What does it take to champion OKRs in the first 90 days?

Business Head - Jewellery International, Titan Company Ltd.

If you think about Fashion accessories - be it in Jewelry, Watches, Eyewear, or Fragrances, Titan comes top of mind. Part of the TATA group, and one of the most respected companies, they truly know how to get strategy and execution right.

Tune into this conversation with Aditya Singh, Business Head - Jewellery International, Titan Company Ltd., as he shares his experience on championing OKRs for an enterprise. He also talks about:


📌 The changes that OKRs bring to an enterprise's strategy execution

📌 How OKRs helped Titan adapt to changing business priorities

📌 Misconceptions around creating strategies and strategy execution


Tune into the conversation now!

Vidya Santhanam:

Hi everyone. My name is Vidya and I’m the CEO and Co-founder of Fitbots. Welcome to another exciting episode of Goal Getters. This is where we get to speak to the best strategy execution practitioners and leaders. Now, if you've had that special occasion in your life and you're thinking about the dazzling jewelry to buy for your loved one, I'm sure you would have Tanishq on top of your mind. With over 400 stores across 240 cities, Tanishq has redefined how consumers buy jewelry over 29 years. And more so, they've gone international in 2023, with over 18 stores being opened across the globe. We're absolutely delighted to have with us in conversation with Aditya Singh, the Head of International Business, Jewelry, for Gulf and South East Asia. Aditya, a very warm welcome to Goal Getters.

Aditya Singh:

Thanks, Vidya.

Vidya Santhanam:

You know, I must say, when I was speaking with you and looking at your LinkedIn profile, I noticed that you're a gold medalist in college and then you joined the Tata Group very early. So tell us more about your backstory over the last 18 years.

Aditya Singh:

Sure. So gold medal. Probably what happened, when I did my graduation. Very few people know that I'm a graduate in agriculture. From there, when I moved into the MBA program, that's where I kind of found my mojo that this is really what I wanted to do. So, it's a very funny story. In the first year, the first term paper was of Marketing 101 like any other B-school. I was able to secure 7 out of 20, and I was still the topper of the class in the paper. A good chunk of the class was actually with negative marks. That's when it gave that confidence, that this is my field. And the rest continued with a lot of support from my peers in the batch and a lot of support from my professors.

But yes, you are right. I started with the Tata Group from campus and I have always been with the Tata Group. But the group is so diverse that over the last 18 years now, I've worked across some 7 to 8 different companies within the group, spanning across all five different sectors. I started in the Chemicals and Fertilizers space, moved into Power, then moved into the Communications and Telecom space, and then came into the Retail now. With Titan alone, it's been ten years but the streak of doing different kinds of roles has continued even within Titan.

I started as the Region Business Head for Tanishq for West region, which included the states of Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh. And I was completely new into retail, as you would know, because before that I was with TCS and link sales for North Europe. So the whole B2C space, the retail space, the jewelry space was completely new for me. But that's the beauty of Titan and Titan's leadership.

They were not fixated on only recruiting from one industry or one kind of background. That's how we have actually built a very, very diverse team in Titan. I came in, I learned from my peers and got a lot of support from the Titan leadership. And after a couple of years of being in that role, Titan signed this joint venture with Montblanc Germany for setting up of exclusive retail set up in India. One of my leaders at that point in time (who I was reporting to), was moving as the new business head to take care of the divi, and he asked me to come along with him to handle the retail. So that was one transition.

And then when Tanishq started thinking about going international, that was a kind of calling, saying, "You have had international exposure and you've had the jewelry experience. Now is the time to put all that together and take the brand to the world."

Vidya Santhanam:

Extraordinary. I just love what you're saying because the eclectic experiences that you've actually gathered is going into transitioning you into the current role that you're playing. So wonderful. Thanks for sharing that.

You know, many of our listeners are across the globe and probably want to know more about Titan and Tanishq. So could you share a little more about the impact that you're making?

