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Stories of Titanians | 2 mins read

In this series, we will explore the inspiring stories of the women of Titan. This edition is about Sagorika Hazra, an ABM at Titan Company Ltd.

Learning To Dream

I did my early schooling in Dhanbad. My dad worked with BCCL. He wanted me to excel in life, build a career, and not just do any job. So, when I completed my 10th Boards, we moved to Kolkata so I could pursue higher studies in science.

He encouraged me to become an engineer, but my entrance exam scores were inadequate to get into a good stream. Despite his urging me to repeat the exam, I opted for Zoology Honours and parallelly studied Computer Programming. During my second year, my father passed away unexpectedly, and my mother died too soon after, having never recovered from the loss. My dad’s dream of seeing me flourish in a career stayed with me.

Growing Up

But with a younger brother to take care of, responsibility was thrust on me early. While we had savings, I wanted to stand on my own feet. After graduating in 2001, I saw an ad for a Retail Sales Officer position at Tanishq, Kankurgachi boutique, Kolkata. It was an unknown brand; I knew nothing about jewellery, but seeing the Tata connection, I applied. Our franchisee, Mr Manoj Parasurampuria, interviewed me and shared what the role would require - long hours serving customers, days when I would have to stay late, and aggressive targets to be achieved. It must have been my honest replies that landed me the job.

Learning On The Job

The boutique had five jewellery counters, and we had one RSO handling each. Being a small brand then, we didn’t have many walk-ins. With no store manager or cashier, I spent my free time learning the ropes of the business, like stock-taking, indenting, billing, and POS updation. In one and a half years, I was made the store manager. In the early days, we did our own retail marketing to generate walk-ins to our store. We went out into the apartment complexes, conducted GHS camps, and showcased jewellery. While we had little success in sales, we received invaluable feedback from customers about our designs and range. They perceived us as trinket-y, westernised, and with very little cultural relevance. In 2002, when we launched the Karatmeter in our store, there was a revolt from jewellers, who came in large numbers to protest. It was unruly, ugly. Some would barge in and demand an explanation of how we were certifying our gold purity. While I was scared, I was also truthful with whoever sought to understand, giving them detailed information on our scientific process. We had disrupted market practices, and consumers soon began to trust our proposition. We had never seen the kind of old gold exchange that followed. Consumers would walk in with potlis full of old gold and say, “Melt karo”!

Mentors For Life

Wanting to grow my store by making our merchandise more relevant to local tastes, I was sent to Hosur by Manoj ji to indent new designs. It was a critical responsibility as it meant taking large investment decisions on the store’s behalf. But backed with my product and consumer knowledge I would indent crores worth of new designs. Never did I feel I wasn’t up to the task.

My confidence in my abilities grew. I was further recognised nationally when I won the Best Retail Employee award at Impressions three years in a row, from 2007 to 2009!

Manoj ji has not only been my mentor but a father figure, too. I felt that I needed to pursue an MBA if I wanted to grow further in my career. With his guidance, I joined a distance learning program at Symbiosis. As I had no knowledge of finance and accounting, I would spend my lean hours in the store learning these subjects from him.

In 2013, all store managers in the region were required to present to the senior leadership team. My presentation was awarded as the best! Two weeks later, Dwaipoda called to say he was creating a new training manager’s role for East and asked if I would be interested. Of course, I was!

With Manoj ji’s blessings, I bid goodbye to my life at the Kankurgachi store. During my tenure, the store had grown from a topline of Rs 10 Cr to Rs 90 Cr.

Finding My Wings

Moving to a corporate role meant I was no longer cocooned. There was no Manoj ji backing my every decision. I was on my own. The role involved training store staff on Tanishq Way of Life (TWOL), Encircle, product knowledge, and store-level audits.

Being expressive and maybe even impulsive, I would send out audit reports and openly call out compliance issues. Many Area Business Managers (ABM) were cross in the way they were being highlighted. That’s when Dwaipo da mentored me on building interpersonal skills and the need to build confidence in people so that solutions can be found jointly. This powerful lesson has stayed with me. In the Laureate Global evaluation of trainers, I scored the highest and won the award for the Best Trainer in 2013 and 2014!

Falling In Love

My dad’s dream of seeing me build a career drives me every day. In 2019, while looking for new challenges, an opportunity came knocking—ABM in Jharkhand. It was completely out of my comfort zone and meant that I would have to move cities, but I thrive among challenges. To date, the territory has grown from 4 to 8 stores and the topline from Rs. 390 Cr to a staggering Rs. 900 Cr!

I’ve had a great run—a marathon, really! Many leaders, such as Manoj ji, Dwaipoda, Anirban, Rajeswari, and Aparajita, have guided me along my journey. I have many more peaks to climb. When my family asks me why I’m not keen on marriage, I unabashedly say, “I’m married to my career, to Titan!"