Titan’s Suparna Mitra Clocks Success With Heart, Mind & Spine

Suparna Mitra, presently serving as the Chief Executive Officer of Titan Company's Watches and Wearables Division, commenced her tenure in 1994 as an international product executive, a pivotal role at the time. After a stint at Hindustan Unilever, she re-joined Titan in 2006 as the marketing head for Titan Watches, initiating a remarkable career trajectory.

With a deep affinity for Titan's culture and a passion for marketing, Mitra spent six years achieving milestones, including the relaunch of Raga and introducing sub-brands like Zoop, Octane and Purple. In 2012, she assumed the role of regional business head, overseeing Southern operations across watches, jewellery, and eyewear. Mitra's diverse experience culminated in her role as Chief Sales and Marketing Officer in 2019, navigating complex responsibilities and preparing for her current position as CEO of the division since April 2020, guiding Titan through unprecedented challenges.

In an exclusive tete-a-tete with BW Marketing World, Mitra sheds light on instilling leadership values in her team, nurturing innovation, overcoming challenges as a boss lady, gender equality and more.

Excerpts:

As a leader, what are the core values you strive to embody and instil in your team? 

There are values which are about the head, there are values which are about the heart, and there are values which are about the spine. So, the spine is always integrity. They're values of the Tata Group - those are values of the company, and we are known for that.

We practice it. We breathe that in and out. So that is something that is the backbone.

The second part is the values of the mind. These are things like ambition and vision - a lot of drive, a lot of innovation. I think the watches and wearables division has done fantastic innovation over the years in wooing customers and giving them irresistible reasons to buy.

And then there are values relating to the heart, which are about caring for people, supporting people, empathy, and inspiring performance. Those are, again, things that are common to Titan company - they are values that we all live by.

Certainly, I would like to believe that even in my work, in my business area, and my division, these are values that not just me, but all the leaders, and all the employees cherish these values and live by.

How do you intend to foster innovation and creativity within your team at Titan Company?

Innovation comes from many things. We see a lot of innovation in products, in technology, in marketing, in retailing. It is across the value chain that we can think of innovative ways of serving customers.

In this financial year (in the last calendar year), we also saw that the big levers of growth for the division are in smartwatches and premium watches. So, last year we did a bit of a reorganising and, now we have three verticals. We have mainline analogue watches, premium analogue watches, and smartwatches. So mainline analogue watches are the mother brand Titan, Raga, etc., which is growing well. Smartwatches are a category that has exploded in India in the last four to five years. And this year, we will be closing at about 55-60 million smartwatches. So that's a huge area of opportunity to sell more - we've created a vertical there.

As well as premium analogue, where the premium customer in India is raring to go, is just very ready for consumption, constantly upgrading. So when I'm thinking premium, roughly watches above Rs 25,000, and that is, again, the very big lever of growth. And then, of course, there's mainline analogue.

Coming back to the innovation piece, I think there's an astounding amount of innovation happening on the premium side in terms of watch movements, watch materials, and designs - because, as you can imagine, if we want to sell a watch at 50K-70K to Rs 1 lakh, it has to be something which is so stunning and so differentiated that it commands that price point. So that's what I think we are working on in the field of smartwatches also, there is a lot of innovation going on in terms of product as well as in terms of customer engagement.

Reflecting on your career, what challenges have you faced as a woman in leadership, and how have you overcome them?

I think the challenges are what I would say common to all womanhood. That's how it is, with nature or society - women are the ones who get pregnant. They will have children; they will have to go on maternity leave. They will have to come back. They will have to climb back into the thick of things. Also, as the children grow up, women tend to be primary caregivers in terms of schoolwork, in terms of illnesses of children, and everything. And also the elderly. So even elder care is a very big part of what women do and overall, running the household. I mean, there are a lot of very progressive men who are taking up some of these responsibilities in a big way.

But certainly, I think in general, Indian women tend to take the lion's share or a lioness’ share, if I may say so, of all these activities. Therefore, there naturally is a push and pull about career, about work. And there are also challenges which happen in many companies.

