Insights success the 10 fastest growing retail companies 2016
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This document is the September 2016 issue of Insights Success Magazine. It contains articles on various topics related to retail business and technology. The cover story provides an overview of BigBasket, India's largest online grocery store. It discusses BigBasket's founding, operations across 25 Indian cities, product range of 18,000 items including private labels, and vision to provide the best online grocery shopping experience. The article profiles Hari Menon, co-founder and CEO of BigBasket, and highlights key aspects of BigBasket's business model, growth strategies, and challenges in online grocery retail.
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Insights success the 10 fastest growing retail companies 2016
- 1. The way of business solutions Hari Menon Co-founder & CEO SEPTEMBER 2016 www.insightssuccess.in BigBasket: India's Largest Online Grocery Store Emerging Technologies and where do we stand as a Start-up Nation in Global Market… Beware How We Treat Our Employees during a Slowdown . . Employees have Elephant Memory . . Trends that are Driving e-Commerce in India Bricks and Mortar Stores Redefining Online Retailing Executive Talk Peaks & Valleys #Hashtag Challenges Retail Industry is Facing in India Behind the Scenes Beware How We Treat Our Employees during a Slowdown . . Employees have Elephant Memory . . Leader’s Thought Executive Talk Emerging Technologies and where do we stand as a Start-up Nation in Global Market… India's Largest Online Grocery Store BigBasket: THE 10 RetailCompanies 2016 THE 10 RetailCompanies 2016 Leader’s Thought Peaks & Valleys Behind the Scenes #Hashtag Fastest GrowingFastest Growing
- 4. s retail market is not uniform in India, especially in terms of Afulfilling needs when it comes to give preference to luxury. Also Indian market is less mature than European market where consumers seek fulfillment through experience. The needs of the Indian luxury consumers are fulfilled by very few players. Huge potential is lying in this segment as the market is still untapped. Hence, in order to target them better, it becomes very important to delineate the needs of the Indian consumer. In India, to be a successful retailer, it is necessary to gauge the mindset of the luxury consumer and their financial potential. To tap the huge potential of the diverse market, localization of luxury global brands is mandatory. Understanding the characteristics of luxury product market and accordingly developing the brands is the prime goal. And it has been seen in India, limited accessibility to luxury is a barrier to its growth and acceptability. For high-end merchandise, an insatiable appetite is fueling a boom in luxury spending. From expeditious cares to extravagant shoes, companies are cashing in on the new business of bling. Flabbergasting new shopping trends and unpredicted gender twists are propelling big luxury brands to newer heights. A new class of big spenders is out in full force, where women are spending like men and men are shopping like ladies. Beyond this role reversal, there is also a new class of shoppers who spend a lot and are setting the luxury world on fire. Now, consumers are demanding and getting extraordinary service from premium brands which are flocking the high streets. In a nut shell, based on convenience and customization, luxury products can be marketed more rather than the product itself. The marketer needs to focus more on selling larger quantity for mass products. And it can only be done through better pricing, larger channels of communication, multi-channel distribution and through attractive offers. Editorial Luxury Retail is the Darling of High Spenders Charlie Gupta
- 6. ,6 Insights Success Media Tech LLC 555 Metro Place North, Suite 100, Dublin, OH 43017, United States Phone - (614)-602-1754, (302)-319-9947 Email: [email protected] For Subscription: Visit www.insightssuccess.com Insights Success Media and Technology Pvt. Ltd. Ofce No. 513, 5th Floor, Rainbow Plaza, Shivar Chowk, Pimple Saudagar, Pune, Maharashtra 411017 Phone - India: 020-69400110, 111, 112 Email: [email protected] For Subscription: Visit www.insightssuccess.in [email protected] Editor-in-Chief Pooja M. Bansal Co-designer Art & Design Director Database Management Sharad Technology Consultant Vishal More Circulation Manager Swapnil Research Analyst David Business Development Executive Ketan,Savitri, Pooja, Gopi, Akansha, Ankush Co-Editors Abhijeet Parade Corporate Ofces: September, 2016 Amol KambleArt Editor Picture Editor Business Development Manager Manisha Priya Sonal Burghate Managing Editor Charlie Gupta Visualiser Harmeet Singh Ramgharia Marketing Manager Karishma Joshi Alex Noel Mayur Khapekar Rashmi Borkar Musna Mony
- 8. Challenges Retail Industry is Facing in India CXO Standpoint Bricks and Mortar Stores Redefining Online Retailing Trends that are Driving e-Commerce in India Content Page Cover Story Big Basket: India’s Largest Online Grocery Store Emerging Technologies and where do we stand as a Start-up Nation in Global Market… Beware How We Treat Our Employees during a Slowdown . . .Employees have Elephant Memory . . 32 Behind the Scenes #Hashtag Peaks & Valleys 28 20 38 22 8
- 9. Channelplay: India’s Leading Channel Management Company C-SQUARE: Controlling Your Business Anytime, Anywhere Discover Dollar: A Revolutionary Technology for Stopping Leakages and Overpayment iStreet Bazaar: Re-Engineering Retail LOGIC ERP: Scaling Up Your Retail Business NextOrbit: Mitigating Your Retail Out of Stock 3634 3026 2418
- 10. Hari Menon Co-founder & CEO BigBasket
- 11. India’s Online Grocery BIGBasket: LARGEST Store Every entrepreneur’s journey, when retold with the benefit of hindsight, can throw up valuable lessons on several aspects of managing a business. However, many such stories often tend to simplify the hardship that is entrepreneurship. The journey is often seen as a set of events that shaped up the venture to what it is today; but in reality, it is much more complex than that. There are several unexplained events, day-to-day challenges that often get left out in such narratives and most importantly, the role played by the team members in executing a strategy is often overlooked. The Journey of a Maverick Having said that, when an entrepreneur looks back at his or her own journey and asks the question “what could I have done better?” it gives a whole new perspective to the narrative. One such story to share here is that of a serial entrepreneur, Hari Menon, Co-founder & CEO of BigBasket. Born in 1963, Hari is an alumnus of BITS-Pilani and started his career with ORG Systems, subsequently moving on to work with many of the best and respected names in the country. Prior to starting BigBasket, Hari along with the founding team of BigBasket had co-founded Fabmart, one of the pioneers in the e-commerce in India and its physical extension, Fabmall. And before venturing out with BigBasket and Fabmart, Hari was the CEO of ‘Indiaskills’, the Vocational Education Joint Venture between the Manipal Group and City & Guilds (UK), as well. A lesser known fact is that Hari had also served as the Country Head at ‘Planetasia’ which was one of the first Internet services businesses in India, and had begun his career with ‘Wipro’ as a Business Head in the Infotech business. Pitching the Idea In December 2011, Hari co-founded BigBasket with a vision of setting up India’s largest and finest online food and grocery company. BigBasket is owned and operated by ‘Supermarket Grocery Supplies Pvt. Ltd.’ with operations
