Book review: it happened in India

KISHORE BIYANI
Kishore Biyani: New face of Indian retail, 45, is CEO, Future Group, which is designed to cater to the entire Indian consumption space. After graduating in commerce, Biyani joined the family textiles business. Five years later he launched the first branded ready-made trouser, called Pantaloon, marketed through The Pantaloon Shoppe. Founded in 1987, as a garment manufacturing company, Pantaloon entered modern retail in 1997 with the opening of a chain of department stores, Pantaloons. In 2001, Biyani evolved a pan-Indian, class-less model Big Bazaar, a hypermarket chain, leading to the democratization of shopping in India.

With Food Bazaar, a supermarket chain, he blended the look, touch and feel of Indian bazaars with western hygiene and it has now evolved into the favored destination for Indian home-makers. The Future Group operates through six verticals: Future Retail (encompassing all lines of retail business), Future Capital (financial products and services), Future Brands (all brands owned or managed by group companies), Future Space (management of retail real estate), Future Logistics (management of supply chain and distribution) and Future Media (development and management of retail media spaces). The group's flagship enterprise, Pantaloon Retail, is India's leading retail company with presence in food, fashion and footwear, home solutions and consumer electronics, books and music, health, wellness and beauty, general merchandise, communication products, e-tailing and leisure, and entertainment.

DIPAYAN BAISHYA
Dipayan Baishya is a business writer, and has been associated with thE Economic Times and Business Today. His articles have also appeared in Media, a Hong Kong based fortnightly and Knowledge at Wharton. He was awarded the Don Sheehan International Journalist Fellowship by the Wharton School in 2005. He studied economics at Presidency College, Kolkata and is based in Mumbai.

Made in India
In this chapter, we know more about Kishore Biyani and his way of understanding Indian retail market! I also learned more of retailing. Like, there are couple of emotions that determine shopping behavior which includes greed, altruism, fear and envy. So KB always believed in trying to understand the needs, aspirations and buying behavior of the residents. the Indianess concept is strongly demanded by consumers. Predicting Indian consumer behavior becomes important in retailing He also discusses about India as consumption-led country. The most interesting thing about our country is that our growth will be based on ideas and solutions rather than physical assets.

 He strongly believes that in a strongly youthful, exuberant generation, bred on success will not only drive productivity but also set a spiraling effect on consumption and income generation. In order to achieve any dream, one needs to have willingness to change, confidence and total lack of inhibitions ! This features youth, the ones who are going to drive the trends. REWRITE RULES, RETAIN VALUES. KB is inspired by Sam Walton. This rule implies that nowadays consumer behavior is changing, say as per fashion. So the rules of the company also should change. KB strongly believes that consumer is always right!

Retail is like riding a bicycle up the hill, if you stop pedaling, you will slide down .

Kb is role model for young entrepreneurs. He dealt things with simplicity and also connected and applied routine life with business. The new generation has grown up in a liberalized economy and has seen India winning in every arena, and emerging as a global powerhouse in business, IT (information technology), sports or beauty shows, says Biyani. The current generation is simultaneously therefore more proud about being Indian, and more modern when it comes to their lifestyles, than their predecessors. In essence, they are far more confident of their place in the world. This is a generation that feels that everything is within its reach and aspires for it. And this is true for everyone, whether they live in large metros or small towns. In this trend, he discovers the third C: consumptiom He used to observe people coming in his stores, to know more about their demands. He maintained the balance between confidence in making choices and humility in learning. Always believed in doing new things, LEARNING, UNLEARNING ,AND RELEARNING if someone asks him about his competitors, he said that with each step higher, he climbed, he saw a little further and built a little further.

Built from scratch

In this chapter, early life of KB is discussed. From very beginning, he was curious, obsessed with rationality. Different people have mentioned their experience with KB in school life and college life. He had the attitude of challenging and was keen observer from very beginning.So he had started selling stone wash trousers and earned his first profit. He had this attitude of pursuing with his own ideas, and never had expected any support from the family..there his entrepreneurial journey began! Here, we know more about the mindset of KB when he quotes I created my own mental mentors, studied various subjects and eagerly sought knowledge. I strongly believe that there is a hard and arduous journey that one has to undertake alone.

He had faced mistakes, learned and moved on. Here we can know about that entrepreneurship is all about thinking big, believing in your own ability and going ahead. Its also making decision, leadership. Moreover he also discusses about good and bad things of being in family business, which I felt irrelevent.

Defying the odds

In this chapter, we know something more about KBS struggles and success story of pantaloons. He came up with the brand WBB, went on for advertising worth few lakhs, and also hired an ad agency, which was new and innovative in that time and then established the brand. One day, inspired from Italian fashion, started selling ready-made trousers. That was his first retail experience. He had explored into this business of Manz wear(which came to be known as Pantaloon) and got an insight into textile industry. He emphasized and concentrated more on marketing his products!