Aditya Singh:

Sure, it's a pleasure always, talking about the brand that you work for. Very few people know of Titan as a part of Tata. A lot of Tata Group companies come with like Tata Motors and Tata Steel, it comes with the Tata logo in the name first. I mean, typically when we move and talk to people outside of India, they don't immediately connect Titan as part of the Tata Group. So that's an effort, when we talk to any authorities or any corporations across the globe, to educate and inform them that Titan is actually part of the larger Tata group. And then, suddenly, the perspectives change because there's a huge respect for the Tata Group, not just in India but across the world.

Now then, within Titan: People first associate Titan with Titan watches. So a lot of people, even in India, don't necessarily know (and that includes my family till the point I joined the company), that Tanishq actually belongs to Titan. It's one of the brands of Titan Company. Today with a lot of pride, Titan watches itself as the world's fifth-largest watch manufacturer by the number of units we produce. In jewelry, it's one of the largest retail chain in terms of the branded jewelry, and that's the company that we come from.

One thing I do want to emphasize here is Tanishq is one of the very few players across the globe who has a completely vertically integrated setup. We have right from, let's say, a team that looks into the trends research, what are the new trends coming up for the next season, the next year, and how is the trend shifting? From there to market research, to bringing those trends into our design. We have our in-house Design Excellence center. From there to the production setup, then the Retail setup, and then Aftersales support. The entire chain is being done in-house. Of course, we work with partners for various steps, but having a control on the entire chain adds a lot of capability within the organization. Very few companies in the world can boast of that kind of integrated value chain.

Vidya Santhanam:

Fantastic.

Thanks, Aditya. In fact, just before this podcast, I was looking at the different products from Titan that I have at home. I had jewelry from Tanishq and I had this beautiful watch, which I wore for this podcast. Yes, this is the Raaga watch and I have the Taneira Saree as well. So absolutely, it's become a household name today. And I think there are many people across the globe who are benefiting from the brand.

In fact, you know, we're having this conversation around Titan's move to international markets. And one of the points that we are talking about is that if Titan can’t do it, who else can? That's that's the impact.

So, you're going into your transition, you just very recently relocated to Dubai and you're heading the entire International Business for Jewelry in Gulf and South East Asia. So tell us little more about, what are some of the trends that you're seeing and how is it benefiting you as a company?

Aditya Singh:

That's an interesting question, actually. Jewelry as a category is generally seen as a category that is recession-proof. Every time that you see the stock markets are not working, where would you divert your fund? Into buying gold, because that's considered a secure investment. If the Real Estate sector is not working well, where do you divert your fund? Into gold and jewelry. And it is part of the luxury business units. So within luxury businesses, you have luxury housing, your handbags, your perfumes, watches, and jewelry. So it's in that space as well.

From a trend perspective, what is happening is while the growth rate at a global level is possibly in single digits, but it is growing, it is one of those sectors which keeps on growing year after year and across the globe. So some countries, the rate of growth might be much more rapid. Some places it is lower. And there are significant changes happening in the industry. So, for example, one of the recent trends that we are seeing is the whole growth of the lab grown diamonds as a category that has started to come in.

A couple of years back, the same discussion was whether jewelry would be purchased online. This is always a debate, no, it won't be purchased online. People would want to see it first. Today, if you look back, there are so many successful companies which are in the online retail of jewelry and they are doing fairly good. We had our own share of be, I think took some percentage of CaratLane as an organization. And recently we kind of took that higher and kind of completely took control of the… There has been an immense amount of learning from CaratLane to Tanishq and from Tanishq to CaratLane. And both companies have grown as a benefit out of that. But that was one of the trends a few years back. Current trend, I would say, a lot of discussion around whether lab-grown diamonds will succeed. The way I would look at this as – this is happening. We have a choice of participating or not participating. And both sides are okay. Both sides have its pros and cons. We have to take a call and stick with it. I think Mr Ratan Tata did mention, “I take decisions and they make them right,” rather than waiting to take the right decision, because you never know. You take a decision and under the amount of information you have at any stage. So I think that's a better way to go about it.