- 12. having commenced in 25 cities in India. It delivers the entire range of groceries, fresh fruits and vegetables, fresh meat, dairy products, breads, processed foods, toiletries, personal care products, gourmet foods and a wide range of household products. Their range has about 18,000 products, which includes a wide range of private labels sold under the BigBasket brand like Royal, Fresho, Happy Chef, etc. As of now, BigBasket is a purely internet based company and does not have any brick and mortar stores. Indelible Moment Hari got a call in July 2011 from his colleague and co- founder, Sudhakar, thanks to K. Ganesh reaching out to him on a potential opportunity in the online grocery space. It took exactly 2 to 3 minutes for him to say yes. The sheer joy of having to do a start- up again, together with the same friends from the earlier journey and in the same grocery space was fantastic. And that was the beginning of many memorable experiences that followed. Ideology of BigBasket BigBasket allows you to walk away from the drudgery of grocery shopping and welcome an easy relaxed way of browsing and shopping for groceries. Discover new products and shop for all your food and grocery needs from the comfort of your home or office. No more getting stuck in traffic jams, paying for parking, standing in long queues and carrying heavy bags- get everything you need, when you need, right at your doorstep. Food shopping online is now easy as every product on your monthly shopping list, is now available online at bigbasket.com. They are India’s best online food and grocery store. With over 25,000 products and over a 1000 brands in their catalogue, you will find everything you are looking for. Right from fresh Fruits and Vegetables, Rice and Dals, Spices and Seasonings to Packaged products, Beverages, Personal care products, Meats- they have it all. One can choose from a wide range of options in every category, exclusively handpicked to help you find the best quality available at the lowest prices. Approaching the Latest Trends The online grocery business is fast becoming a mainstream retail channel. And in the next 4/5 years, one will find at least two or three large multi-billion dollar companies in the country. As the leader of the company, Hari is pretty sure that big basket will be one of them. He also believes that the largest online grocery companies will be as large as the physical retailers that they have today. This is happening rapidly because for one, customers are adopting it as a mainstream channel. They are already seeing it as their market shares are as high as physical grocery retailers in the top metros. And that trend will take an even stronger foot over the next few years. Ourobjective is to provide our customers with the nest possible grocery shopping experience.It has always been our endeavour to deliver complete of greatquality“products with high availability and at competitive prices “to you a range
- 13. Green Basket Being green is part of the culture at BigBasket. An offline grocery store requires stocks to move from a regional distribution centre to the individual stores, and then someone from each family has to make multiple trips to the store to do their shopping. Supermarkets consume a lot of energy for lighting, air- conditioning and powering their refrigerators and freezers. They bypass these, bringing products to you straight from the wholesaler to your doorstep which cuts down on a lot of carbon emissions generated by the traditional supply chain and also reduces the number of cars on their roads. BigBasket minimizes the use of paper and plastic bags while delivering their products, rather all products are delivered in crates which are taken back and reused. Their fruit and vegetable trays are recyclable and they request their customers to return them so that they can reuse them. Crossing the Hurdles with Confidence One thing that hasn’t changed much is the inefficiencies in the supply chain. However, this is a universal challenge; there are three specific challenges that are unique to the e-format: People: 70% of their employees are blue collar workers. Getting the right people at the right time is obviously an ongoing problem; in addition, retaining them is also becoming a tricky problem. As the catchment dries up, they now go to smaller cities to hire them and provide them with affordable housing in the city of operations. This helps a lot in retention. Perishable Items: Sourcing, storing and handling fresh produce is one end of the problem; the other end is that fresh produce comes with an inherent problem of lower shelf life leading to high wastage. As a Co-founder, Hari thinks that they are one of the few in the world who are doing this well, with only 3% overall wastage. Their main focus has been on reducing the time between harvest and consumption. They are also committed to build a sustainable organic F&V and staples ecosystem. Perception: An online grocery is relatively new to the customer-inducing trial especially for perishables is a challenge. They have learnt that offering guarantees such as a no questions asked return guarantee on any product
- 14. reduces the risk perception in customer’s minds and makes it easier to induce trial. The other lesson that they have learnt is that customer’s response to a well-designed product - in the case of grocery delivery this means offering a wide range of products, offering convenient delivery options, offering competitive pricing and providing a consistent user experience. Main Triggers of Growth In 2016, BigBasket is currently at 40,000 orders a day. The main triggers for them would be customer’s need for convenience and superior service, technology, digital connectivity and a more cohesive e-ecosystem. The Customer Base To enhance the customer experience, BigBasket is in the process of making a transition to a larger warehouse, one which will allow them to stock a much larger range, thus improving availability and also allow them to move towards offering you same day delivery anywhere in the city. In addition, they are enhancing their technology back- end to do a fully automated picking process linked to real- time stock availability. This will allow them to make their order pick process error free. During this transition period, BigBasket is consciously reducing their capacity to handle orders to ensure that they do not fall short of their commitment to deliver all their orders on time. As a result, over the next one week, one may see that slots are not available next day. And also find that some products may be out of stock during this transition period. They expect to stabilize their entire process within the week and to resolve all issues related to availability and also increase their capacity by then. Delivery Areas BigBasket currently offers their services in Bangalore, Hyderabad, Mumbai, Pune, Chennai, Delhi-Noida, Mysore, Madurai, Coimbatore, Vijayawada-Guntur, Kolkata, Ahmedabad-Gandhinagar, Nashik, Lucknow-Kanpur, Gurgaon, Vadodara, Visakhapatnam, Surat, Nagpur, Patna, Indore and Chandigarh Tricity city limits. Roadmap to Flourishing Future In the coming years, it is believed that the largest online grocery companies will be as large as the physical retailers that they have today. This is happening rapidly because for one, customers are adopting it as a mainstream channel. They are already seeing it as their market shares are as high as physical grocery retailers in the top metros and that trend will take an even stronger foot over the next few years.
