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.
The best way to sustain OKRs is to introduce a set of OKR rituals. There are five important rituals to ensure that teams don't fall into the set-and-forget trap.
1. Weekly check-in meetings
2. Leadership check-in meetings
3. Mid-Quarter Review on OKRs
4. Friday Wins
5. Retro and Reboot scheduled 2 weeks before the beginning of the next quarter
In our experience, OKRs should not be linked to compensation. Here’s why.
Before introducing OKRs, it is very important to set the context. OKRs require sponsorship and CEOs are the best sponsors of OKRs.
A powerful message by the sponsor helps anchor the organization around: Why OKRs, and Why now?
OKRs requires leadership to adorn a coach-led exploratory style of leadership to support teams, rather than a directive one. With OKRs, leadership styles move from telling + directing to exploratory + participative. This is where you shift gears from ‘hand-me-down’ to ‘connect and align.’
Having alignment not just within teams, but within the entire organization, is guided by the leadership. They should also guide teams on crafting and aligning OKRs, communicate OKR Progress and celebrate early wins on all company levels. Get all the best practices for leadership effectiveness in our eBook.
For more information on how to get the most out of OKRs as a leader by building accountability and ownership amongst teams, read this quick Christmassy blog: From Managers to Coaches.
Be it in the office or when working remotely, teams and workers tend to work in silos. They may communicate with their own team members, but not so much with other teams. OKRs are silo-buster and foster collaboration through bi-directional alignment.
Here are a few ways to make your teams more collaborative:
OKRs are not a new concept as Management by Objectives already exist. It is a new version that suits the agile and rapidly changing business environment. OKRs are all about good execution.
A few minutes is all you need to understand the fundamentals of OKRs (a 10-minute guide to starting with OKRs from our OKR Expert). However, nothing beats the in-depth learning that we offer in our OKR Certification Program. In fact, if you complete this short course, you’re qualified to be the Internal OKR Champion of your business!
During the OKR onboarding process, we help your organization or team members learn about OKRs in a systematic way.
Learn more about how we make sure everyone is on the same page and knows how to use OKRs in the organization here.
OKRs require all hands on deck. Teams need to be enthused around practicing OKRs. Before introducing OKRs, setting the context is important.
A compelling message that is precise and consistent must be shared with the company by the Sponsor of the organization.
Once OKRs are crafted and aligned, leadership must get into the trenches with the teams and support them should any KRs be at risk.
Early wins, if celebrated , also enthuse teams to embrace a culture of OKRs.
If you want to help your teams become more enthusiastic and involved, here’s a quick read that will illuminate the path for you.
If you’re thinking about rolling out OKRs for your entire organization, then yes, all members in the organization will benefit from knowing how OKRs work. The same goes for teams and team members. However, this is done in a slow and systematic way, rather than having one giant meeting and jumping into OKRs.
The OKR framework will first be introduced with pilot teams or squads, once the company leadership has sponsored the roll-out process. After learning what works for your organization through the pilot teams, OKRs will be introduced to other members of the organization.
Regular check-in meetings will ensure that everyone is on the same page and everyone is involved in the OKR creation process of their level.
Thinking of rolling out OKRs? This guide to getting started with Pilot Teams sheds some light on a systematic approach to introducing OKRs to your organization.
If you’re looking for OKR certification, check this out.
OKRs are set at multiple levels of the company. For each level/group, it is recommended that you use the 3x5 rule for setting OKRs.
This means no more than three Objectives per quarter and no more than 5 Key Results per Objective.
This applies to organization-level OKRs and team OKRs both, to ensure that your team or organization is able to prioritize and focus their energy on achieving the most important results.
Not sure if you’re choosing the right Key Results? This blog will get you started.
In our experience, OKRs should not be linked to compensation as this can threaten the transparency and stretching functionality of the framework.
Performance management and OKRs are parallels that never meet. OKRs definitely work alongside performance management, but ideally they should not be linked together.
However, some companies are known to use the bright side of OKRs to manage compensation. While we do not recommend this approach, you might consider learning how they do this.
Our quick read illustrates how some high-growth companies are using OKRs to manage their way through compensation increases in their own ways.
Company-wide OKRs are usually written by the top leadership, CEOs and the CXOs. They are based on the company’s core values and mission. Further on, Department OKRs are crafted by the Department heads along with their next level leadership teams.
Team OKRs should be written using the inputs of the entire team or multiple teams that have to work together. This ensures ownership, accountability, transparency and bi-directional alignment.
Sometimes, when multiple teams come together to work towards a common outcome, they form what are known as squads/pods to huddle together and align their tasks to the OKRs. Once the outcome is achieved, they move on to the next squads/pods.
For example: Launching a product in a new market may need Marketing, Product & Tech, Sales & HR to come together to plan everything they need to do to get together and launch the product within the set time.
Not all OKRs within the organization will align to the company-wide OKRs, and that is not a problem, because it allows employees to align their tasks to other outcomes which can help generate business value. It also helps them keep a control on prioritizing the most urgent and important activities without losing sight of the main outcome.
