It Happened in India - Kishore Biyani
After a long time, I read a book with excellent insights, and thought provoking. Kishore Biyani is the founder of Pantaloons and Big Bazaar, and he has written about his experiences with a refreshing candour.
Here are my takeaways from the book.
1. Innovation - Kishore Biyani has proved that you need to innovate to succeed. When most players were focused on transfering Western best practices to India, he went ahead with what he felt would resonate most with Indian customers.
2. Think masses - Most managers in India are concerned only with the elite. The majority of Indians are them, not us. As he mentioned, most of the ad agencies are filled with convent educated urban youth who think and speak in English, watch Hollywood movies, and listen to Western music. This in a country where 90 % of the people are comfortable only in their vernacular language!
3. Look beyond your comfort zone - Another thing that amazed me was that Kishore Biyani found it difficult to raise finances for his retail ventures even as late as mid - 1999. I was based in Bangalore around that time, and was familiar with the retail revolution occuring there around that time. Malls like Spencer Plaza in Chennai were already extremely popular, as were large music stores such as Music World. But as most of the finance companies were based in Mumbai, where modern retail had still not made its presence, it was not even considered a sunrise industry. If only these people had taken the trouble to step out of their AC offices to see what is happening in the more progressive areas of the country...
There are many more such telling comments in this book. I would strongly recommend this book to any marketer, entrepreneur, but, please, read it with an open mind...
Here are my takeaways from the book.
1. Innovation - Kishore Biyani has proved that you need to innovate to succeed. When most players were focused on transfering Western best practices to India, he went ahead with what he felt would resonate most with Indian customers.
2. Think masses - Most managers in India are concerned only with the elite. The majority of Indians are them, not us. As he mentioned, most of the ad agencies are filled with convent educated urban youth who think and speak in English, watch Hollywood movies, and listen to Western music. This in a country where 90 % of the people are comfortable only in their vernacular language!
3. Look beyond your comfort zone - Another thing that amazed me was that Kishore Biyani found it difficult to raise finances for his retail ventures even as late as mid - 1999. I was based in Bangalore around that time, and was familiar with the retail revolution occuring there around that time. Malls like Spencer Plaza in Chennai were already extremely popular, as were large music stores such as Music World. But as most of the finance companies were based in Mumbai, where modern retail had still not made its presence, it was not even considered a sunrise industry. If only these people had taken the trouble to step out of their AC offices to see what is happening in the more progressive areas of the country...
There are many more such telling comments in this book. I would strongly recommend this book to any marketer, entrepreneur, but, please, read it with an open mind...
Comments