I am always asked, how do you manage to recruit people without paying them the Sun, Moon & earth - that too in Retail.

I do not have many points or gyan on this, except that I am Upfront:

I tell people you’re in a very competitive industry.
I am always honest with them.
I tell them that I am Not right everyday, neither do I expect them to be. As long as they are 6/10 times and keep me informed about the others, it works for me.
The reason this works, because in the retail business, you’ve got to be right every single day. There is extremely high day to day intensity associated with retail.

I have been always an experimenter so to speak with basic applied technology (that is to say, I use what I am comfortable with) for the past 10 years and found it pretty effective.

Ryze, Blog, Linkedin, Facebook & finally Twitter used it all. Some good, some bad but it all balances out.

And it was in 2009 that I kept hearing this “Social Media” being used very often. Gentleman from a company that I was consulting about their Online foray kept throwing it to me and soon enough their agency got into the act, giving me the whole nine yards.

Trying to understand the entire social media jungle, I started delving deeper into it - reading about it, meeting people, trying my little experiments that I have chronicled on this blog.

After having joined my current organization, I was bombarded by everyone (except the peon, receptionist & driver) about online strategies, social media (there again) & how PR would help.

In a bid to get away from all these I finally caved in & agreed to meet the shortlisted PR agencies (three in number). And there began my nightmares…

All of them came in with the CEO/VP; Account Director; Account Executive and practically the same Power Point Presentation of 30 plus slides which could be broken up as:

1-10 About their company & our company (straight lift from brouchere)
11-20 About PR snapshots - how it works, value vs straight advertisements etc.
21-30 Social Media - snap shots - print screen of some clients

None of them could answer the following basic questions that should have been internally prepared at their end:

1) Why have you not studied the client? (not even googled it properly)
2) Do you think the client 106 years old has no clue of PR
3) Did the PR brief not tell you client expectations? In which case where are they on any of the 30 slides
4) Social Media - nice meaning from a host of sites etc. But do you think we need it? What should be our strategy? (Answer was FaceBook, Twitter & mind you our Ecommerce site is yet to go up)
5) How would PR work keeping in mind the recommendations? (Sir, worked for our other clients)

Nowhere during the course of the three meetings was the work complete integration, interaction with old, new consumers, commitment used anywhere. Retainer mila, bus kaam ho gaya. And YES they are yet to get back on the questions asked.

I guess this may be one of the reasons that some of my agency friends, acquaintances avoid talking shop with me, which actually may be a good thing.

But that leaves one with a Question - Is PR harnessing the power of social networking sites & blogs to help businesses generate strategic mind share & presence. and If so how many Indian Brands have enjoyed the fruits till now.

I sure would welcome suggestions, criticism, inputs, thoughts on the above….it does not matter whether you understand social media or not; whether you are an agency or client.

I had been hearing about Startup Saturday from Netra for a while, when one fine day in October, whilst cruising past on the Rajeev Gandhi Sea Link or #bwsl as made popular by b50 I received a call from Annkur asking me if I could attend the interactive session the following week.

In my enthusiasm, I said Yes, and had second thoughts when I received his email “Referring your talk at Startup Saturday, it would be great if you can share your experience with the psyche of Indian consumer in creating international brands out of what has always been a commodity.”

But it was too late, because by then Jeev Daya Netra Prabha had swung into action.

I reached there on the designated Date & Time, entered the room & saw some 35-40 people sitting there listening raptly to the previous speaker. I was hurriedly introduced to the Originator of the idea Aditya Mishra and waited for my turn. (Felt just like waiting before an exam)

Soon enough it was my turn & we started it off. Quite an interactive session it turned out to be, with a lot of questions flying back & forth, before it ended.

I managed to acquit myself reasonably well, I think & for those of you who had asked for a copy of the presentation startupsat10thoct09.

After Hypercity, the Star Bazaar is one of my favorite places to shop, mostly because of space, genuine deals, friendly staff & some nice food stuff.

A bachelor can actually make a nice meal out of their combos, made fresh twice a day. And their bakery is actually better than Hypercity.

However the location whilst, convenient is also a problem due to the heavy vehicular movement as well as the pseudo rich with attitude & absolutely no civic sense, whatsoever.

I fail to understand why they do not take the assistance of Traffic Police, like Hypercity has done in order to control everything. Do it for a couple of weeks & then people tend to fall in line.

Having been meaning to visit the Speciality Mall Ishanya managed to do so on the recent visit to Pune.

A lovely Mall, with ample of space, set in one end of Pune near the golf course is a very nice piece of architecture. And there ends the good things.

Some points that one notices….

