Growth is Life

“My life time goal is – when an Indian spends 100 rupees, 60 should come in my pocket”

Don’t worry, this is not my statement, it is given by an honourable business man – Mr Mukesh Ambani.

And this ambition of his gave birth to the largest retail chains of the country “Reliance Retail Ltd”

R – E – T – A – I – L  ...

What an industry it is .. !!!  Full of zeal, energy, passion, competition and challenges, and even don’t expect any leaves but hear you even don’t have the right to fall ill.  

Talking about me, I work hard at my office, expecting that i will not pick up any phone when i am with my family, but NO, “no allowed” i have to receive calls from my company even while sitting on commode.      

Everyday there is a challenge; there is a new learning, new strategies and some unending jargons.

Every day, you have to play with digits, people, problems, IT etc ..

When i was in my college days, sometimes days used to pass and my cell phone did not ring even once and i used to think am i such an useless fellow? And today it keeps on ringing too much that I keep on finding excuses to get rid of my cell phone.

Every day, whether sun rises or not but, reliance will stores will open at 6 AM and at 8 AM for customers. A manager has to think of today’s agenda, and even for the near future season, to introduce some kind of seasonal sale in the store. “Christmas Special, Holi special, Valetines special, Shiratri Special ... etc and so on ... !!! 

Throughout the experience of retail, I have understood one thing - “The AAA (Triple A) therapy – Awareness, Amount, Advertisement”

In my book “Don’t sell product, sell dreams” (I doubt I can publish it) I have include a whole chapter of “triple A” therapy and its execution.

I need not to explain the meaning of those 3 words like we do in MBA answer paper. But the point is, any one word from the three will not work, the combination of those words is the key to open the pocket of customers.

I have heard thousands of customers telling to executives on the floor, “give me only those products that are on discounts” - irrespective of their usefulness to them.

“give me that product on which Kareena kapoor give an add”, “give me that product which is used by Ranbir Kapoor” – this are some of the common approaches of customers to purchase.

For Ex – “chings soup” average sale before the commercial add on Television was 10.6 packets a month and the same sale when up to 26 packets a month after add. It was the same chings and even now it was near expire still it got sold and digits multiplied.    

February 2014 – growth rate of my sale is 656 % growth; this is not at all a big thing, just learn some simple fundamentals of retail and you are done. There were still some bugs in my execution in Feb, the March LFL target I have predicted is above 1000%.

I remember, when I whet to my Ex – College of graduation – The KPES College, I was asked to deliver a formal lecture on me (I mean, what do I do and where am I today and all) – and one student asked me “sir, when the company introduces some scheme, do they really earn from it or it is just to liquidate the stock OR to make fool out of customer”

To answer this question, I had to tell him some of the things of the company that I am not permitted to. But still it gave him a answer

“OK, As a customer, what do you thing is the reason?” – I asked

“I am asking this question because, I have seen the malls, and I feel amazed the how this things are getting managed, lots of space expensive space, so many people working, lights, AC, Computers etc etc and still you manage give “DISCOUNTS” ?? – That student asked again.

I replied “YES” – Despite all the huge expenses, we manage to give discounts which on the contrary small retails cannot give for even not having any of the large expenses.  

It’s just a game of Numbers, profits, EBIT, and P & L.

Still a very long way to go and number of things to write down, in the next write up, i’ll tell in detail how the schemes are designed and executed.