If you’re new to writing OKRs, this guide will help you get started. And if you're an ardent user of Fitbots, you can use our AI-Assisted tool to write effective OKRs in seconds!
Just like creating good habits, understanding the basics of OKRs is easy, but learning how to consistently apply that knowledge is a journey. The entire process of understanding OKRs from basics and crafting them in a manner that helps teams connect to larger outcomes could take anything between 1-3 weeks.
The larger aspect of getting teams accustomed to the language of OKRs and leverage the benefits of the framework can only be attained through regular, non-negotiable weekly/fortnightly check-in meetings. This builds greater cadence, knowledge and overall understanding of how the framework helps in aligning/connecting dots with different business priorities.
It is always recommended that in the early stages of OKR implementation, you work with experienced Coaches or experts. They can help your teams get up to speed quickly, understand the nuances of writing OKRs and progress with it. They also help the organization get adopted to the framework from a cultural standpoint and not just a process perspective.
Fitbots helps you roll-out OKRs in your organization seamlessly and you can rest assured that our experts will systematically onboard your teams into the OKR framework. Getting everyone on the same page is always a breeze with Fitbots integrated platform and coaching!
Getting your team on board with OKRs can be a challenge, but not impossible. If your team is not convinced after learning the benefits of OKRs or hearing the success stories of Google and Intel, here’s a process you can follow:
First, help your direct report leadership team to understand the concept and gain a buy-in from them. This eBook on how OKRs build leadership effectiveness might be a good place to start!
Thereafter, you can go either of these ways -
Usually, the implementation process begins with an OKR Pilot. This is something that allows for experimentation with the process and tailor it to suit each individual company’s culture, size, and business priorities. Check out our eBook on OKR Pilots to learn more about it!
OKRs are for every organisation! All companies, big or small, scaling rapidly or not, have goals to crush.
The critical-thinking framework provided by OKRs is extremely beneficial to crushing goals and executing strategy.
Additionally, having an OKRs software can help visualise those goals by creating metrics that clearly define those goals while also giving you the ability to track them.
Moreover, OKRs help your company build a culture of focus and aligned teamwork. It creates a system where your teams can prioritize outcomes, measure and track progress against goals, and stretch to achieve 10x growth.
Want a taster of our OKR software? Get it here.
OKRs are a great way to help Product and Engineering teams establish a connection between Product roadmaps and business value. In fact, OKRs are the critical missing link for P&E Teams!
Here’s why:
Still got some questions on why your team needs OKRS? Check out this eye-opening ebook on OKRS for Product and Engineering Teams.
It’s definitely not spreadsheets! Here’s a detailed explanation of why spreadsheets are a no-go when it comes to tracking your OKRs.
The best way to go about it is by setting up a regular (weekly or fortnightly) cadence for your team to have Check-in meetings to review progress, celebrate successes, and learn from failures and constructive feedback.
Your team can always benefit from an OKR tracking tool. Our platform helps you view your OKR progress at a glance and also comes with many useful features to streamline your OKR execution. Check it out here.
An OKR Team Champion is a member of the OKR Team who runs weekly Check-ins on OKR progress, updates the Team OKRs and escalates any blockers or constraints in achieving them. Someone who takes initiative, is skilled at open communication, and prompt at reaching out to team members is well-suited to the role of an OKR Team Champion.
A champion should be someone who is not necessarily a lead or a manager, instead a team member who can communicate positively, collaborate well, and bring together different teams which work on common OKRs.
When using the Fitbots Software, the Champions have maximum access in the team. They can edit OKRs, add OKRs, link OKRs to Corporate/Bi directional teams, and can also invite/add/remove team members. Are you set on running an OKR Pilot for your business - and we completely support that decision!
Perhaps your leadership teams still believe in the old cascading method of functioning, but that’s a thing of the past! Having your leadership on-board is vital to successful OKR Implementation. After all, the Company OKRs stem from the Company Mission, Vision, and strategic choices.
So why are business leaders across the globe gravitating towards OKRs? They realized that leadership styles are moving from telling + directing to exploratory + participative. This is where you shift gears from ‘hand-me-down’ to ‘connect and align.’
OKRs turn leaders into better coaches. Coaching is a potent mix of rapport, active listening,
empathy, probing for clarity and helping teams to commit to action by asking powerful questions.
Moreover, OKRs build leadership effectiveness by empowering businesses with critical thinking. If your leadership still needs to be convinced about why OKRs are the framework to establish, this eBook might be a good starting point.
Writing OKRs is a process that takes some practice. One must always keep in mind that OKRs work within a frame of time, like a business quarter.
First, one must understand the level of OKRs - whether they are company-wide, team-only, or individual OKRs. It is highly recommended that teams get together to write their OKRs with everyone’s input!
1. Start with the Outcome you want to achieve - make sure it’s not too easy, but also not unrealistic. The best tone for setting Outcomes is aspirational. Try to stick to three Outcomes.
2. Identify the Key Results for your Outcomes - The goal here is to measure only what matters. Pick the right metrics that will reflect the progress gained and lost with respect to your Outcome. Key Results should always be transparent and quantitative. Try to have a maximum of 5 KRs per Outcome.