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- 18. Bringing Retailing to the Fore The 10 Fastest Growing Retail Companies 2016 n today’s evolving consumer centric environment and burgeoning competitive market, it is imperative for Imarketers to adopt a highly customised communication strategy where the channel medium is determined on the basis of the product and its demand. To swim through the tide and reach the other side, it is necessary for retailers, in fact for any industry to adopt a customized marketing channel strategy specifically for both luxury and mass products. The marketing for both the segments are like parallel streams originating from the same river, as they are different in terms of their brand identity, positioning, attributes, target market, and brand building process. In this issue of Insights Success Magazine, be sure to check out the cover story where ‘BigBasket’ allows you to walk away from the drudgery of grocery shopping and welcome an easy relaxed way of browsing and shopping for groceries. Discover new products and shop for all your food and grocery needs from the comfort of your home or office. No more getting stuck in traffic jams, paying for parking, standing in long queues and carrying heavy bags-get everything you need, when you need, right at your doorstep. Furthermore, while flipping the pages of Insights Success Magazine, look at the gigantic aura and the brand universe associated with the retail industry where companies are contributing in making a name for themselves right next to behemoths. BHAWAR GROUP, C-Square Info Solutions, ChannelPlay, Discover Dollar, Ezzego1, iStreet Network, LOGIC ERP, Next Orbit, Vinculum Solutions are the companies which have been catalogued in the Insights Success Magazine endeavour to deliver a complete range of great quality products with high availability and at competitive prices. Insights Success Magazine has collated the above list of fastest growing retail companies, certainly having marketing strategy for luxury products which needs to be highly customised as per the individual so that sense of brand universe is paramount. Insights Success Magazine has covered and presents you ‘The Fastest Growing Retail Companies 2016’, after shortlisting a long list of retail service provider companies where mass consumer products are manufactured with the purpose of selling huge quantity, hence they have all the basic concepts of marketing involved so that the reach is greater.
- 19. Management BriefCompany Name Discover Dollar helps retailers to discover hidden profits & capture overpayments by analyzing all data sources. Channelplay is a leading Sales Force Automation, Shopper Marketing & Channel Management company in India. Sundeep Holani Co-founder & CEO Channelplay channelplay.in C-Square is the leading solution provider of enterprise-resource- planning (ERP) software & business intelligence (BI) tool for the pharmaceutical industry in India. Sripal Bachawat & Sajith Thattalath Directors C-Square csquare.in Discover Dollar discoverdollar.com Subrahmanya Rao Founder & CEO Pradeep Malu & Lakshya Malu Founders iStreet Bazaar istreetnetwork.com istreetbazaar.com LOGIC ERP logicerp.com Swarndeep Singh MD LOGIC ERP is providing robust & comprehensive solution for distribution chain and this is powerful solution for Inventory, Scheme & Discount, Claim Settlement, Batch Controlling, Pricing, Taxation Account & Finance etc. NextOrbit nextorbit.com Kishore Rajgopal Founder & CEO NextOrbit is a cloud-based product that uses data sciences driven recommendations to Predict and Mitigate Retail Out-of-Stock. iStreet Network Ltd. is an Internet and Retail Catalogue company. Sanjay Bhawar Lunked Founder & Director BHAWAR GROUP bhawar.com Bhawar is one of the largest distribution house, DST & logistics provider for fast moving consumer goods in India. Ezeego1 ezeego1.com Neelu Singh CEO & Director Ezeegol is your online travel agent that offers you a one stop travel shop for cheap flight bookings, online hotel reservations, holidays & package tours, car rentals, bus tickets, cruises & more. Vinculum Solutions vinculumgroup.com Venkat Nott CEO & Founder Vinculum is a software company enabling the eCommerce ecosystem with powerful SaaS based products for Multi Channel retailing. Big Basket bigbasket.com Hari Menon Co-founder & CEO BigBasket (Innovative Retail Concepts Private Limited) is India’s largest online food and grocery store. The 10 Fastest Growing Retail Companies 2016
- 20. In the retail marketing industry, there is no clear leader and no great company. Companies that have not done focused evaluations of the vendors in this industry will increasingly do it because the spending share on this segment will become big. When that starts happening, the good companies will see more growth while the smaller ones will have to either get better or disappear. And this industry will see more organization and some clear leaders will emerge. Channelplay is one of them. Channelplay’s Raison D’etre Selling..... Everyone seems to hate it. People hate being sold to, and most sellers also only seem to do it grudgingly. Yet, every single person in the world makes a living because things get sold. It might be done in a better way. Channelplay exists to help people sell better. When people sell better, customers have pleasant experiences, sellers have better careers, their companies have richer shareholders, economies do better and countries progress. Channelplay is a retail marketing company that helps its clients sell more effectively. Within four years of existence, it has become one of India’s leading retail marketing companies and currently serves the world’s top mobile and PC brands. It is a leading Sales Force Automation, Shopper Marketing & Channel Management company in India. Managing over 5000 field staff, and working with over 60 clients in diverse industries, they’ve learnt from the challenges of delivering high-performance solutions. Inception Story It was in the year 2006 that the terrific trio squad of Sundeep Holani-CEO & Co-founder, Tushar-Co-founder and Suhas-Co-founder incorporated Channelplay Limited. These three did their MBA from IIM Calcutta. They always wanted to start a business together.Sundeep had around 4 years of retail IT consulting experience and have spent most of his time in the US and China where he got to learn how retail works and how IT is implemented in retail. Suhas and Tushar had worked for some of the biggest names in consumer products and services in India. While this trio took jobs from campus, they frequently shared business plans and discussed opportunities. Of all the plans discussed, Channelplay took off! Services Proffered by Channelplay Channelplay has 5 verticals within which they operate. In the first one, they do Advocacy directly, for this they have a large team of sales representatives who represent brands and position themselves inside the stores; these can vary from big brands like Croma, Reliance Digital etc. to small mom & pop stores in markets across the city. Channelplay: India’s Leading Channel Management Company The 10 Fastest Growing Retail Companies 2016 18 || September 2016
