I learnt to love what I did and stopped chasing what I loved: Titan MD

C K Venkataraman, MD of Titan Company, did fancy being a National Geographic photographer in a jungle, but that didn't last long.

You would expect most people to gain weight under lockdown, but C K Venkataraman, managing director of Titan Company, has in fact shed the kilos in the last one month — a good 7 kg, no less. “How did you do that?” I ask as we kick off our video call over coffee.

He’s at the Titan office in Bengaluru, while I’m in Mumbai. A combination of intermittent fasting over four months and regular exercise is what did the trick, he says. He does miss the breakfast savouries like masala dosa, though, “but one gets used to it after a while,” he adds. I guess the lean, disciplined executive doesn’t like sweets, but am corrected. He does, more than anything, says Venkataraman, who is vegan: “Kaju katli, son papdi, Agra petha, laddoo… anything without milk is great.” I throw in rosogolla, a Bengali classic, and Venkataraman nods in what can only be described as a high-five amongst those who have a sweet tooth.

For one in a business that largely deals in gold and diamond jewellery — luxury categories, if you will — Venkataraman’s formative years were absent of money to buy them. His grandfather was a wealthy, renowned lawyer, while his father was an HR professional. They lived in a palatial joint family home in Coimbatore, the Tamil Nadu city where he was also born. But thanks to debt and hard times, the family ended up selling the home.

“It was like a knife would go through me every time that I later saw the house,” he recollects.

For Venkataraman, who was barely 16 then, the lessons on transience of fame and fortune in life were well learned, and so the young man went on to get a BSc in mathematics from Coimbatore and then a degree from the Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad, India’s equivalent to the Ivy League business schools in the US, in 1985.

He did fancy being a National Geographic photographer in a jungle, but that didn’t last long.

Instead, his 30-year journey at one of India’s best-known jewellery retail chains included becoming marketing manager, head of Titan SBU and then CEO of Jewellery before moving into the corner office after Titan’s long-time boss, Bhaskar Bhat, retired.

Venkataraman, who loves singing and cooking, says that several years ago, a headhunter called him and asked if he wanted to move to another firm. His answer: “I have the best job in the world at the best company; so why would I move?” The headhunter then asked him how could he know that there wasn’t a better job waiting. Venkataraman replied with a counter-question: How did the recruiter know this wasn’t the best job for him?

Black coffee arrives for Venkataraman as does my black tea with ginger. “I’m working from office almost every day,” he explains, citing how the expanse of the Titan office campus (it’s 200,000 square feet) with its low density of people allows for that. It’s also about keeping the wheels turning. “How do we expect customers to come to our stores if we don’t go to the office — with, of course, all safety in place?”

Has he travelled of late? I’m told he hasn’t, but will be going to Delhi to help his younger daughter set up an apartment. He has two daughters, both of whom are lawyers.

So what does money mean to the head of a jewellery company? “Money or objects don’t bring you memories. It’s your relationships and people who bring those,” he says, adding that that’s what continues to define him. “It’s the chance to talk to the guy on the road who sells tea that’s more fun than the Sunday brunch at the Leela, which I find boring. So it is dramatically liberating to find out what I can do with my funds.”

For a man who got his first telephone connection at home when he was 32, Venkataraman is today wildly successful, given that he runs a company the market cap of which is around Rs 100,000 crore. He could perhaps go back in time and buy the house his grandfather built. That, of course, doesn’t entice him anymore.

He says his friends seem surprised when they learn that he travels by train regularly and goes on business to cities like Asansol, West Bengal. “Their idea of an MD is hobnobbing with bankers and hanging out at Bombay House as opposed to Ganganagar in Rajasthan, which is what I do all the time. But that’s the connection I keep with ‘Bharat’, which keeps us relevant.”

Many leaders draw inspiration from global business figures such as Steve Jobs, Lee Iacocca or Warren Buffett. For Venkataraman, however, the top learnings came from four earlier Titan bosses: the importance of humour and being articulate from Titan’s first MD Xerxes Desai; the value of time from Jacob Kurian; how to be blunt and tough and make decisions without being sentimental from Titan COO Bijou Kurien; and the power of empathy from Bhat.

Titan ought to have a great near-term run in the future, given that gold prices are on the upturn. I ask if he sees the precious metal slowing down? “The answer I will give you on the gold prices is the same as in the last 15 years, which is that I have no idea. But it is something that makes people feel good in good times and even better in bad times.”

He adds that he does see wallet share and expenditure shift to jewellery, given that there will be no 1,000-person weddings in the near future and that cash will be saved.

My tea is done as is his coffee. As we call it a wrap, I can’t resist asking if he would do anything differently. He answers that with a philosophical smile: “At a certain point in life, I learned to love what I do and stopped chasing what I love.”