Leadership Lessons: ‘Our mantra is best quality at best price’

Those words characterise his persona as he manages GRT Jewellers that requires understanding many aspects such as buyer sentiments, market fluctuations and changing lifestyles. Oozing charm and simplicity, he and his brother GR Radhakrishnan jointly steer the business, which was started by their father, the current chairman, G Rajendran in 1964. Since then, they have come a long way. GRT Jewellers is no longer a conservative brand as one cannot miss the celebrity endorsements and other marketing strategies used to bring more visibility to the “reputation built over decades of labour.” 

Two years ago, the family-owned business completed its golden jubilee celebrations. After a slow and cautious step, the transformation is clearly visible now. There is a corporate glitter to the gold palace! With a supplier ( acharya ) base across India, GRT Jewellers is clued in to gauge market trends and demands. “We find an increasing preference to light-weight, intricate and stone-set kind of jewelry items among customers. Office-wear is a segment that is also catching up in a big way as the wearers distinctly prefer to wear trendy stuff that is easy to handle,” says Ananth, who at the age of 21 years plunged into business fulltime. A gemology program in the US and a three-month hands-on diamond sorting stint in Mumbai armed the commerce graduate from Loyola College to get a thorough grip of the business. 

Today, he talks about “maximum employment to maximum people” as the vision for GRT. “We have made huge investments in human resources. Deloitte engaged with us for a year and laid out our SOP or standard operating procedures. We also took the help of Ramco to bring in domain expertise for our HRMS implementation,” Ananth said, adding the process of identifying a SAP partner is on.  A consultant is also providing strategic inputs that include interchange of functions between the brothers. 

“Our mantra is to provide best quality, best workmanship at the best price,” Ananth says, noting that there is no future without professionalism, especially since the jewellery business is getting more ‘corporatised.’ Leveraging technology, controlling costs and attracting talent through good HR policies are focus areas of the retailer, who has 5,500 direct employees. 

Women constitute 50 per cent of its workforce perhaps to leverage the skills of dealing in a business that is perceived to be a woman’s domain? “Purchasing jewellery is still a family decision in India. We notice children do the selection but the buying is a collective decision,” he said, adding the use of debit and credit cards had significantly contributed to the sales. 

GRT has 37 stores in South, covering Tamil Nadu (13 in Chennai, 1 in Tiruvallur), Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Puducherry while three of its outlets serve the overseas markets of Dubai, Singapore and Malaysia. Two to three showrooms are planned for this fiscal. 

On facing business challenges and if people still invest in gold, his response is “everyone is strong (bullish) on India. This is proven to be a successful business for over 5,000 years. It is the most transparent product in India with a pricing system that keeps the stakeholders interest in mind.” With hallmarking in place and considering the resale value, gold is by far the “best form of savings,” he opines. “Is there any other investment that you can wear? You buy a shirt and use it and after some time, it gets worn out. Buying a share may give you wealth but you cannot flaunt it like gold. In this case, you can wear your wealth. You invest 20 per cent of your surplus income and get good returns!” Ananth points out. 

GRT has a separate temple division that carves and crafts jewellery to adorn deities. Considering this to be their ‘ Bhagyam, Punyam (luck, good deeds)’ contribution, Ananth goes on to add be it Memphis or Pittsburg in the US, from one coast to another, or other overseas temples, the gods and goddesses in those locations sparkle and glitter with ornaments made by the GRT Jewellers.