Exhibiting a unique class of clarity of thoughts, Harish Bhat, Brand Custodian at Tata Sons, on Friday elaborated on the complexity of achieving 10X growth for a business entity. At the first session of the three-day CIMCOM 2026 Conclave being held here, Bhat told the participating business leaders how they can transform a complex corporate strategy into an accessible roadmap and take the businesses to newer heights. Bhat gave many examples he came across during his career spanning over 35 years with the Tata Group to explain how the company grew leaps and bounds. To start with, Bhat narrated the journey of the ‘Tanishq’ brand of the Tata group company.

 

When he joined the jewellery business of Titan Company Ltd as Chief Operating Officer, branded jewellery business in the country was at a nascent stage. “In the early 2000s, Tanishq was facing significant losses, with annual sales significantly under Rs 100 crore. Today, its revenue is more than Rs 50,000 crore,” he said. Bhat further said that growth does come by itself. “In fact, it is a result of bold vision, sharp and differentiated strategy and sound execution. These are the powerful elements of disruptive growth,” he said highlighting some of the strategic planning the Tata Group company had adopted. “At the first place, the management had unwavering faith in the potential of the branded jewellery business. Further, the company had a clear vision. It derived a strategy to reach out to the customers and executed it to achieve the desired growth,” he said. It is important that Bhat had played a key role in several strategic moves of the company including the launch and nurturing of many iconic brands of the Tata Group, which eventually saw successful turnaround of the jewellery business. Following the ‘Tanishq’ success story, Bhat spoke about the legendary Ratan Tata who took over the reins of Tata Group in 1991.

 

“The conglomerate’s annual turnover was less than $ 6 billion when Ratan Tata took over. But when he retired from the company, the revenue grew to over $100 billion,” he pointed out. To make it possible, Ratan Tata put together a strategic plan. “Ratan Tata made the company fit for the future, encouraged modern technology in all verticals, crafted a strong and sharp group identity, developed a strong team of leaders, encouraged the leaders to develop growth plans, discouraged new avenues of growth and also acquired global brands. These are some of the bold moves that led to disruptive growth. But top of all these moves was the purpose and mission of the group defined by Jamsetji Tata,” Bhat said, concluding his session by highlighting that one should set bold ambitions, recalculate targets, develop strong leaderships which are hungry for growth. Ashutosh Paturkar introduced the keynote speaker and also proposed a vote of thanks.