- 21. Another service that drives advocacy in a way is their Training and Development service; in this Channelplay provides extensive training to the employees recruited by the retailers themselves. They ensure that they are capable enough of dealing and selling off their brand’s products. Thirdly, they provide Visual Merchandising (VM), already catering to around 15000 stores in the country, their team of VM experts visit the store and ensure that maximum brand visibility is attained. This can be done by ensuring the proper arrangement of stock, deployment of collateral in the form of posters, danglers etc. The fourth thing Channelplay does is Mystery Shopping & Audit. They have their Retail Intelligence Vertical, in which they do retail audits, mystery shopping, wherein a person would go to these outlets, announced or unannounced, like a shadow-customer. This enables Channelplay to analyze their shortcomings and performance. Lastly, it is Experiential Marketing, where they do activations, events, promotions etc., making the brand visible outside the store environment, enabling the foot-falls to raise which in turn becomes the fulcrum for the other 4 services. Uniqueness of Channelplay Channelplay is one of the few professionally managed companies in the space. Its large footprint of over 5000 employees, revenue of around 150 crores in various cities across India gives their 60 clients unparalleled reach. Channelplay is also at the leading edge of technology implementation to drive efficiency and transparency in its services. Channelplay can be rated as among the best in the world in technology implementation. Future Outlook Channelplay is focused on the Indian market, at least for the next couple of years. There is a lot more they want to do to bring operational and process excellence before they increase their geographical footprint. On the revenue side, things are growing satisfactorily, and they would like to keep the momentum. The long-term plan is to be India’s best and biggest, and to be listed on the NSE. www.channelplay.in ““We aim to be one of India’s best channel management companies so that we can provide meaningful work experiences and growth opportunities to our people, and deliver great value to our clients Sundeep Holani Co-founder and CEO The 10 Fastest Growing Retail Companies 2016 September 2016 || 19
- 22. Indians are known for their ‘street smart’ economic mindset that enables them to find solutions to impregnable challenges despite the constraints. This is the similar ‘innovative mindset’ which is making Indian entrepreneurs embrace analytics, digitisation, and technology to develop platforms and deliver services and products to the end customer creating a new online buying behavior. In the context, India’s retail opportunity is substantial and affected by several factors such as the rising standards of living, hyper-connected young population, upwardly mobile middle class, the explosion of social media platforms, deeper internet penetration, and increased smartphone penetration. So, a significant growth of e-Commerce is expected in the next two years. Gaining Momentum of Government Initiatives The Government of India has been active in leveraging and embracing e-Commerce digital platforms to transform and organize traditional offline markets such as those of agricultural product. The Government has launched an e- commerce platform to link the farmers with the vegetable markets of various states to sell the agro commodities. Also, flagship initiatives such as Start-up India, Digital India, Skill India, and Innovation Fund are contributing to the growth of the e-Commerce industry. Increase in the Internet Penetration The e-commerce industry in India has been growing with the rise in the internet penetration due to major improvements in the telecom infrastructure. While the 3G and 4G services are making a way into India along with declining data tariffs, internet data spend is growing significantly. Even when India ranks the lowest in Asia in Trends that are Driving e-Commerce in India 20 || September 2016 Peaks & Valleys
- 23. internet speed, the data rates in India are 3 times cheaper than in the US and 2 times cheaper than in China. Government schemes such as a National Optical Fiber Network (NOFN) can significantly increase the internet penetration in the rural communities as well as provide a means for e-Commerce companies to tap the huge market potential there. Growth in Smartphone Adoption Smartphone growth has been massive over the years and is expected to exhibit more growth in the coming years. The smartphone’s adoption in India is propelled by several factors such as low prices due to high competition, ease of accessibility to content, and prevalence of internet enabled services. According to a report, India has the highest share of globally 41% of mobile based e-Commerce sales. Almost 70-75% of the online traffic of e-Commerce sites come from mobile phones, the leading e-Commerce companies stated and thus higher revenues are coming from mobile applications like 50% for Flipkart while 70% for Quikr. Evolution of New Payment Solutions Cash on Delivery (CoD) has been the most popular mode of payment for Indian e-Commerce transactions. Cash transactions result in high administration cost even for the e-commerce companies. Hence, to address these challenges, new digital payment solutions are evolving. Further, the Indian government’s initiative has extended banking facilities through the ‘Jan Dhan Yojana’ scheme which has added over 110 million debit cards thereby providing these customers access to electronic payments. The electronic wallets have been launched and also digital payment products from traditional banks for faster transactions to ease the payment process in e-Commerce. Partnerships of Logistics Space with Hyper-local Companies and India Post Customers are getting next-day delivery of products. Due to the challenges in terms of return orders, higher standards of customer service, and handling huge volumes of delivery, the industry has seen the rise of several third-party logistics service providers that handles last-mile deliveries. There is an increasing number of partnerships of e-Commerce companies with the third-party logistics service providers in order to reach mainly in tier two and three cities. Also leading e-Commerce players have their own logistics arms for enhanced customer experience and for greater control on deliveries. GST to Enhance the Growth of e-Commerce GST is expected to enforce a single comprehensive indirect tax regime that will be applicable across on the supply of goods and services across all states. The implementation of GST is expected to include the service tax, central excise duty, and additional customs duty at the central level and CST, VAT, and entry tax at the state level. It will enhance an operational efficiency of the e-Commerce industry in the many ways like the transparency and simplification of taxes across the borders in India, elimination of the incidence of double-taxation, and improvement in the efficiency of the supply chain. The e-Commerce is changing the lives of millions, but there are also a number of people who prefer offline shopping. If e-Commerce is to make a huge impact in the coming years then these trends will definitely affect the business. September 2016 || 21 Peaks & Valleys