And I think we are particularly blessed in Titan that it is a very inclusive culture and by and large there is no real discrimination. People look at the work and then give the opportunities. I also prospered in this company through that only.

So it is that I think these are the challenges one has to work through, the difficulty and the middle management is when these life stages overlap.

On a slightly broader note, in your opinion, what are the most pressing issues women face in the Indian corporate world today, and how can they be addressed?

I think a lot of organisations need to put into place, both, policies and processes, to make it a level-playing field as well as address the culture issue, which is inclusivity, and give those chances, the development, the growth opportunities that women want and desire. I think this is something that corporate India is already quite working on. I mean, many companies are working on it.

We still have some way to go.

How does Titan Company support gender equality and the empowerment of women within the organisation?

In terms of policies - we have now in the last two or three years, introduced a lot of very supportive policies about women. I mean, there's so many there.

Even things like maternity leave, and travel for women with children under two years - we support, we allow both the child and the companion to travel along with the mother. There are a lot of things about making it easier for women in kind of ramping back from motherhood and, a lot of other travel.

So, there are a whole host of policies and processes which are making this very inclusive as also there is a lot of work being done in terms of changing the culture, making it more inclusive.

Can you share an instance (from any earlier experiences) where you personally advocated for diversity and inclusion in the workplace?

About three years back, I was reflecting on the fact that we are a large lifestyle company and most of our consumers are women. Like, all of jewellery is being bought by women. About half of watches are being bought by women.

Similarly, in all of Taneira, which is saris - the number of women in sales and retail, who are the people who are managing the teams that are managing the stores - the proportion of women was quite low. I went up to my boss, Venkat, who is the MD, and I just proposed this. This was early 2021, saying, why don't we look at a target of about 25 per cent in the next two to three years? So at that point, I think our ratio was maybe 10-11 per cent.

And then this became a larger thing. We started being more conscious about promoting women for these roles. We call them regional business managers, and area business managers.

Then, we are hiring from outside. We are asking for more women candidates and are happy to share that we have moved the needle. We still are some way away from 25 per cent, but we are moving it. And, it is helping, because I think when there are only one or two women, it's very hard for them in a room. If there are out of 40 people if 10 are women, it becomes normalised, and then it just keeps becoming better and better for everybody, including the men. I think they also benefit from having a more diverse workforce.

How do you manage the balance between your professional responsibilities and personal life?

I'm thankfully at a stage when my kids are grown up. But yes, it was quite a task trying to manage both. But I think I was broadly going by the principle that there will be times when your family needs you.

And that is so important that you have to ask and seek help from other people, bosses, peers, and subordinates to take care. And that happens not only to women, it happens to men also. So many family emergencies come up, health issues, so many things can happen.

There are times when work is very important, and at that time you have to seek the help of the family, including the children. And I have noticed when you seek help, people always step up, they always help you. But it can't be that it is always only one side or always only the other side.

I think as a woman professional, one has to make that call when you are prioritising what can happen for a particular period. It could be happening for a few weeks, sometimes maybe a few months; but after that, it goes back to normal.

What advice would you give to young women aspiring to leadership roles in their careers?

The one piece of advice I realised over a period is that the only person who's interested in your career is yourself. Everybody else will be happy, your parents will be happy, your spouse will be happy, your children will be happy, and your boss will be happy.

But if you want to go anywhere, you have to plan, you have to prepare, you have to build the ecosystem, and you have to aim high. And you have to have self-belief in saying that I can do it.

What message would you like to share with women around the world on this International Women's Day?

I think the message is actually about self-belief. I know a lot of people talk about self-love, but I feel self-belief and self-trust. Trust yourself.

You can do it. And in a way, I'm not even saying don't listen to other people. You can listen to them. It's a choice. But always listen to yourself. So there is a Shakespeare line, five words, which kind of encapsulates my life's philosophy, which is – “To thine own self be true.” Be true to yourself.