Chief Sustainability Officer
Titan Company Limited
A Mechanical Engineering Graduate (Gulbarga University), and a M Tech from Indian Statistical Institute (Kolkata) have over 32 years’ experience in the Corporate Sector, predominantly in the Tata Group (Titan Company Limited). Had a brief stint in one of the automotive company in the South and then Completed my M Tech and Joined at Titan
Started my career in R&D (working over many electronic components research) and then moved on to Quality Engineering and assurance. Responsible for setting up the QE/QA labs, various inspection and QA standards for the product over a period of time .
Moved on to Head TQM (Tata Business Excellence Model) , where in several programs and change management initiatives such as TPM, TEI , 5S were established and run successfully across the company. Was responsible for the implementation of Quality Management systems , Integrated Management systems, Automotive standards and Aerospace standards in the formative stages of newer divisions and so on. Also was part of the transformational Journey (ASPIRE) across the organization
Pioneered many first in the company in all quality concepts, six sigma , BPR as part of the above journey
Led the divisions Business Excellence Journey and championed the first ever JRDQV award for the watches division , and supplemented efforts towards the Jewelry division as well
Management Representative for QMS, IMS, TS, and Aerospace standards , and get the organization / divisions certified to these International Standards. Accomplished TBEM Team leader having led more than 16 companies for the BE assessments in Tata Group and also the CII EXIM assessment for many years. Moved on to the Human Resource function as part of key Talent development program and a corporate Resource. Responsible for Corporate HR , ,L&D, TM, Job Evaluation, Gallup, GPTW, HR Tech, 360 appraisal programs to name a few. The role also included head of HR all ISCM units including the B2B business in the span of 7 years in HR was able to champion many new programs , the above names are a few of them. Was also a Tata Group resource for carrying out group level initiatives including Job evaluation for multiple companies
Created the function corporate sustainability during 13-14 reporting to the MD . The functional responsibilities include Climate Change/Sustainability, CSR, Safety and occupational Health, Affirmative action, Business Excellence , all of the above spans across the company . Some of the key accomplishments include.
Creation of a sustainability /CSR / Affirmative Action policy and strategy , and designing and driving many programs co creating with well-known and reputed partners including many associates of the Tata Trusts. Bringing in corporate excellence in creating the CSR strategy, creation of a well-established process for partner identification, engagement, due diligence and impact understanding, excellence in all aspects of governance as required by the company’s act, and building long term partner relationships over the decade. Creating innovative programs across all areas of CSR such as girl child education, Titan Skilling (Titan LEAP), Kanya Sampurna program, Design Impact program, Happy eyes (eye care), Integrated Village Development to name a few, which are long term partner ships. Pioneered the creation of an inclusive CSR policy a decade back (AA,Girl Child and PwD’s as inclusive in each of our programs)
In SUSTAINABILITY /CSR/AA over the past decade enabled the function to impact over 2.5 M lives !
Most recently pioneered the company’s long term strategy of ESG goals 2030 (named PRAGATI) , that includes well designed programs across environment , social and governance. Critical to this is the net zero and water positive goals
Creation of a well-designed structure around safety and occupational Health for the company, bringing in a long-term strategy, metrics driven and also constant benchmarking to be the best. First company to be certified under international management standards across all its operations mfg. and retail and offices. I also head the Ethics function as Chief Ethics Counselor with a full-time team over the past three years. Accomplishments include creation of many policies for Titan, including championing the POSH policy, setting up and institutionalizing process for Leadership, training and enquiry / consequence management, benchmarking and being the benchmark in many practices , Currently titan is rated amongst the top in Tata group in the space of ethics in both LBE and ACR evaluations . Core member of POSH committee as well. The company is first in establishing an independent Board governance structure for Ethics , including a strong internal structure . Have been an integral part of the Group Ethics office and also TMTC in terms of sharing knowledge and experience across companies.
Am an active key member of many committees both within the Tata Group that includes CII committee on CSR, Affirmative action, Skilling, in Southern region, Sustainability, AA, in the Tata Group, Chairman of IMC of All tribal ITI’s in TN etc.
Was also a founding member of the Tata Strive (the skilling arm of the Tata trusts) besides being a continued member of its working committee.
Over many years championed the cause of Business Excellence in the Company (including highest recognitions) as BE head and continue to do so. My passion includes sharing knowledge and capacity building in any of the above areas, across business and student community, and am active speaker in a few of the forums within the Tata group and outside. Have also worked closely with many NGO partners in their capacity building, guiding them in strategy etc.
Among many other recognitions, the single recognition I cherish, has been the one where I was awarded the highest civilian recognition within my company “Distinguished Titanian, the first person to be art of Titan Hall of Fame “The only person to be part of it till date