- 24. s kids, we were always curious to know ‘do Aelephants really have a strong memory’ and ‘do they really remember / recall their experiences throughout their life?’; many of us believe it’s a YES because we have witnessed how the ‘Chain around their legs’ makes them domesticated. Humans are also no different from them, we grow up to be what we are based on our past experiences. The last 18 -24 months hasn’t been easy for either the employers or the employees as the organizations have initiated quite a few steps to cope with these tiring times. While some of them are quite justifiable & ethical but at the same time quite a few of them are irrational which have caused more damage than doing any good. Nobody debates on the ‘tough calls’ as they are the need of the hour but I guess most of us would agree that the approach adopted to get these done are something which could have been more sensitive and careful. For arguments sake, how do we pass an unpopular decision’s information (Organization or through someone else) or who passes the information (Leadership or someone unknown) etc. For example, it would probably be easy for an employee to go back to the families and share sensitive news like losing jobs, pay cuts, freeze of bonuses, no perks etc. in a planned & proactive manner at his / her pace, rather than reading it through newspapers first and thereby not being ably equipped to answer family and friends when probed. If we have to summarize Employees experiences, they would range from ‘shocked’, ‘disbelief’, ‘feeling cheated’ to ‘feeling completely helpless’ etc. None of the above experiences are something which anyone would like to recall or cherish. So what has triggered these experiences, predominantly we can consolidate into three reasons. Leadership Vacuum Employees have always believed that their leaders would lead from the front, in normal times or in crisis. But many of them woke to rude reality that these leaders were either too shy to discuss these matters in open or be available to clarify on the actions initiated as the crisis grew. ‘Leadership based on convenience’ is something which has never been and will never be popular among employees. Lack of Maturity in Policy Management To add to this confusion & chaos was the HR outlook towards People Policies. For example, what is rational to have all those weekend ‘Biryani’ parties when times were good or take away something precious & critical like late night dropping by ‘taxi’ in name of cost rationalizations. The Way We Communicate, Matters When we can communicate in an open-hearted one to one discussions why do we take the route of emails which are of non-Personal mode. We all have experienced that non- personal communication only heightens the crisis and don't act as softener because invariably they leave the interpretation of message to the reader and don't give an option of clarifying. Cut Cost, NOT CONVERSATIONS Cutting cost is a vital component of survival and there is no denial to it. But cutting conversations is something which we all can avoid for sure. Now is the time for more ‘Open Houses’ and ‘Town Halls’ than ever. Now is the time for Open Hearted Discussions and Confessions. Now is the time for investing TIME rather than divesting time away from employees. Where is the WAR CRY? Critical times lead to confusion and chaos and the best way Beware How We Treat Our Employees during a Slowdown . . . Employees have Elephant Memory . . 22 || September 2016 Leader’s Thought
- 25. to resolve them is to build momentum and singular focus among all the employees. The best way to do so would be by identifying one Big Target / Goal and build a war cry towards it. Lead by Listening Leadership across the broad from the CEO to Managers have to spend time with the employees not so much in explaining the rationale behind the decisions but in listening to them and clarifying the apprehensions and misconceptions they may have. It is important & critical to note that the anger is not so much about ‘what’s happening’ but ‘the way’ it is being handled. The anger may subside if we only agree to be transparent to them and treat our employee as ‘rational & matured adults’ and not with kid gloves. Believing that they have ‘short memory’ and they will forget and forgive us as soon as we announce the next biryani weekend party is definitely a bad idea. About The Author K Srinivas Rao, Chief Strategist and Partner, is a human capital strategist with the expertise of 23 years across Human Capital Value Chain. Prior to The Strategist, he was heading Strategy - HR at Satyam Computer Services. Formerly, he held management roles at various levels in CATS (Computer Associates-TCG), Baan Info Systems, Ernst & Young, Videocon International. An avid writer and guest speaker on the subject of Change Management and Human Capital, he wrote 5 books under the “101 Smart Ideas Series” published in 2015, “Managing HR Issues in a Merger” - published in the Handbook of Business Strategy 2002,“Whispers of a Devil in an Angel”,“Principles and Practices of Management”. He also co-authored a book titled ‘Unconscious Leadership Conspiracy’ and has published more than a dozen articles in International & National Publications. Mr. Rao holds dual Masters’ degrees and attended Indore School of Social Work, where he topped the class of '93 and later pursued Masters in Military Sciences. Currently, he is a Research Scholar at XLRI Jamshedpur and a visiting faculty at ISB and IIM Indore. He was awarded “HR Leadership Award” in 2008-09 by Employer Branding Institute and Super Achiever as HR Professional in 2006 by Indira Group and Fun & Joy Institute. K Srinivas Rao Chief Strategist & Partner The Strategist September 2016 || 23 Leader’s Thought
- 26. C -Square with its ability to create advance technology solutions, which bridge the requirement gaps, has emerged as the leading solution provider of Enterprise-Resource-Planning (ERP) software & business intelligence (BI) tool for the pharmaceutical industry in India. Artisans behind C-Square Sripal Bachawat & Sajith Thattalath, Directors of C- Square come from a pharma background. Sripal started his career as an Operations Manager in a Pharmaceutical Distribution company which gave him the deep knowledge of the demand side business of Pharmaceuticals in India. Sajith, being the technical person has been providing Pharma solutions for the past 26 years. The synergy of both these founders has resulted in solutions tailor-made to the requirements of the Pharma industry in India. Their first solution was PharmAssist, which is positioned for Pharma Wholesalers. The major concern for Pharma wholesalers in 2002, when they started C-Square, was exercising process control on a distribution business where the volumes are high due to the high number of brands in each company's portfolio. This added a dynamic situation every time as the number of batches in circulation kept increasing. Reverse logistics was another area where they ensured clean process discipline. The process adherence was essential keeping in mind the tenets of the Drug Rules in India. Exclusive Services Proffered Go Green SFA (GGSFA) is the cloud-based sales force automation tool designed to improve the effectiveness of the medical field force with access on the go with both mobile and web interfaces. The solution has been designed specifically for the medical field force in India, giving them easy to use data capturing pages, ensuring higher acceptance levels and thereby enabling the decision makers to take proactive measures in the very competitive and fragmented Pharma sales and marketing industry in India. GGSFA is currently having more than 25,000 users and trusted by over 60 companies. Go For Plus (Go4+) enables stakeholders, internal customers to access the required information at a click of a button. It streamlines and integrates multiple functions and systems into one solution and gives total visibility and control of operations. Simple yet powerful, Go4+ serves as your primary business management application. No more duplication, inefficient data entry, and reconciliation bottlenecks. Go4+ is used in over 430 C&Fs across India. PharmAssist(PA) is their oldest and most mature application for the distributor segment of the Pharma supply chain. In volume driven revenue seen in distribution, ultimate control at all the employee touch points in the work flow is the hallmark of a mature specific business application. PharmAssist not only offers all this but also removes human intervention in reports and statutory returns. C-Square has more than 500 PA customer base across India. Pharmsoft is the widely accepted and copied solution for the standalone pharmacies. It offers ease of use and also a 360o view of the customer eco system. It also incorporates the digital CIMS which helps the user to get a deep dive view of the myriad brands in the Indian Pharma market. They have more than 3600 installations across the country for Pharmsoft. C-SQUARE: Controlling Your Business Anytime, Anywhere The 10 Fastest Growing Retail Companies 2016 24 || September 2016
