Former Titan MD Xerxes Desai passes away

BENGALURU: Xerxes Desai, the first managing director of India’s largest watch maker Titan, passed away on Monday after suffering from acute gastroenteritis. He was 80 and credited with introducing the country to its first quartz watch three decades ago.
Desai, who joined Tata Administrative Service (TAS) in 1961 after graduating from Oxford University, has been a Tata veteran working with Tata Press, Tata Chemicals and Taj Hotels before setting up Titan in 1986 with support from the Tamil Nadu government (Tamil Nadu Industrial Development Corp).
"Titan owes a huge debt of gratitude to Xerxes Desai and it is with the deepest sorrow that the Titan family says goodbye to a great leader and dear friend today. He was not only our founder, but also our greatest advocate. Over the years, his guidance and dogged pursuit of perfection helped make Titan a household name and a market leader, setting standards that still remain unbeaten,” the company said in a statement on Monday.
Desai, who was staying in Bengaluru for the last two decades, is widely acclaimed as the person under whom a private company started making watches after enduring years of endurance from state-owned and now defunct HMT Watches. He also started the jewellery brand Tanishq.
“He was a legend in a true sense and an inspiration to generations, who taught the intricacies of management without being a teacher,” Jacob Kurian, former chief operating officer (COO) of Tanishq and currently partner at private equity company New Silk Route, said.
Bijou Kurien, former COO of Titan, said he was present at the hospital when Desai breathed his last. ‘He was a man ahead of his time. He introduced the quartz watch when the market was dominated by mechanical watches and helped Titan expand to Europe and Middle East. He was always pushing you to what he thought you can achieve,” recollected Kurien.