When I wanted to write about the TTK group in 1984, I did not even know that it had shifted it’s headquarters to Bangalore and it was run by TT Jagannathan, the founder’s grandson. Most of the group companies were not publicly listed. Although the products they made and sold were popular and well known, such as the Prestige pressure cooker, it was not recognised that they came from the TTK group. Among other things, they also made condoms.
TT Krishnamachari, later to become India’s Finance Minister, founded the group and handed it over to his younger son TT Narasimhan, on becoming a full time politician. At that time the TTK group was mainly in the agency business and was distributing products made by others like Cadbury’s.
By the 1970s the group started facing serious trouble as the agency business started to fade. The principals wanted to set up their own distribution networks. For example, when Cadbury’s terminated it’s arrangement with the TTKs, it meant a loss of several crores. The group had taken on many agencies and lacked sufficient manpower. It faced problems from many sides and this precipitated a financial crisis. TT Jagannathan, Narasimhan’s second son, who was doing his PhD in management at Cornell University in the US, who would rather have been an academic, was forced to step in. He found that there was no coherence in the group and many of its constituents were facing losses.
He was first assigned to Maps and Atlases which did precisely that – print maps and atlases. It was a loss making unit which he turned around by taking some simple steps like increasing prices.
He made improvements in the pressure cooker which was beginning to face competion from smaller manufacturers. He invented and introduced the gasket release system which was a safety measure to prevent cookers from bursting. He was large hearted enough not to patent it.
The chief executive of Prestige which made pressure cookers and was the most profitable in the group, was not willing to help out the other companies. Jaganathan realised the need to integrate the companies which he did.
A reluctant recruit, he said, that once he joined, he started living, breathing, and dreaming business. He had to turn the group around. It had got into random businesses without much thought or insight. He shut down the loss making companies. Professionals were brought in. That was a time when only family members were given jobs, and professionals were also reluctant to join family companies. Prestige changed all that.
TT Jagannathan was an exuberant and fun loving person. He liked food, which he said was essential to be in the food business. He is going to be much missed.