He emphasized in the popularity of pantaloons. First franchise shop: in Goa called as Pantaloon Shoppe. then onwards he decided to expand Pantaloons nationwide. Then he came across the idea of making pantaloons a one-stop destination for all apparel products for men: shirts, ties, trousers etc. Nextly, he had visualized his business worth 100 crores. The expenditure in brand building was high and it was time to raise funds from public. And this way, he moved ahead with pace.

Now, He also wanted to go for export. However he had realized his incapability of reach that scale. For him, India was too big an opportunity to be missed out. There on, his business principle was to provide the ordinary people what rich could afford . This principle, prevented him not to face any foreign competition. when he was surveying about retail market, hed realized that India has been savings-led society where women have habit to preserve stuff for long period of time. This was again a challenge for all retailers how to attract the customers. KB then had to take up customer initiative at BIG BAZAAR, WHICH PROVIDED DISCOUNTS, SCHEMES, INNOVATIVE PROMOTIONS AND EXCHANGE PROGRAMMES.

Kb always updates himself with knowledge of fashion and fabric by visiting the NIFT. He realized the need to scale up all these successful businesses. Finally, his business was enjoying the goodwill, even over the Raymond's, but for that he had to defy many odds. He had to give certain percentage of daily sales to bank, for security, which was tough, but against that he could make his dream story possible. ITS DUE TO HIS AMBITION, POSITIVE ATTITUDE, CREATIVITY, and STRONG DETERMINATION he has become SUCCESSFUL.

The new, new thing

Kb decided to design Pantaloon Shoppe in the provided large space in Kolkata and open a mega store.

The customer response was awesome as they treated them like a family. In this chapter we get an in-depth study of retailing and customer behavior. Some important points about retailing are as follows: Fashion for the matter of retailing, is not selling products, its selling of ideas. Customers wants to experience everything when they shop rather than just wasting money in shopping.

Despite all the difficulties, all the frustrations, there is a joy in having done something as well as you could and better than others thought you could.

The crucial aspect in retailing is to make customers relate to every product that are being sold. Store environment also matters. Kb had used the concept of visual merchandising which enables a retailer to talk more to customers Category management was another concept based upon on the belief that a customer walks into a store looking for party shirt or else. Fashion retailing includes trend, and understanding its business viability. Moreover it requires a deep understanding of local tastes and preferences.

Further important lessons to be learned from KB: according to him: CUSTOMER IS THE QUEEN. Customers should be given a comfortable environment and personal shopping experience He wasnt money-minded, achievement was more important. That is, he did not drive himself by what revenues he was going to earn but by what percentage of the consumers wallet he was going to attract! He always planned for Long period of term For him, Growth is important Honesty helped him win the trust of investors.

He was the only one in the industry who was betting on the future, rather than the present

Talking about big bazaar, then it had earned the admiration of capital markets, but for KB, most important was to reach out greater no. of customers than before. Once KB stood in the queue outside big bazaar to grab a deal. this shows how big bazaar had struck chord with its customers. This was the moment of satisfaction.

We'll know more about Big Bazaar in the next chapter.

For god country and Big Bazaar

In this chapter, few experiences with customers and employees and customer behavior is discussed. KBs philosophical thinking makes him totally a unique personality. Indian Customers buy fruits from local market, customers, say in Philadelphia buy fruits from supermarkets. This had been a challenging task for retailers, as it would only attract little portion of Indian consumers. So the bazaar big bazaar became significant here. KB follows the Indian consumer with passion and retail , according to him is about heart. Inspired from Saravana stores in Chennai, KB had decided to open up a hypermarket. Less profit, more turnover.

KB had given full liberty to his employees to take risk and move on with business. For Rajan Malhotra, head of Big Bazaar, white shirts seemed attractive. But soon he realized that the demand for white shirts were less because , its difficult to maintain. When he asked KB for his advice, KB just asked to sell the shirts worth Rs.129 @ Rs. 49. shocking? This incident tells us not to fear in making mistake but if you have made one, get rid of it! Totally true for modern retailing. As such the big bazaar retail model was a hit because of Sam Waltons retail model: Wal-mart and more inspirational book: made in America Another successful model: food bazaar which stroked the chord. It was established on THE PRINCIPLE OF NOT SLICING THE CURRENT OPPUTUNITY, BUT GROWING IT FURTHER. BIG BAZAAR and FOOD BAZAAR, WERE THE GREATEST PART OF KBs SUCCESS, However ONE question aroused, Would kiranas survive with the arrival of modern retail outlets? KB SAID THAT WE ARE THE NATION OF SHOPKEEPERS THAT BELIEVE IN PROSPER OF KIRANAS AND CO-EXISTENCE WITH MODERN RETAIL.