• Directions are a bit vague if you go from any other road
• Security is a bit lackadaisical
• Lots of Parking
• Mall seems to be only 1/3 full

Desperation seems to be evident, because renting out the space in the atrium to churan stalls & some low competition is just not happening.

Yes, the recession can be blamed but there is a lot of catchment driven activity that the mall authorities need to undertake now especially to make it happen for the tenants.

I have been a admirer of Mr. Kishore Biyani since the time I first met him some 7 years ago. Over the years, I have had the chance of sitting with him in a group, hearing him speak at close quarters and agree with some of his comments about consumers.

Whilst I am not privy to how the group functions, what are the SBU and who makes what money, I am definitely sure that Big Bazaar after constantly being fine tuned has turned into a good money making machine which probably at times is supporting some of the smaller SBU’s.

Recently Big Bazaar celebrated its Anniversary Sale. Whilst at the Gym in Mega Mall last Monday, I received a call from my wife, requesting me to pick up some stuff. In my enthusiasm I replied in the affirmative & proceeded to the basement where it is located.

No 1 - There was a sea of Black Humanity extending right up the escalators. Looking at my confused state, one of the gaurds asked me if I wanted to Shop - ‘Of course, otherwise why am I here’ ; he gestured to me to use the right side & come down. On reaching there, I understood that the Q was for Gelato (Special offer Rs.9/-) Chaat (Rs.10 -15/-)   Learning: It is still possible to bring in people with a lead in that has no/little relevance to actual business done. Here the marketing write off may just be the space!

No 2 - Going inside, saw families treat the store as an Pre School Outing. Clothes, Stationery, Linen, Groceries all where ever there was a deal - it was being dumped - in trolleys with shouting across aisles ‘Kaun sa color’ ‘4 ya 6 lena’ Learning: Timing - Anniversary, school opening, related offers, price points, complete volume & value game.

No 3 - The vegetable & fruit side was nice & cool with practically no body really shopping. Answered soon enough by the staff - Wednesday everything will go off with the offers.                                                                                              Learning: Specific, Constant, Consistent ensured people & staff were clued in & ready.

No 4 - There were some good to great deals going on - some from the FMCG companies, some from Big Bazaar it self that are definitely not available anywhere else.                                                                                                                             Learning: Whilst Private Labels introduced & were gaining ground, the volume game or marketing tactics ensured that other Brands did not suffer, but were still in play.

No 5 - Cash Counters manned & opened all across, with Express ones making exceptions also.

Some Negatives that can be overcome immediately -

• Cleanliness - No housekeeping visible at any place whatsoever.
• Customers allowed to drink water, soft drink inside leading to problems.
• Staff whilst friendly, need to be neatly dressed or rather cleanly dressed
• The internal banter amongst staff, gaurds need to be controlled.

However, all said & done the consumer pulse & reaching into their pockets is what matters at the end. AND here Big Bazaar straddles the right spectrum, integrating itself completely with the needs of the consumer. It bridges the gap from the small, neighborhood kirana store & a hypercity, something which Subhiksha was also keen on doing, but failed. It provides half or more of what common man aspires - AC environment, in a mall, ability to look, touch things, decide on their own without push - all at probably less than the Kirana store (OK not all items). This leads to most of the consumers focusing on Value that they end up buying Volume, thus helping Biyani laugh all the way to the bank.

Eventually, some of these consumers would graduate to the next level and try Hypercity, Star Bazaar and be replaced by others - very similar to Gopinath’s Deccan Aviation and what I love to call the “Funnel Theory”

Soon after moving, studying, working across the country, we relocated back to Bombay as I remembered it and continue calling it.

Having settled down in our Palace (that could fit into our bath or kitchen back in Calcutta, Baroda) my wife went on finding spree, which being a Bombayite fluent in Marathi posed no problems, not that it gave her problems in Calcutta also.

Finding a dhobi, vegetable vendor (honest, good but important would give her the kind of vegetables she wanted) and finally the milkman. Our requirement was minimal on this front, nuclear family and all that jazz.

Found one at 4 bungalows - Sharma Dairy Farm - tied up & the delivery started. He grew his business, obviously not because of us, though thru references & neighbours did help.

A couple of years down the line, our nuclear family exploded, parents shifted to stay with us, we shifted houses yada, yada….the milk man followed…..

Some 5-7 years ago, one fine day, after the advent of mobiles, got a call from my wife to pickup some extra milk since some unexpected guests had landed. Asked the driver to take the road past the Dairy & park.

For the love of God I could not locate the dairy, but dreading the “kuch kaam ke nahi” tag if I called my wife up; braved the stupid looks people were giving me in my suit avataar marched up to an restaurant & enquired with a young pleasant looking gentleman on the counter.

