An evening with Ms Suparna Mitra: Nurturing product innovation in the new normal.

On August 13th, we had a very insightful session by Ms Suparna Mitra, CEO of the watches and wearables division of Titan. The topic was "Nurturing product innovation in the new normal."

Ms Mitra is an electrical engineer from Jadavpur university and did her MBA at IIM Calcutta. She had stints in HLL, Talisma and Arvind before joining Titan. Ms Mitra is on the Board of Governors of IIM Calicut and was earlier on the board of Tata Power Solar.

Introduction

Ms Mitra started off by mentioning that Titan has a long history of product innovation. Despite the presence of many international watch brands in India, Titan still has more than 50% of the market share by value. Product innovation has been a key contributor to Titan’s success.

Ms Mitra pointed out that usually innovation is equated with specific departments such as design or marketing but in Titan, product innovation is embedded across the company. She pointed out that there are many sources of innovation and went on to describe each of these sources.

Through process

Innovations are possible through a structured process. Titan encourages employees to come up with new ideas and keeps building a pipeline of such ideas. There is an innovation council which meets every month to evaluate these ideas. There is also an apex body which meets once in a quarter. All the ideas on the table are screened, based on scalability, costs, etc. Titan plans its product calendar 12 to 15 months ahead. Currently, the company is designing watches for next year’s Deepavali season.

Titan has identified various areas where innovation is possible. These include materials, function, construction, display, market segments, packaging, customization, and sustainability.

Ms Mitra went on to give some examples. In case of materials, Titan has pioneered many innovations using ceramics and titanium. Talking about market segments, she explained that one could create watches for elderly people who have visibility problems. Similarly, packaging can be a very powerful way to innovate. Customization is also possible on the basis of various ideas.

Titan has various functions that together work towards innovation. These include the brand teams, design centre, integrated supply chain management, vendors, customers, subject matter experts and Academia.

Talking about customers Ms Mitra mentioned that a few years back, she had come across a very interesting customer at a store in Pune. He already owned some 25 types of watches and 50 watches. This customer was looking for a specific type of watch. Titan designed a customized watch for which he paid a large sum of money.

Vendors often come with their own ideas and their own innovations. Academic institutions can also play an important role in innovation. Titan has an innovation hub in IIT Madras where cutting edge work is going on in areas like plating.

Through internal aspiration

Some innovations happen on their own. People have an urge to do something and that is how the Titan Edge was born. It was conceptualised by a group of engineers led by BG Dwarakanath in 1998- 99. They offered to develop the slimmest watch movement in the world. It would be 1.15 mm thin, including the battery and used in beautiful ultra slim wrist watches. (A movement is the engine that keeps the watch moving and tells the time accurately.) Despite having the best horologists in the world, it took four years for Titan to develop this watch. Titan used a sapphire crystal than glass for this watch to make it robust and waterproof. Called Titan Edge, the watch was 3.5 mm thin and weighed just 14 grams. It was affordable and launched in May 2002.

Later by combining light materials such as Titanium and the slim movement, Titan built the lightest watch in the world called Edge Skeleton in 2015. Titan Edge won the Red Dot award which is considered to be the Oscar of product design in 2019. Edge was crafted out of a single crystal. The Titan Edge mechanical watch was launched in 2021 with less than 6 mm thickness. One of the models, cost Rs 1.95 lacs. It is a limited-edition watch. While the price may sound high, knowledgeable customers felt that Titan was charging probably half the price which other reputed brands might have charged.

Trend incorporation into product design

A watch is essentially a fashion product and projects a personality and lifestyle. Seeing the trend of pleats, Titans launched its brand Ruffles in 2020 -2021. Seeing the trend of animal prints, Titan launched Animal print in 2020- 2021.

Consumer at the heart of product design.

A good example is the Titan Raga. It's a women’s only brand that aims at staying relevant to the evolving Indian woman. It reflects the Indian woman’s acceptance of her own self as opposed to the earlier traditional, conformist image. Raga I am celebrates the perfection of imperfection.

As the Titan website mentions, beauty is never defined by symmetrical features or flawless textures. True beauty lies in natural imperfections. Raga I Am signifies this virtue of imperfections. Inspired by the most unique elements of nature and their imperfections, this collection features asymmetrical Swarovski crystals, unorthodox dials and cases, and reimagined straps and bracelets.

One of the messages in the marketing campaign was “to flaunt your flaws. You don't have to colour your hair. You don't need to remove your wrinkles.”

New age consumers

In the pandemic environment, Titan launched Titan Pay, its contactless secure payments watch in collaboration with SBI. There is a chip inside, which functions like a debit card. Any machine can be tapped, and the payment can be made because the functionality exists on the watch. So, there is no need to carry a card or a cell phone. Due to recent regulatory changes, sales of this watch have been suspended.

Fast track reflex 3.0 symbolises innovation at the intersection of fashion and technology. Thanks to the app ecosystem, there is a possibility of engaging with the customers on a regular basis.

Collaboration for innovation

Ms Mitra talked about Titan's collaboration with Masaba Gupta the famous apparel designer. Her designs are elegant, sensual, progressive, and feminine. Based on the ideas of Gupta, Titan has designed a completely new watch. The key elements of this watch are edge, quirk and contemporary. For example, the watch winds around the hand like a rope and is flexible but grips beautifully.

The Titan Raga-Masaba Limited Edition Collection is a symbol of individuality, designed for the woman who believes in her femininity and makes it her power. According to Masaba Gupta, “the Titan Raga woman is very elegant and the kind of woman I design for is very edgy. I think the woman of today is a blend of that elegance and edginess.”