- 27. Eco Green is the flagship brand for the retail chains and also functions as an e- commerce engine. Eco Green is an ERP which can be deployed for distributed enterprises and has a depth of user profiles which encompasses the front end POS user to the warehouse manager and the picker. It also has a fully functional accounts and finance functionality. The Clientele C-Square is attaining new heights of success and transforming their dreams into reality and satisfying their customers by providing solutions which act as force multipliers to the Pharma demand side business players. Secondly, focus on sales with concentrated actions and concerted response consistent with the need of the market. And lastly, provides solutions which are customer centric and scalable with the needs of the business. Future Perspective C-Square is making big strides in the e-commerce segment with apps for both the B2B and B2C. Pharma Industry is a brand driven market with over 70000 brands. This results in inappropriate stocking, making the journey of shoppers quite complex. Besides, the insufficient stocking of the key fast moving brands creates friction of non-availability of essential drugs. This raises the need for creation of advanced technology solutions to bridge the requirement gaps. Offering an e-commerce ordering platform (B2B) that gives the stock positions of the supplier in real time is what is going to set them apart. Other than this C-Square is actively involved in apps to ensure patient adherence to the drug regimen. This is another area where more activity will be seen as health care providers have realized the power of the mobile as an aide. ““ Sripal Bachawat & Sajith Thattalath Directors The 10 Fastest Growing Retail Companies 2016 September 2016 || 25 Our biggest marketers are our own customers. They speak for us and we consider ourselves as their partners in progress
- 28. Discover Dollar: A Revolutionary Technology for Stopping Leakages and Overpayment Retail Industry is mostly affected by leakages and over-payment. This has been absolute nightmare for merchandise managers and management where significant portion of Gross Margins were lost due to over- payment and under receipts. But Bangalore based fast growing startup Discover Dollar Technologies Pvt. Ltd have developed cutting edge technological solution to effectively overcome problems of over-payment and provide real-time analytics. Discover More with Discover Dollar Discover Dollar helps retailers to detect and resolve overpayments, missed discounts and un-recovered vendor incomes. Their powerful algorithms can scan through all available data sources including unstructured data like emails and contracts and notify relevant people in organization about potential overpayment and resolve it by just a click of a button. Backbone of Discover Dollar Subrahmanya Rao (Subu), Founder & CEO of Discover Dollar Technologies is a dynamic young professional with extensive knowledge in Retail, Merchandise and Recovery Audit Industry. Prior to Discover Dollar, Subu had startup in Education space and worked for Atlanta based company where he was involved in recovering multi-million dollar over-payments made by Retailers. He also has an MBA from SDM-IMD in 2010 and student entrepreneur during his graduation. Subu was the only delegate representative chosen from India for prestigious TiECon 2015 in Silicon Valley. He was also a part of NASSCOM's “Innotrek” delegation to Silicon Valley, where brightest Indian startups with global ambition are taken to San Francisco to meet the best startups, founders and investors of Silicon Valley. As a founder of the company, Subu has developed a break- through solution which can detect & resolve over-payments made by retailers in real-time. Over the period of his career, he wore many hats as a Founder, Analyst, Auditor, Developer, Architect, Marketer, Manager, Mentor and Strategist. Subu is also very keen on learning new technology & trends. As a result, he has ability to solve complex problems by applying concepts from multi- disciplines. As an Individual, Subu is highly motivated, creative and quick learner. He not only has big ideas, but also has passion & ability to execute. Subu always look forward for challenging assignments where he can apply his skills and learn new things. Services Proffered by Discover Dollar The dynamics of retail is changing at a very fast pace. The change is demanding new way of looking at old problem. Discover Dollar is here to help their clients in gaining new insights to client's merchandise operation. With Discover Dollar solutions their clients will be able to see Vendor Profitability, Margin distribution across categories, Vendor Compliance, Spike Report, Target GP to Actual GP, Margin Shrinkage Report, Bill Back Allowance Report etc. And with this analytics successful retailers will drive value and enhance profit in sustainable fashion. Their services include: Recovery Analytics: They recover overpaid amount to vendors due to various reasons like system error, process error, human error, policy change and more. They get into deeper insights to achieve sustainable profits. The 10 Fastest Growing Retail Companies 2016 26 || September 2016
- 29. Merchandise Analytics: They help retailers with their valuable insights into retailer's merchandise procurement, profitability and margin analysis, vendor performance and many more custom reports. This will essentially help their customers to make better negotiations and deals with the vendors. The Customer Base Discover Dollar (D$) had built robust revenue leakage capturing product but had difficulty reaching out to large customers especially Fortune 500s. Target provided an opportunity to D$ to validate their product through its accelerator program. D$ got its first customer and now reached out by multiple Fortune 500 for implementing solution. Discover Dollar helps corporations discover more profits and cash flows by identifying revenue leakages and overpayments by analyzing various data sources includes emails & contracts. Discover Dollar’s product was validated during Target Accelerator Program and is now used by Fortune 500 retailers to capture multi-million dollar revenue leakages including Target Corporation which is second largest discount store in United States after Walmart. Discover Dollar has helped to save more than $50M of revenue leakage to be captur ed in right time which is commendable. Awards and Recognition Discover Dollar’s solution was awarded globally “Top 5 Most Innovative Solution” by SAP in Florida. Their solution is sought by Fortune 500 Companies with multi- billion dollar revenue. They were part of Target Accelerator and have Mr. Shibulal (ex-CEO Infosys) and Mr. Lalit Ahuja (ex-CEO Target India) as mentors. Also, they were part of Wharton Business School’s Case study “Technology & Entrepreneurship in India”. Brightest undergrads from Wharton Business School and IIM Bangalore have interned with them for consecutive two years. Discover Dollar is featured among ‘Emerging 20 Retail Software Companies by CIO Review 2015’. Subrahmanya Rao Founder & CEO ““$1 Million is lost for every $1 Billion in Sales by Retailers The 10 Fastest Growing Retail Companies 2016 September 2016 || 27
