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.

1. I hate sleeping

2. I have enjoyed my life in childhood

3. I can’t live without tension 4. I want to have disturbed family life

5. I believe in Geeta”Karm karo phal ki kamna na karo”

6. I don’t want to spend time with my spouse

7. I want to take revenge on myself

8. I wanted to break up from my friends

9. I want social boycott

10. I love to work on Sundays &holidays

The Art of Jewellery magazine did a study in December 2008 trying to find out from industry as well as people who had brought organized retail to the industry.

I was one of them & was quoted extensively in the article.

Some days ago, I met up with Hemant Shah an outsider, but veteran of the Jewelery business who had started his own business of Jewelery Retail - casual, chic, semi precious, precious.

He wanted some input on how this would be received via his unique ‘Jewellery on Wheels’ idea as well as the website.

My instinct reaction was - Brilliant idea, who is going to execute it? On hearing his answer that they would do it internally, my heart sank.

Since he had asked as a friend, I did not really push it much, but cautioned him about the pitfalls in terms of Consistency, Change, Coverage of area, backup.

Then, whilst I saw the enthusiasm that he was brimming with, wished him all the best!

Hemant Shah with his proud Vehicle

They launched it with 3-4 custom made vehicles by Dilip Chhabaria. Worked on the novelty value for a while & then due to other factors also, had to shut it down.

Economic Times answering this question What’s a Recession? has made a fair analysis with some writing about India

“Is India going through a recession?”

There is no doubt that India has been affected by the recession that has beset the US economy, especially in sectors which are export-oriented or are dependent on outsourcing. However, the RBI governor last week assured that India would not see recession even if uncertainty continued globally. He stated that growth would be moderate and pegged GDP growth for 2008-2009 at 7.5-8%(ET 2Nov) Read the rest of this entry »

2005/06 - Baroda, Ahmedabad, Surat, - New Destinations, money to burn, places to acquire, malls to be built.

2008 - Malls ready, high rentals, brands occupying, supposedly great footfalls BUT no conversion. And some have changed hands, closed so on & forth.

WHY? WHY? WHY? Read the rest of this entry »

A month ago, Bela a dear friend, who runs Spink Marketing a retail consultancy invited me for coffee at the TiE office early morning to meet some entrepreneurs, learn from them & her presentation and try to provide some inputs also.

Since the time was early morning, this was really tough, but decided to go!

The topics covered Global Retail challenges versus Local current challenges. Improving Services offerings in Retail context… creating more moments of “WOW”… Read the rest of this entry »

Indian Retail that had been rocking a year back is facing rocks today; some of it due to circumstances beyond control, but some definitely within control. Based on experience, discussions, talks over the past year……thought that some of these can be listed down…. Read the rest of this entry »

Devangshu heads Third Eyesight (website:http://thirdeyesight.in), a consulting firm focussed on retail and consumer products. Previously, he has held senior management positions in retail and management consulting organisations, and also co-founded a fashion sourcing company. Read the rest of this entry »

An email debate on the above initiated by Harris - Managing Director of Witco the chain of luggage speciality stores down south Read the rest of this entry »