A very, very recent trend, I would say, not a trend per se, but what is happening in the industries because of the Russia-Ukraine conflict, a lot of countries, especially US, European markets, have kind of put of a ban on the Russian diamonds and Russia has been one of the world's biggest source of diamonds. So now if those countries put a ban, that impacts the entire value chain across the globe, because a lot of diamonds probably originate there, get processed in Surat, in India, get moved from here to the rest of the world. Now that entire thing starts to impact and influence the prices of diamonds in general. All these are the changes happening. Interestingly, there are also trends which are happening in the jewelry industry, which are more related to the fashion trends, and that's where our Trend Research team comes into play.

For example, two years back, I remember they talked about layering as a concept that's coming. So, either we start creating jewelry on those lines. And the initial reaction from everybody was, "Why would people layer jewelry?" You anyways take one piece, you want to highlight that piece. And literally, we saw in subsequent years, we are going out across the globe as part of our market researches, youngsters sitting in cafes, working on their laptop with people, or girls, sitting in Starbucks, actually layering it up. So these trends are there. We just need to spot them and make good of them.

Vidya Santhanam:

Very interesting.

Thanks Aditya for sharing that, in fact, it's a segue into the next question that we had, and this is around the strategy. And when you shared the trends, one question which came to mind is how do you really think about strategy? Because it seems very nebulous to many companies who are actually putting the strategy into place. And interestingly, about 80% of strategies fail. So how do you really go about thinking about strategy?

Aditya Singh:

It's an interesting one. Maybe, fortunately, unfortunately, I have been associated with the strategy function of various organizations I work with. There is a lot of misunderstanding and misconception around strategy. A lot of people think that there is some set of people in the organization or sitting and just drafting of what the organization should do, but that's not what it is. The role of a strategy in any organization starts right from observing what's happening in the environment. It's more of an environment scan, and that's where tools like PESTLE all come into play.

Then there are market forces and there are non-market forces. A lot of people talk about just the market forces. Market forces are, "What is your competition doing? What are the customers liking?" So, have you done your customer segmentation well? Have you understood what is the strengths and weaknesses of your competition vis-a-vis what's your thought? Right? And so some people end up using SWOT as a tool. Have you studied the non-market, which is the regulatory environment? How is the industry changing per se? Are there things, especially when you start to international, then you suddenly realize the non-market factors are very different in each of the countries. For the same thing, the regulation is very different in one country and very different in another country. 

Let me just divert from, let's say, jewelry as a sector. Like, E-scooters, for example, it's a rage across the globe. Now, there are cities which have put a ban on it purely because of the safety concerns. There are cities which are promoting it because of the sustainable mode of transport. Where is the thin line between a sustainable mode of transport versus safety? And now if you need to put alone for the E-scooters, you need space on the roads. Any of these roads are crowded with cars. So whose space is getting blocked? All these are non-market factors, which is nothing to do with your competition or customer. The entire industry can actually become a much bigger pie, or the entire industry can get wiped out because of those non-market factors. Now, who studies all that in an organization? 

My first organization where I worked with Tata Chemicals, we were into fertilizer manufacturing. We had our own manufacturing and we used to trade fertilizers, as well. The strategy function used to study the phosphate market in Africa, in Middle East, saying, all of the phosphate market prices happening, which direction it is going, so that we know in advance in coming months and years, where the price of this product going to be and how are the regulations changing. Strategy is all about that and then making sense of all of it. Because it cannot be that a lot of information coming in and nobody is putting structure to it. Because a lot of time, that information is available to any player in the market. Strategy is all about converting that information into something meaningful for your organization and making actions out of it. 

Vidya Santhanam: 

Lovely. 

Aditya Singh:

The 80% point that you mentioned. I primarily feel that there are three reasons why it fails. And 80% is debatable - whether it is or not, I don't know.