- 30. Bricks and Mortar Stores Redefining Online Retailing rop in a profit of retail, closure of stores, the Demptiness of the malls are proclaimed that the internet is taking down another industry yet. In contrast with the past, Brick and mortar stores are appearing in the yellow pages. Recently, the Census Bureau delivered a data report showing that online retail sales surged 15.2 percent between the first quarter of 2015 and the first quarter of 2016. The data report shows that only 0.8 percent of retail sales transformed from offline to online between the beginning of 2015 and 2016. In the past decade, some online companies in the US have announced its physical existence to better market their products, increase online traffic and sales, and forge closer customer relations. At the same time, Amazon includes specialty and clothing stores like Casper Warby, Birchbox, Parker, and Bonobos. This movement also shines back the broader industry essentials over the multi-channel retailing, where Retailers’ prime focus was just to provide the products to their customers with a seamless experience be it online shopping through a desktop or at a traditional retail store. For an instance, Macy’s and Nordstrom, invest an estimated $6.4m and $4m in paid search records for the highest thousand attire related keywords in the first quarter of 2015, as per the study from L2 Inc, a research firm, tracks digital brands. As per the L2 report, Clicking on an online site is not appropriate to the highest-placed search ads, with little room for differentiation. Which ultimately means, the ads which have been running for a long time, have high rankings, and a high impression share in highly competitive markets. The report describes “evolved retailers”, online merchants that have opened brick and mortar storefronts. What was the reason to do this? Actually, they want to create awareness among the customers and make them safe in the area of retail marketing. Also, for its vendors and personal products like jewelry, clothing, and eyewear selling the material as per the request of their customers’ needs. Many of the offline forays have come up with a trail attempt shop just before announcing their new innovative stores especially in high-profile shopping areas such as SoHo neighborhood in New York, Michigan Avenue in Chicago. And, as per the response they have enlarged their stores rapidly. “The big benefit of the flagship stores is that they’re terrific marketing vehicles,” opined Jason Goldberg, who is the Senior Vice-President of Commerce and Content at digital agency Razorfish. “Not only do those stores tend to be economically successful on their own but they generate a huge lift in incremental shopping to the online store.” Even talking about Warby Parker, they have built a popular brand by selling fashionable, elegant eyewear frames for 28 || September 2016 #Hashtag
- 31. just under $100. In 2010, three years later, they have started their online flagship Soho and today, the company has twenty stores countrywide, also aiming to plan twenty more to add in this year. Dave Gilboa, Co-founder and Co-chief Executive of Warby Parker stated the company stores which have been open at least two years are already profitable. “We also see a halo effect where stores themselves become a great generator of awareness for our brand and drive a lot of traffic to our website, as well and accelerate our e-commerce sales,” he further added. At the same time, other e-tailers have started their showrooms which are emphasized on the basic essentials. This technique enables customers to size and sample products while lessening real estate and other traditional retail value. Bonobos, one of the best-known brands for menswear, adopts this technique, and its 20 other stores allow its customers try on clothing while orders are available online with the home delivery option. Also, one point because men agreed with it, while shopping at the store they were unnecessary compelled by the shopping bags. “This supported our idea of using Bonobos.com as the place to fulfill orders, so we didn't have to worry about stocking inventory in a location and we could focus more on the customer experience,” stated Erin Ersenkal, Bonobos’ Chief Revenue Officer. And the result was Bonobos’ stores gained twice profit just because of its online approach. Likewise, Blue Nile, a jewelry e-tailer, has opened its first standalone outpost in the Roosevelt Field mall on Long Island. As per Harvey Kanter, CEO of Blue Nile, Consumers are denying to buy online just because they are not being able to see and touch and feel the product. As compared with other e-retailers categories, jewelry still has less penetration online, stated Kanter. Venturing offline is a way to motivate the vendors for its higher growth. Since June, Blue Nile has seen a rise in traffic and sales in the area around its first Long Island location. Now, they plan to open their other three to four Webrooms in this year. However, Claude de Jocas, research shows on the L2 study, stated the advantages of economies of scale could result into some more locations added. “Some are also beefing up their physical retail teams with senior-level hires, suggesting aggressive expansion plans are in the works,” she added. If talking about Amazon bookstore, this is linked to its site closely. In Amazon books there is a list of titles displayed if the customer wishes to select books in a particular field. These books are detailed with the users’ reviews and ratings. Each and every book is displayed face-out with a barcode to look at the price using its app. Also, the outlet allows people test drive its devices such as the Kindle e- reader and Fire tablets. Today, Retail is evolving with great products and services. In other words, flexibility is the key by which retailers can follow their customers and improve their products as per their requirements. In coming decades, let see how the shopping and buying experience will changed in each retail category. September 2016 || 29 #Hashtag
- 32. Technology is transforming business world over. However, its India story is a bit different. India is the second most populous country in the world and still e-commerce (non-travel) has touched ~3 percent of the population and less than ONE percent of Retail. India just doesn’t adopt technologies and processes the way they operate elsewhere around the world. Few inherent reasons like a reach, education (know-how), trust etc. prompted us to innovate and adapt the eCommerce process for India India and we created iStreet Bazaar” says Lakshya Malu, co-founder of iStreet Bazaar. The Trailblazers Pradeep Malu and Lakshya Malu are the Co-founders of iStreet Bazar. They have been selling products from clip to car ONLINE since 2007. And their biggest online consumer auction of selling a car for over Rs. 30 lacs is still a benchmark in India. Pradeep is an Entrepreneur and a Chartered Accountant, received several recognition for his work and recently he is a recipient of ‘Business Leader of the Year 2015’ award from the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India. Lakshya graduated as a Mechanical Engineer from Boston University, USA. After graduating he returned to India and has been working on various eCommerce projects since last 5 years. He conceptualized and executed the concept of Internet Retail in India which has now taken a shape and called ‘iStreet Bazaar’. His mission was to build technology and process whereby common people of India can benefit from the same. He has worked on several projects at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, New York, Cyber Materials LLC, Boston etc. The Journey While narrating the inception