Connect The Dots

by Rashmi Bansal

sparse

Ten years ago, there were 4 stalls in Crawford market selling exotic vegetables, now there are 40.

In 1997, Trikaya agriculture was a single farm near Talegaon, of 55 acres.

Today it has 225 acres under cultivation across 7 farms. The majority in and around Pune, but also 12 acres in Ooty and 22 acres in Konkan.

The ‘field marshal’ is Hari Manje Gowda - whom Samar has known since they were both 13.

wink

Because it’s the right thing to do and because, money is hardly the force which drives Samar.

“It was never about buying my own flat quickly,

or salting away money so my kid can study in the US.

Anything I earned was pumped back into the business. I keep buying m...

gourmet foods

dearth

The first two years, you’ll be learning, you’ll encounter problems - completely unexpected ones.

Find your niche and find what excites you.

Sow good ‘seeds’ and you will reap rich dividends.

intrigued.

cacophonic

oasis of peace.

barracks

Let a kid think for himself; he will find his own solutions!

NID was a once in a lifetime experience. It was about learning and unlearning, yet retaining the essence of who he was through it all.

NID was a bit of a struggle. What’s more, Abhijit felt like a cultural misfit.

Everything was so Western. There was no connect with the user - the aam aadmiof India.

baffled

The auto industry is too slow, it takes 8-9 years to develop a product!”

Instead, Abhijit found himself at Titan, working on wall clocks.

lacquer

Abhijit went and lived among the artisans, and observed them carefully.

The hard work paid off when this diploma project with its uniquely Indian inspiration won second prize at an international design competition.

it wasn’t a mere showpiece - over 4000 of these clocks were sold. The company was thrilled and offered Abhijit a permanent position.

Design was a support function; the company was led by marketing.

dimly

“I don’t give so much importance to skills - they can be acquired! What you need is the right attitude.”

“A watch is very small, very precise, it’s very personal because you wear it on the body.

Abhijit got his big break in 2002 when he produced the ‘Heritage’ collection.

acclaim.

introduction of ‘Raga’, Titan’s range of watches for the Indian woman.

“We decided not to be a me-too brand. We will celebrate the Indian jewellery through ‘raga’ forms - no one in the world will have those kind of watches.”

subtlety

“Then we did a collection called Black inspired by ‘digital life’.

“Generally designers are asked to present many options. But here if they wanted four, we would present five designs. That is the confidence I gave my team - we have followed a process and we are sure of what we are doing.”

Fastrack was transformed from a fuddy duddy range into an iconic youth brand.

Within Fastrack there were fun collections like ‘masala’ using East-meets-West style of an MTV.

At the other end of the spectrum the team produced Nebula - a range of luxury watches.

“Using gold and diamond alone will not sell the watch. You need to give each piece some meaning, an emotional connect,”

Design inspiration comes from immersion. For the Heritage collection, that meant visiting palaces and absorbing the influences.

Then picking one key element - like the jharokha from Hawa Mahal to communicate the essence of Rajputana.

façade.

if it is a ‘corporate collection’ you will put Roman numbers on the dial!”

“It is a huge investment in terms of tooling. We need the right specifications, and you have to keep pushing manufacturing to deliver exactly what you want. Things they’ve never done before! ” In any other place the designer might be told “Sorry, not possible.” Here the impossible had to be made possible; the company’s future depended on it.