Primarily it feels either that there is no leadership buy-in, it's just happening as a function in silo. The output comes, people say it is all okay, continue to do what is happening and what's been the proven success formula. So the leadership buy-in is not there. The second potential reason of failure and possibly a big chunk: the execution fails. The strategy team will put a plan in place, will put measures, everything, actionables, but the execution of those does not happen. And possibly this does not happen because the right communication, the right intent, the "Why do you need to do it?" discussion does not happen very effectively. The "why" part. And the third probable reason is the macro environment changes. So you put down a strategy, but are you agile enough to look at it, and modify it as you go? Because, let's say I’ll put a sector like Steel or any of the Chemicals, these are long-term sectors. Telecom is a very short-term sector. Today, if you are Airtel and Vodafone comes up with the offer in the afternoon today, you have to launch a counteroffer by evening. You cannot wait for, "I don't have it in my budget for next three months or next one year, so I will not launch it."

Every sector is unique, but I think every sector's response time is getting crunched. Possibly for a Steel sector, what was okay as a five-year strategy is no more okay because of the macro environment changing. But out of all these three, I would still give cadence to the first two, saying that the leadership buy-in and execution is where the failures happen, or if those don't happen properly. 

Vidya Santhanam:

This is fantastic because, as you rightly said, information is democratized today. But it is how you look at the data, get insights, and get those micro insights which are on the ground from teams, I think that's what really makes a difference. In fact, you spoke to a couple of very important points, which is around how do you really communicate strategy? And I think you've very deeply thought about strategy and execution, and you've always been thinking about it, but probably bringing the structure to it through OKRs.

So, tell us a little more about what happened in that meeting room when you got together and thought about, "Hey, we have a strategy now we need to execute it, need to bring some structure along with the serendipity," which always happens. So tell us more about that.

Aditya Singh:

That’s very, very important point. So, Titan is a large organization, it's a stable organization doing very well in its sector. Compared to that, as an international business, when we were starting to expand and as I mentioned, every new country is a new challenge, a new set of regulations, a new set of stakeholders, which we have to deal with. We needed a format of strategy where we don't bind ourselves to an annual business plan. That annual business plan can remain there for financial reviews because that's how it gets committed to the shareholders. But we need to be cognizant of the market changes much more than the rest of the organization, because the rest of the organization is working in India. We understand India very, very well. We are there in every nook and corner. We have a saying, “You go to whichever part of the country, if you need help, go to one of the Titan sale points.” It could be watches, it could be jewelry, it could be any other brand of ours. You’ll find somebody in our network, to the remotest corners. So we understand India very well.

But we don't understand the world yet. We are on the journey of understanding and building on that understanding. And therefore, we were looking for a framework that can provide us that structure, also provide us the agility of tweaking it as and when required. As an international business, we have several businesses happening at the same time. For example, a particular product, jewelry in India, is one category, right? So you do everything about that category. You build mastery about that. Within international business, you have all the brands of Titan, which we are planning to take to the world. Within this small team, we need to build that understanding of all these sectors in these respective countries. There are too many levers which are at play. And therefore, the need to have a very agile system for deploying the strategy and possibly three months later, saying "This was important three months back. It's no more important for us." Or possibly, "We have achieved this now, it is part of our regular process. We don't need to put it as a Key Result to be measured regularly," because now it's at an L-3. As in L-1 being the top level processes, and L-2 subsequent, and then L-3. So, somebody in the team is already taking care of it. You don't need to keep reviewing it on every weekend basis or every week basis.

And possibly somewhere I had already heard about the term “OKR,” I hadn't really gone deeper into it, but just heard that there's a concept. What happened is individually at my level, I had also heard about (coming from the software industry), this agile way of working. When I first heard the Fitbots team explaining about the OKR process, the first thing that struck my mind was that this is very similar to the Agile way and that's the way toward which the whole I.T. industry is shifting. So that's a smarter way of project execution probably. 

Here, both our requirements were getting met. An Agile way as well as somebody which will take care of the changing dynamics of the international. So that's how we got on board. And I think the entire team, the leadership team at International, we were really excited about taking this. Yes, initially there was a little bit of hesitation purely because it was new, I think. But that's the case with anything which is new. I mean, this was a platform. This was a concept as simple as if you want to try out a new brand of sneakers, you'll have apprehensions. But you’ll love it when you use it. 

