T.T. Jagannathan. File
| Photo Credit: G.R.N. Somashekar
T.T. Jagannathan, chairman emeritus of T.T.K. Prestige, passed away in Bengaluru on Friday (October 10, 2025). He was 77.
“His sudden and unexpected passing away will be an irreparable loss to the Company, and all the Directors and employees of the Company convey deep sorrow and condolences to his family,” T.T.K. Prestige, the kitchen and home products company and the flagship of the T.T.K. Group, said in a stock exchange filing.
Mr. Jagannathan, the grandson of former Union Finance Minister T.T. Krishnamachari, was a gold medallist from IIT Madras and held a PhD in operations research from Cornell University, USA. The business was founded by Krishnamachari.
In 1972, his father T.T. Narasimhan visited Cornell and urged Mr. Jagannathan to return home and save the business, “as it was collapsing.”
Transforming the brand
Mr. Jagannathan was a promoter-director of the company and had been at the helm of T.T.K. Prestige Ltd. since 1975. He led the company to become a market leader in the small appliances industry in the country, according to the company’s annual report for 2025.
He was instrumental in transforming the company to reach a market cap of over one billion dollars. He made outstanding contributions not only in the successful management of affairs of the company but also in providing necessary technical inputs for the development of novel products, research and development, and application of technology by the company, it said.
Long legacy
Mr. Jagannathan joined the Board of T.T.K. Prestige as managing director in 1975 and served in that role for over 26 years until 2000. He then served as executive chairman for 19 years until 2019. Although he stepped down from executive responsibilities in 2019, he continued as non-executive director/chairman. He stepped down as chairman with effect from March 25, 2025. He was the longest-serving director/chairman in the company’s history.
He authored the book ‘Disrupt and Conquer: How T.T.K. Prestige became a billion dollar company’, which chronicles the company’s many milestones and how it had fought bankruptcy to become a successful agency.
Mr. Jagannathan was instrumental in turning around the T.T.K. Group and making it debt-free, which he described as being achieved through “a huge dose of common sense.”
His major invention, the gasket release system, which he never patented, put an end to the spate of bursting pressure cookers and also saved the company from the brink of collapse.
Love for cooking
Mr. Jagannathan loved cooking, which he learnt at the age of eight.
“It was while cooking that I discovered the problem points in the kitchen, and that helped me innovate. I have made sure that all my executives and managers also know how to cook,” he had said during the launch of the book.
“If you don’t know how to cook, then you are not in the cooking business,” he often said.
Published – October 10, 2025 03:18 pm IST
