Why are people being so secretive about everything? Doesn't everyone know that you could have the sales report, the business know how, the financial backing and all the great intentions of your key competitors and still not be able to replicate what has been done. If it was that simple you would have a zillion hotel chains like the Taj, you would not have a market leadership in watches like Titan and you definitely wouldn't own and operate a unique books, movies, music and gifts store like Landmark...
Curiously enough all the above mentioned retail chains belong to the Tatas! I have found the them to be one of the most open groups - they are both open to learning and they also are quite comfortable with sharing! About 7 years back when Retail was not yet a buzz-word I was with Titan. One of my more brilliant bosses had the idea that we should benchmark our practises with best in class examples we could find in the market. So we met Jet, Indian Airlines etc. (don't think Kingfisher was around yet) to benchmark loyalty programs, Barista and Coffee Day and some 5 star hotels for customer service, we even met saree shops like Deepam for customer interfacing and shopfloor treatment of customers...it was a great experience - everyone was so open. The exercise definitely led to our improving our practises - we were inspired by what we saw around us and super charged.
Fast forward to the years 2006-2009 - we find giants on the scene - companies that have amazing track records in business - but the sad part is everyone is trying to reinvent the wheels of retail excellence, privately in their own corporate boardrooms. People are hardly outsourcing functions like training, CRM etc...and they are all trying to build their own systems and processes for the same...little realizing that the moment you isolate the experts in the required fields to particular formats or organisations you are literally killing motivation, initiative, opportunities for inspiration. Moreover a lot of people making the 'hiring decisions' seem to be blind to the fact that they will get 'retail oriented' talent amongst a younger age group.
I have seen vast differences between say a 25 year old who has worked in a pantaloons and maybe an ad agency or two vis a vis a veteran of 20 years who has just worked as say a business manager for a brand. The youngsters are better networked with 'relevant' people - come any problem they seem to pick up the phone or blog their problems away - whereas a veteran would mull over the problem and hope business environment changes will blow the issue away.
I have always found talking about business dilemmas and airing the challenges you face, out in public - presents you with a plethora of solutions.
Currently there are far too many challenges we collectively face as new retailers in a new India. We must come together to discuss our issues and sort out our problems together so that we can take a giant leap forward. Believe me - the fundamentals of quality retail really do lie in building learning organisations and the only pool of knowledge that exists out there, is in the experience of thousands of retailing professionals who are all fumbling in the dark.