3. Note the Tasks that you need to achieve your OKRs.
If you’re still not sure about how good OKRs are written, check out our in-depth guide on crafting OKRs or try using some of our free OKR Templates.
Of course, you always have the option to write great OKRs using the Fitbots AI Assistant. Have a look at this short read that tells you all about the how!
OKRs represent the journey towards sales targets and outcomes while demonstrating the progress. OKRs are not sales targets, but a sales target can be an Objective.
Here’s a representative example of the same:
Objective: Launch new channel partnership in Asia program in order drive revenues
KR 1: Increase partner enrollments from 0 to 50
KR 2: Drive partner referrals from 0 to 500
KR 3: Increase partner revenues from 0 to USD 1M
In short, OKRs focus not only on the final sales target, it constitutes a select few measurable lead indicators to validate the strategic execution. We have a more in-depth guide on Sales OKRs here.
For more examples, please check our Templates.
Objectives and Key Results (OKRs) are a framework that helps companies define and achieve their best possible outcomes as teams and as an organization. It establishes the “Objectives” along with the measurable “Key Results” that facilitate the achievement of every objective.
Key Performance Indicator (KPI) is a performance measurement framework that evaluates the success of an individual or a particular program.
KPIs focus mostly on the lag indicators. OKR is a strategic framework.
OKRs has a larger vision of what the organization wants to achieve, whereas KPIs always aim to measure a certain metric.
Examples of OKR and KPI:
OKR:
Objective: Increase market share
Key Result #1: Increase sales by 20%
Key Result #2: Acquire 100 new customers
KPI: Average Response Time, average recruitment time, sales revenue
Please find the detailed answer here.
Or, if you’re looking for OKR certification, check this out.
If you want to accelerate growth with OKRs, try our OKRs and KPIs software.
OKRs are a strategy execution framework based on critical thinking, streamlining teams to business objectives, and being thoughtful about how metrics and work is measured.
OKRs are made up of three separate but interrelated fundamentals;
O - Objectives: What do we need to achieve and why do we need to achieve it?
Tasks and Initiatives: What do we need to do to get there?
KR - Key Results: How do we measure success?
OKRs work with a simple philosophy - let’s shift the focus from me to we. It ensures employees work together to focus their effort on what is most important, in order to make measurable contributions that will drive the company forward.
This framework was developed by Intel’s Andy Grove and publicized by John Doerr in his book “Measure What Matters.” Organizations like Google are known for their functioning on OKR systems to supercharge growth and drive change and innovation. More than 80% of Silicon Valley startups have adopted OKRs and experienced a meteoric rise in their growth - so yes, this method really works!
Check out our awesome collection of Ebooks on OKRs
Even small startups with just three members adopt OKRs. However, when choosing an OKR tool, it is recommended that you are an organization of at least 10-15 members strong with at least 2 distinct functions e.g. Sales & Marketing, Engineering.
Teams tend to adopt OKRs tools better when they are 25 or more wherein process adherence is a strong need!
Although “Tasks” are not a part of the OKR abbreviation, they are equally important. Tasks are your to-do list as activities needed to achieve your Objectives. They should not be mistaken for Os and KRs, and they should especially not be mistaken for business-as-usual activities. Only activities that help you progress towards your Objectives count as OKR tasks!
Here's how you can manage tasks through initiatives and milestones in OKRs.
There’s a number of things to look out for when it comes to OKR meetings. Keep in mind that these meetings are not a task-performance-evaluation tool - the goal is to review progress, make tweaks in the strategy if needed, and inspire teams to keep up the good work!
Don't forget to see our super-detailed Champion's Guide to Check-ins!
In short - NOW!
OKRs are a strategy execution framework that has gained popularity globally - we hear success stories everywhere, so get into it now! The best time to introduce OKRs is when your company has a clear mission, your sponsor and business leaders are 100% on board, and the organization is ready to take the key steps to integrating OKRs into its business cycle. If your team is new to OKRs, getting an OKR coach is a huge added bonus!
So how do we start, you ask? Take off with an OKR pilot and get scaling! Our ebook on How To Run an OKR Pilot has all the basics covered.
OKRs, when executed correctly, can really improve your business performance. If you’re not seeing the results as promised, you might be making one or more of the following mistakes:
Want to learn more about OKR Execution? Check out our free ebook How to Avoid Execution Traps in 5 Easy Steps here. Or learn from the expert as KC, Senior Customer Engineer at Google, shares his experience with OKRs here.
To get the best out of OKRs, one needs to understand what this system really is. OKRs are not a performance evaluation tool, nor are they a task list to fill and forget. Rather, OKRs are a framework to align the goals of different teams and departments and measure the growth of the company as a whole, and how each employee contributes towards achieving the larger mission. They improve overall business performance by setting a rhythm for review, feedback and conversations. The best part is the flexibility of OKRs - they are never set in stone, and they can and should be revised for changing business climates.
Still curious? Get a more in-depth look at OKR mistakes here.
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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