Vidya Santhanam:

Oh, lovely. Aditya, you’ve actually painted a picture of how you went around the decision making process to adopt OKRs. Well, talk to us a little bit about your role as a Champion because you're currently championing OKRs for IBD. You have your role in heading the International Business in Gulf and South East Asia, and alongside that, you’re championing OKRs. So tell us a little more about what are your top responsibilities when it comes to championing OKRs? What should you do, what you do not do?

Aditya Singh:

So, after that first workshop and that we had, there's some background that I am a book lover. I read a lot of books. So immediately after the first workshop when we were still deliberating, "Should we go ahead or not go ahead?" I picked up this book: Measure What Matters. And when I started reading it, it opened my eyes to the whole world of OKRs. A lot was already covered in a very concise manner during the opening workshop, but it actually opened up a perspective that it's not just one framework, it's actually a way of living. It's a way of doing business. And many, many successful companies across the globe have done this. Why can't we? It goes back to the same point we were mentioning earlier, "If somebody can do it, why not Titan?" So it's the same thing. If Google has done it, and Intel has done it, then why not us? What stops us from doing that?

But coming back to the Champion part. When I read that book, and when we were having those internal discussions on should we do it or should we not do it, possibly, I was one of the vocal supporters of “We should do it,” because I had also read the book by then. And that's where I think that I took on responsibility saying, “I'll take the lead in driving this,” because I understand all my peers. They are also driving respective functions and everybody is busy and somebody will have to do it. Again, "If somebody has to do it, why not me?" So going back to that.

But as the role of a Champion, I think I'm primarily a sounding board for the team inside because we are definitely getting great support from the Fitbots team. Anybody in the team, be them a Champion or a Copilot, they're able to freely reach out to the Fitbots team for any explanations. But sometimes there are certain hesitations. Hesitations come purely from a perspective of the ideal way to reach out to an external partner, like Fitbots. You set up a meeting, then you have a discussion. Then, there are scheduled meetings. And let's say you've just finished a meeting, and you have a query which popped up later. Is it okay to call an external partner?

So I became more of an internal process consultant, so to say. If there is something which I will also not understand, I'll reach out. But I begin that conduit. So that's the first role of the internal Champion. Second was keeping that belief. So initially, within our team, there were some sub-teams which were not very keen on taking this on, considering this more as an add-on work to them. I had to make them understand how it's helping the teams that have already adopted. So, crosspollinating is the second role of a Champion. Third is I think as you mentioned. I am driving one particular team, which is doing this as a sub-team, right? To create that kind of a mentorship in that team saying that, "Here is a role model of how it is to be done." If somebody is having a process doubt either they can ask a question or just look at this thing because we discuss it internally on regular forums and that becomes an opportunity. And we don't discuss it on an Excel or a PowerPoint. We have this beautiful platform, so we discuss it on the platform. And people get to see that.

And the small nuances there, let's say, the interlinkages. When you start doing it, when you start playing with the platform, you start loving it even more. So it's like that. So initially, I must admit when we started doing it on an Excel sheet, I was also a little skeptical, but that's how we started. And then the whole concept was emerging as if, okay, another Excel sheet and another set of measures. Then there's the pressure of doing it so frequently. But once we shifted to the platform that Fitbots has, it was more of a gamified version.

So, keeping that prognostic, where I have done this milestone, my ticker has moved and therefore my whole team’s ticker has moved on. And then that whole peer pressure of, "Listen, I have moved my thing. So the whole team’s thing is moving, but why are you not moving? Why are you not working? Can I help you with something?" That started happening. And that's when the magic started happening. When peers started reaching out to each other saying, "Can I help you?" Even if, that this is not my work. I'm not even marked on that particular thing. But I want the entire team’s score to keep on improving week after week.

Vidya Santhanam:

I think that you've said it so beautifully and so visually, Aditya. You know, one of the points was that you used the word “team” multiple times and that's really the essence of OKRs, as we have seen. Many companies struggle with, “Hey, should we set OKRs as departments, should we set it as squads?” 

