of all
its product aesthetics and retail identity needs.
In fact, it was the in-house studio
that recently redesigned the stores from regular counter based
ones with cubicles to open, completely visible ones where
there is nothing to separate the customer from the salesperson.
The department also acts as a custodian of a cohesive identity
for the company and shapes its signage. If you think that
such a studio is run on artistic whims and fancies, you might
be in for a big surprise. The Design Studio has also refined
the intuitive aspects of its competence with tidy techniques.
The big ideas are generated on common
ground between the brand management, technical design, and
research departments, the distributors and the advertising
agency. Every idea is then taken through the filters of market
gaps and consumer need, the value the company generates from
it and, of course, the relevance and feasibility of the project.
The brief gathers the scope of the project — how much money
is to be put into it, what price the product is to be sold
at and whether it is a single watch or part of the collection.
The designers let their right hemispheres
work after tickling the left counterparts with these brief
details. They then think along the lines of semantic clues
like flamboyant, romantic, shy, minimalist, sensual, arrogant,
or sporty. The brass tacks involve considerations of silhouette,
form, and colour. The second level looks at the texture of
the materials used and the third works out the detailed patterning
and other intricate elements.
In the case of the Fastrack range,
the design team used bright coloured dials for the first time.
Steel was the material of choice. "In fact, it was Fastrack
that popularised the white, bold look in India," says
Mr Foley.
Sapna Behar, also a Titan designer
says, "The watches had a rugged, sporty look. Also what
we did for girls had to be different from what we did for
the guys. In fact, in this category, the profile of women
was different even from those in other ranges. We took the
accessories route and based our ideas on long link bracelets
and pastel-coloured straps."
As Fastrack was a completely new idea,
it was put through a market feedback. It is only when the
first indent goes through this stage that the iterations are
carried out. "We researched it in Mumbai and Coimbatore
as one was a big market and the other small. Our earlier perception
was that the small towns would have different expectations.
But we discovered that youth in the metros lead the bandwagon.
Even in small towns there is a hub of fashion drivers who
set the trend," says Mr Foley.
Having caught the imagination of Generation
X, Fastrack started getting even younger. Says Ms Behar, "It
has had many avatars. It has undergone a reinvention every
year and we are constantly introducing new models," she
says. Foley adds, "We’ve now separated it from the umbrella
and repositioned it as a distinct under-20s brand even though
it did not start out like that. It has, in fact, now become
the basis for extensions in new categories." Jewellery,
sunglasses and other personal accessories, which are not time-based
products, have also been launched under this collection.
The company has also decided to aid
the will power of its customers with its personal body and
health accessories. It has launched a pedometer to help them
lose weight by keeping track of calories burned. "This
was a very prestigious project. We worked on it with doctors,
food technicians and nutritionists to monitor input and output
of calories," says Mr Dwarakanath.
So the wrist is not the only place
you find a Titan. You will find it as outdoor clocks in public
spaces. Or on dashboards of the world's grandest automobiles.
And considering there are so many products enticing you, you
will definitely find a Titan on your mind.
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Uploaded on September 3, 2004 
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