Titan is also collaborating with Coke to come out with a new series of watches.

Innovation at economy price points

The ultimate test of innovation is whether customers are willing to pay a premium. So, it is more difficult to innovate at economy price points but not impossible. A good example is Sonata. Sonata exposes the quartz movement and has a high-end look. It is also possible to customize colours. However, at Rs 2000, it’s a real value for money.

Q & A session

On her inspiration and how she rose to the top

Ms Mitra responded that inspiration is everywhere. She is fortunate to have had a lot of supporters and mentors. She also got several opportunities. Ms Mitra negotiated the twists and turns in her career without overcalculating. She instinctively went with whatever she felt right. Ms Mitra has believed in hard work throughout her career. She's fortunate to have had the right company.

Ms Mitra also draws inspiration from customers. The Pune customer we referred to earlier, owns several factories which make OEM products for multinational companies across the world. He often travels to meet these customers across the world. During these visits, he wants to make a point that India is capable of cutting-edge design and world class manufacturing. That is why he prefers to wear a Titan watch. Truly inspiring!

On the role of Process and culture

Ms Mitra felt that both culture and process are necessary for innovation. With only process, innovation will not fly and with only culture it may be sporadic. Along with process and culture, investments are also required. Ms Mitra gave the example of Apple which has hundreds of engineers working on the Apple Watch. She also referred to some global companies which she had visited, which had long term projects stretching over a time horizon of five years and more.

On when innovations fail to take off

Ms Mitra gave a striking example of an innovation which sounded very logical and meaningful and seemed to have a large addressable market. But it finally failed to take off. This was the Sonata ACT launched in December 2018. It was an economy brand with a safety alert button aimed at the security of women. An app could be downloaded and the mobile numbers of the friends/relatives of a woman could be filled in. This would ensure that if the button was pressed in case of an emergency, a message would be sent to all the numbers. If the recipients had a smartphone, they would even get the GPS location. This product seemed to be very relevant for nurses, teachers, policewomen, factory workers who have to go out and work.

Strangely enough the product did not take off. Titan appointed a consumer research company to understand what the problem was. They found that most women members had already had major arguments with their family about going out to work. If a message went saying that there was a risk to them the family would probably tell them that there was no need to go out to work again.

Ms Mitra summed up this example by saying that women’s empowerment must be viewed in terms of the sociological background. As the research team talked to women, they found that they already had found ways to deal with the risk they faced. Some carried safety pins while others carried small knives. In other words, the Sonata ACT was a Draupadi solution (protective) to a potential Durga (women who could take care of themselves). That is why the solution was rejected.

On how ecommerce is shaping logistics

Ecommerce creates a shortcut to distribution. It is convenient and easy to order various goods. However small parcels are not efficient to ship, and it is more expensive. Which is why automation is needed. Ms Mitra referred to Amazon warehouses which are completely automated and use robotics and drones.

On the role of AI and other technologies in product innovation

Titan does not use these technologies directly for innovation. Mostly these technologies are used in ecommerce sites and for the purpose of analytics. But going forward, a lot of design can be done with AI.

Online vs Store sales experience

Our mobile phones have completely rewired our brains. Recommendation engines, search, three-dimensional view of the product and so on have made the online store experience very rich. In fact, physical stores can learn a lot from the online stores. Which is why there is some talk of putting QR codes in offline stores so that customers can scan and get the product details. They do not need a salesperson to explain the product features. This can be very useful in the pandemic environment.

Talking about the limitations of online shopping, Ms Mitra felt that it is only possible to see the product in an online mode. Feel, touch, smell, and size are difficult to verify in online format. However, there are new emerging technologies which are dealing with some of these issues.

Product innovation and the shrinking attention span

Miss Mitra admitted that this is indeed a major challenge, especially in marketing communication. Earlier, 60 second TV ads were quite common. But today in the first 6 seconds, we must communicate what we are. Consumers are far more demanding. We must tell them our story quickly. Otherwise, they may switch off.

On sustainability

it is not enough to switch off the lights when we leave our room. We must reduce fossil fuel consumption and the release of effluents into the environment. We must do much more recycling of materials such as brass, steel and plastics. By extending the battery life, we can promote sustainability. Awareness among people is helping the cause of sustainability. One dilemma for companies is that as they invest in sustainable solutions it may not always be possible to recover the additional costs incurred, from customers.

Teaching innovation in MBA programs

Innovation lies at the confluence of consumer behaviour, sociology, anthropology, form factor, economics, business, accounting, Science, and technology. It is impossible for one person to have skills in all these areas. So multidisciplinary groups are the way forward. Different groups can make different contributions which together create value.

On skill sets for MBAs

Ms Mitra felt that as technology becomes embedded in our daily life, the classical disciplines are going to become more and more important. Students should take interest in philosophy and music. More than technology, what is becoming important is making meaning, applying our mind and how to deal with the data. Meaning is becoming even more important. So more than technology, it is important for students to have a holistic understanding. Ms Mitra referred to former Titan CEO Xerxes Desai who majored in politics, philosophy, and economics. He had a holistic personality. That is how he built Titan around aesthetics, sensibility, and design.

On how Titan is leveraging digital technologies

Titan has ambitious plans for smart watches. This category has exploded in the last 18 months or so. Earlier a smart watch counted only steps and calories but today it can also measure oxygen levels. We can expect a lot of action in the years to come in smart watches. When asked whether watches or variables will be more popular in the long run, Ms Mitra said she was not very sure. Only time would tell.

We thank Dr. Vedpuriswar for bringing out the highlights in the form of this note