And in Titan, you actually took that call to set it as squads, or as cross-functional teams. So tell us a little more about how did that benefit and what really happened? If you can take some examples also. 

Aditya Singh:

Sure. I would put it this way. Ideally, we started with the IBD as a whole, right? And then we realized that IBD is probably like (anecdotally) the United States of America. Each state has its own nuances. So each sub-unit within IBD had its own set of unique challenges, which were not common with other units. And therefore for us to define anything at the IBD overall level was not really making sense, and therefore we chose to go one level deeper. Now, for example, we have set up something for our North America unit or something for the Gulf unit or something for the South East Asia unit. And then when we realized that a lot of support functions are there. Some of the support functions are specific, the contribution that they're doing is specific to these markets, and those things could easily sit in these geography-led teams. But there are some unique things which they were driving, which was not an ask by any other geography (but it is still wanted) because it was important for benefiting all the geographies. That was not finding a place in OKRs. And one of the biggest learning was really limiting the number of Key Results that you are taking because otherwise there is a tendency of taking, kind of satisfying everybody in the team. So if there are members in the team, you take up goals, and everybody has something to do. But it's not about that. It's not about satisfying every individual. It is about really choosing what are the top priorities as a team, that this is not individual KRAs.

That learning was, I think, the single most significant learning for us. And the second, lot of the results which are being defined, but only we have had our discussions on that. They are much more sharply defined. So that's first. Second learning has been, in the first lot, what we realized is, sometimes the results are being achieved, but the underlying milestones were not moving. So that means, we knew that this would happen. The specific action that we had planned to take, whether you do those actions, or not do those actions, the results are anyways getting achieved. So we had to actually refrain from picking up such Key Results. So there is the point of choosing the right metrics, and defining the milestones that actually contribute towards the achievement of those Key Results, that's critical. And we are still very happy and in the sense of the first days, even if some things were not right, it gave us a lot of learning. And all those learnings have been put into the second sprint, which we are having now. 

Vidya Santhanam:

Lovely. And you know, what I really admire is, you know, that ecosystem to celebrate successes. At the same time you take learning and not really penalize. And that's really the hallmark of OKRs. Any favorite OKR examples without too much of reference to context, that you would like to share with our audience?

Aditya Singh:

Again, as you said, without going into the specifics, because. So there are a few initiatives that we always wanted to take, probably from the customer experience areas and the for one or other reason of primarily prioritization, those are not getting prioritized. But when we started defining, "Listen, these are our three or four objectives as a business." Within that, one of the parameters, one of the Key Results was taken as one of those initiatives, which was not happening. And not happening because probably we were never prioritizing it enough. But when it came into the OKRs, there was a person assigned to it and then there were milestones attached to it. It just magically happened within that first period. There are several such examples, which is why I'm not going to do specifics of any but whatever is not happening because of prioritization issues, if you put them into OKRs, it will happen. And that's what the book says, right Measure What Matters. 

Vidya Santhanam:

Wonderful. Aditya, it was such an amazing conversation, learning so much from you. We have a surprise at the end of this podcast and that's called the Rapid Fire Round. Are you ready to take it to the top? 

Aditya Singh: 

I look forward to it. Yes.

Vidya Santhanam:

Aditya, your favorite business book? 

Aditya Singh:

I would say the book called Start With Why – Simon Sinek. 

Vidya Santhanam:

Hmm. Awesome. And is there a reason why you love that book? 

Aditya Singh:

I think it's a very, very simple tool that it gives you. That everything you are trying to do question that, why are you supposed to do it? Why are you doing it, even? I'm like, we have learned from the MBA days, the Five Why’s principle and all that, and we have seen the efficacy of it. And this book takes it to the next level. It's a perfect recommendation to anybody who wants to pick it up.

Vidya Santhanam:

Fantastic. Fantastic. Thank you for that. 

Aditya, a quote that pumps you and gets you up every morning? 