Bollywood calling
KB has even shared about his failed businesses. KB explained about how he tried
to enter into movie making in the bollywood but could not produce a huge success there. In a whole chapter dedicated to his bollywood stint, he shared his learning from this failed attempt of movie -making.

Well, what I have learned in this section is ACCEPTING THE MISTAKE, And not losing hope. KB still wishes to be great filmmaker in the industry.

Business @ the speed of Thought

KB is little hesitant about hiring people. He never expected anything from those MBAs. Not everyone can fit into his organization. The ideal people who form part of his organization are those who are willing to go through the continuous process of learning, unlearning and relearning. "As members of organizational for family, it becomes important for us to ensure that everyone who joins him, understands the soul of organization and he would help achieving him his potential". He finds the people first, and then the job. He wanted such people because a stable team ensures speed and continuity of the business. Wherever the big bazaar is established, it generates employment 200-300 of people. They are given training under the gurukul programme

Here comes the location, the team used to undertake a survey in the local markets to know about the product, or in nearby residential places and asked whether they liked gaddar or dil chahta hai to know the tastes of consumers. Then coming to the prices for land. KB did not bargain, he either said yes or no and due to this attitude, the dealers used to quote him the correct, reasonable price. Malls are new emerging face of Indian retail. However consumers feel difficult or inconvenient to visit each stores. So KB thought of establishing a mall without doors. There the concept of departmental store emerged. His business expanded @ a speed of thought. He came up with many such formats like destination mall, central mall, radio central, central outlets, gold bazaar, home solutions retail e-zone, KBs rural wholesale market for retailers etc. Then they created a group-Future group which is an umbrella entity which includes every undertakings.

 The group has partnered with many companies like liberty shoes, Gini & Jony, Manipal Health Services, blue foods etc. However the bedrock on which the organization is built is relationship.

The pantaloon way

In the business the human capital and creative capital is as important as financial capital. According to KB, and many other companies like GE, working with trained people is okay, but they cant help in generating new ideas. You need to have creativity there. Being in fashion business, design is creative activity that connects the dots initially seemed to be unrelated, connecting the emotions and feelings of customers. KB believes that every big or small idea are given shape by idiom, design group. This team doesnt appoint market research, instead the team spend time on streets and observe people. And then they engage in collective idea-making. He believed in twin idea of constant growth and allowing others to grow. Upon this they came up with PANTALOON GENES.

The business of life

This chapter mainly talks about his personal as well as the business family. Family and friends-managing the family is no less important than managing the business. In their family there are a certain set of standards which no one can cross it even him. One of the most necessary step they took was to completely separate ownership, governance and execution. Within organisation their family members mostly concentrate on building and nurturing relationships with business partners and providing an overall guidance to the business. they may have different views, different approaches to the business but their overall feelings are in the best interest of the company they call this collective individualism multiple belief but a single goal.

SUCCESS IS THE SENSIBILITY, FAILURES ARE STEADY STEPS TOWARDS SUCCESS. ITS AN OPPORTUNITY TO IMPROVE, LEARN AND MOVE ON.

Who says elephants cant dance?

Creator preserver and destroyer-for an organization to grow and keep pace with the changing reality, it needs these tensions simultaneously. To begin with, every three years they have destroyed their existing organizational design. they started of as a garment manufacturer and launched a few brands. The next step was to establish their own retail chain for their fashion products and slowly they built multiple retail chain. Reaching out direct to the customer required a thorough understanding of different customer segments. For them gathering this knowledge was a prime focus so, they formed pantaloon knowledge group.

conclusion
In 2006, they took the next big leap. Future group was the outcome of new thinking that has come into the organization. The organization is now based on scenario planning, design thinking, innovation and ideas and new area of research like meme tics. From this Ive learned endless no. of things. It has enhanced my interpersonal as well as commercial skills. The most important characteristic that I observed in Kishore Biyani is that he grabs each and every opportunity and applies them @ right time! In addition to that he doesn't mind following rules or ideas initiated by others, i.e., he traps every good or positive things into his pockets(saravana stores, Sam Walton)

 This book is a winner from the word Go. His views on Trust & Relationships is significant. His quotes: ' If you approach your business with this framework in mind, then you shall see benefit in all interactions.' Most businessmen make the mistake of creating an environment wherein only then win. They see life only as a competitive arena & not a co-operative one. Relationships are built on principles, and not on the basis of power & position. However, this is not as easy as it sounds. To get to that level, every persons aspirations & dreams have to be understood & more importantly, addressed appropriately. Therefore, to build great relationships, sacrifices will have to be made.

THE END