Prompt came the answer ” You are standing in Sharma Dairy!” Then the man we knew came out, insisting that I have something kyon ki aap kabhi aaye hi nahi; bhabhiji knows & wished us etc. etc. Upon further enquiries, turned that his eldest son had completed his studies & so “thoda sa expansion kar liya”. Promising to visit them sometime again went away.

Over the years, found myself passing by, with a smile on my face whenever I passed the location. The delivery boys changed, older ones started sitting on the counters, became managers at the dairy. My wife also said his younger son was studying.

Today morning, on receiving a notice,

Milk Management Notice

I concluded that his younger son has completed his studies even MBA since I could see PPP implementation (Price, Productivity, Penalty) implementation happening at my old Sharma Dairy Farm….that was surely turning into a conglomerate, maybe a small one but still!

And this generation is bound to give headaches to the New Organized Retailers! They have everything going for them:

• Location
• Operation Capabilities
• Loyal & Trained Staff
• Structured Finance
• Ownership
• Focus to grow

Do let me know in case I have missed out something

Opening my Linkedin homepage & saw Mohit Nigam asking the question - Why every Retail Group wish to take the opportunity of recession to reduce their manpower instead of uniting team to fight with vigor to grow his organisation?

My take on this -

Playing the Devil’s advocate here - What would you prefer? shutting down the business finally due to financial losses or at least continuing with less people who are happy for the time being.

But there is a chicken & egg situation here. Sometimes the Top Down & sometimes the Bottom Up is what creates the problem.

E.G. Whilst launching the Business Model during good times, it is the top who at times forces an extremely optimistic view, leading to projected high growth thereby leading to over recruitment (maybe more than 20% also) reasons being cited - as varied as training takes time; competition shall take them away; we are very  aggressive. AND sometimes it the front level managers who think/are on a fast growth (not realizing that whatever goes up comes down - maybe faster at times) want to impress, consolidate, rise in their position project the future as Rosy….till the thorns hit.

Here it is also a fact that during recession, why do employees get more conscientious of their duties, time & are willing to go the extra mile WHEREAS earlier the same employees would be extremely insistent on a host of things.

So it cannot be a blanket statement - There are Bad Apples on both sides & this has to be kept in mind.

Have visited it a couple of times. Some observations about the mall.

There is always a good crowd, which means decent to good footfalls.

Security is good outside the mall, but there is always a line there. And just bag opening & frisking with the detector.

Was stopped from taking pictures inside by the management?? But clean facilities. Sale, Discount going on everywhere, with more than half stores wearing a deserted look. So where did the people go??? Food Court of course. Nicely laid out, with lovely seating, good food, different stalls than Inorbit.

All in all, a good place at a good location, easily accessible for people in the east, and in a couple  of months should do well for itself.

Arvind Singhal: Subhiksha and the Indian retail story

An interesting opinion by Arvind. However there are many aspects that bear some thoughts. When the going was good - India shining; Retail Rocking….everyone jumped on the bandwagon - consultants offering India on a platter, companies that had no clue about consumers (having spent a decade or more in the B2B space)started announcing 10/100/1000 stores in 3 years or maybe less; the search for retailers began (in a country where organized retail did not exist beyond the past 5-7 years), so bring in expats (expect them to learn India & deliver in a year) so on and forth.

This actually spawned a industry by itself:

Consulting on entry strategy/liaison/funding, property etc.
Search for people
Training
Realtors, Builders
Furnishing, Merchandising you name it.

We had experts all of a sudden with a bidding war being waged. A lot many employees took advantage of this shifting jobs every couple of months.

In all this euphoria everyone forgot/pretended to/avoided the fact & number game. So the 1st year losses accumulated & with a bit of creativity (maybe accounting/inventory management etc) it carried on to the next year & maybe another year; till the bubble burst from below.

Except for the funding companies; nobody was really in the finance business, so when bottom up everyone started asking for their money, the pyramid started collapsing. And there poor subhiksha was caught!

Whilst trying to understand their plight, the fact also remains that there was the board of directors who obviously met if not monthly, once a quarter; their auditors, bankers, vendors who all knew about this collapse - structured or otherwise. Here probably, everyone thought ‘why spoil a good thing’ someone is bound to take care of it….unfortunately that someone was no one.

And there endeth the first lesson for organized retailers!

I am not an analyst, industry leader or similar, however would like to ask…

How is this different from Satyam?
Even @ average of 5 people per store we are talking about 5000 minimum without a job, salary till may if they are lucky.

Take my word for it: There is going to be a Satyam in every industry to ensure CORRECTION for the rest of the players in that particular industry, which may not be bad at all in the long run.

However expecting people/companies to learn from this is a DREAM:)