Aditya Singh:

Well, there are two of them, actually. I have put them on my desktop, so, two of them. One, which says, which is actually more to do with the international business that we are in. The quote goes like, oh, let me think of the exact wording of it. It goes something like, “Wherever there is a thing that existed before, to go there and create something, is what we are.” So that's that's kind of the vision of, let's say, so now we are taking our brands to the global market. These did not exist there before. So to go set up the whole brand, the market, identifying customers, doing everything possible, that's what it inspires every single day, that we are the ones, probably the chosen ones. If I were to use the terminology to take these powerful brands to the rest of the world. The other quote, a small one, and probably the source is unknown for this, so I think I picked it up from the Pinterest and got it on my desktop. It says “Don't stop until you're proud.” You get a lot of critics of this philosophy also. This philosophy basically tells you to perfect what you are doing, don't do a shoddy job. Don't do it just for the sake of doing it. Do it when you believe in it, do it, and take it to it’s due end. So I would say these two. 

Vidya Santhanam:

Thanks, Aditya. Your favorite holiday destination?

Aditya Singh:

Oh, wow! I mean, there would be so many. But having lived in Nordics, I think Nordics still remain one of my favorite, favorite destination. Whether it is the winters, which a lot of people hate because it's dark all through the day, or its the beautiful summers it is just a lovely place.

Vidya Santhanam:

Thanks, Aditya. An atomic habit, which is very close to your heart? 

Aditya Singh:

Wow, I think I would… Let's say if I were to connect it to the OKRs itself, that was a topic of discussion. Regularly opening it, the platform. And this goes for any other thing. Let's say if you are maintaining your diary regularly, doing it, if you are maintaining a good calendar for your work regularly, opening it just to see how densely packed it is. Specifically in terms of OKRs, when we have this platform, don't wait for any meetings to happen. Open it in between. See, for example, explore, play with it. Can you create some new linkages? Can you figure it out? Go through other’s links and their set of OKRs. Is this something interesting to learn from there? How is that getting tracked? From a milestone perspective, can we define it or redefine it further, better. The terms, the way the objective is written, is it sharply enough written, just keep on looking at it even once a week. I think it just keep improving the whole system itself. 

Vidya Santhanam:

Wonderful. And your advice to other leaders who are thinking about OKRs?

Aditya Singh:

If I were to borrow from Nike, "Just do it!" And I think that nothing better I could recommend to anybody, especially in this age and times when there's so much changing so fast outside, we need to be very agile, and OKRs gives us that very structured platform of keeping up with the business priorities and still achieving your strategy. There I think the only suggestion which I would give is and I do share it with everybody, OKRs does not replace the individual KRAs. So if I, me, in my role have a certain set of deliverables through the year, they will remain. Those are my responsibilities in my role. OKRs is telling me in this quarter: what are my topmost priorities as a team? And that difference need to be understood very well. Otherwise, this is a brilliant tool which any business leader or any individual at their own level can use it. 

Vidya Santhanam:

Fantastic. I think you summarized it beautifully. If I need to summarize this interaction with you, Aditya, if I think of somebody who's passionate, who's a true leader and who is inspiring, it's clearly Aditya who comes to mind, and you should actually follow his social posts. So there's a ton of leadership insights that Aditya shares. So if anybody needs to reach out to you, is LinkedIn the best way? 

Aditya Singh:

LinkedIn is the best, generally. 

Vidya Santhanam:

Fantastic. Thank you, Aditya. We truly wish you very, very well, especially as you Champion OKRs and beyond.

Aditya Singh:

Thank you so much, Vidya. Thank you.

Have any questions?

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the best way to ensure people care about OKRs?
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My Teams are not collaborative on OKRs? How to fix it?
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Business Head - Jewellery International, Titan Company Ltd.

What does it take to champion OKRs in the first 90 days?

Tune into this conversation with Aditya Singh, the Head of International Business - Jewelry, for Gulf and South East Asia at Titan, as he shares his experience championing OKRs for an enterprise.

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