story of iStreet Bazaar, Pradeep accentuates, “Few years back, when my office assistant Yadav asked me an advance of Rs. 2,000 to buy a mobile handset. He said he liked a particular handset and that was available in the nearby mobile shop for Rs. 1,900 as against the MRP of Rs. 2200.” “I suggested him to wait for one more day to get a better deal.” “I searched the model online and to my surprise, the same model was available on one of the websites for Rs. 1,250. I bought him that and saved huge money for him,” says Pradeep. “Yadav was very happy as he was able to buy a mobile handset which he liked the most and saved Rs. 650. And a couple of more such instances made me think, how the benefit of technology can reach 100 crore common people of India,” opines Pradeep. Lakshya heard this story and suggested to build a technology and a process to be able to take this benefit to the common people of India. They created a concept of Internet Retail store, which is a fusion of online-offline and would re-engineer the existing Retail formats like Mom & Pop store, Modern Retail and eCommerce. iStreet Bazaar: Re-Engineering Retail The 10 Fastest Growing Retail Companies 2016 30 || September 2016
- 33. Pitching the Idea iStreet business model is a fusion of online (eCommerce) and offline retail. The objective of iStreet Bazaar is to use technology to empower the local store or the local entrepreneur and in turn give access to huge product & service choice to every common person of Bharat. They are setting up ‘iStreet Bazaar’- India’s first Internet Retail Store Chain across India to take benefit of eCommerce to smaller towns and villages and even to common people of metro cities. It would give the common man the benefits, comfort and joy of shopping thru the Internet. iStreet Bazaar through its world class platform and network stores offers thousands of products and hundreds of brands at extremely competitive prices so that customers in smaller towns and villages can easily buy products which otherwise won’t be available in their area. iStreet Bazaar eliminates payment related issues that arise when transacting online. In Trend- Buying ‘Online’ in a trend which brings in geo & price parity. They evolved ‘iStreet Bazaar’ where anyone, literally anyone, can buy products of their choice at the best price. The objective of iStreet Bazaar is to enable every common person to buy what he / she wants with ease and at great online prices. iStreet Bazaar also puts a face to the online transaction since the customers will be transacting at a store with a person behind the counter. This increases the level of trust that is necessary for any online purchase. In the Indian scenario, this definitely becomes a big advantage for the stores since trust is one of the key factors in the adoption of eCommerce. They started the project in January 2014 and in just 30 months, they have created over 5700 stores across Western India with over 1.8 million transactions nd during its 2 year from just ~40,000 transactions in the first year registered a growth of over 4500%. It’s growing and its one of the top 10 fastest Retail companies in India. Certainly, it is a great Indian story. It’s a true Indian project impacting every India-especially, common people of India. It is one of the top 10 fastest Retail company which not only growing but also Re-Engineering Indian Retail. In time to come, when fusion retail or Internet Retail is talked about globally, iStreet Bazaar shall be the first name which has been able to simplify eCommerce for the common people of India. ““ Pradeep Malu & Lakshya Malu Founders Our objective is to enable every common person to buy what he/she wants with ease and at great online prices so that they save money – paise bachao, life banao The 10 Fastest Growing Retail Companies 2016 September 2016 || 31
- 34. The Indian Retail industry is one of the top five retail industries in the world and has emerged as the most dynamic and fast-paced industry. It accounts for over 8 percent employment and around 10 percent of India’s GDP. The Indian Retail Market is expected to nearly double by 2020 from 2015. But there are some challenges the retail industry is facing in India. Indian Consumer A decade ago, the Indian consumer used to save most of his income and purchase the bare necessities. The Indian consumer was satisfied with only necessary requirements. There was no place for unnecessary needs and luxuries. But that time has gone. The Indian consumer has gone through a remarkable transformation. And now the consumer is armed with higher income, credit cards, desire to improve the standard of living and exposure to the shopping culture of the west. Multiple malls, supermarkets and organized retail with a variety of products are fueling the needs of the Indian Consumer. Young Shoppers India has a young population and it’s very large in number. The internet and television have made an impact on the mentality of young consumers. The generation is earning money at a very young age, and it is a lot, big thanks to BPO and other avenues of employment that cater to students in college and schools. As a result, they are ready to spend most of their income on apparel, electronics, and accessories. Higher Incomes A number of employment opportunities have emerged due to liberalization. Job prospects in the country are looking up because of the expansion of domestic corporations and entry of a number of multinationals. As a result, consumption and income are projected to increase quickly over the upcoming year that sets the stage for promising and exciting retail market in the future in the country. Urbanization Growing urbanization in the country is also responsible for the changing consumer mentality. The local population gets converted from net savers to the net spenders, as urbanization is spreading beyond the major cities which are consistent in the both developed countries like USA, UK and developing countries like Thailand and Malaysia. No Money, No Problem A huge expansion has been taken in the financial sector. Credit cards and short- term loans were difficult to access a decade ago. But the scenario is no longer the same. Short-term loans and credit cards have become easily accessible. Flexible financing options, credit card reward schemes and all other common lures are tempting the Indian consumer to shop. From a home to an automobile, the loans are freely available. The big-ticket items that were previously within the reach of consumer only after the years of saying are easier to buy. Several international retailers are trying to invest in India to leverage the strong demand of Indian consumers. In the coming years will evolve as a mature and larger market, but to happen so, investors need to consider all the challenges which retail marketing is facing. Challenges RETAIL INDUSTRY is Facing in INDIA 32 || September 2016 Behind the Scenes
- 36. LOGIC ERP: Scaling Up Your Retail Business Today, it is mandatory for any retailer looking to scale up business to know their customer, know their market, and work out the back-end first and to have the right people in the right place. Retailers face the unenviable task of operating in a fragmented market. And to top it, they have to deal with other operational challenges such as poor supply chain infrastructure, restrictive foreign direct investment policies and complex tax regimes. Thus said, having seen the positive impact that organized retail has on its economy, India is making more room for the industry to grow. Surely, organized retail is not at its infancy anymore and it is now time for players to take their business to the next level by scaling up their operations. And, for a successful scale up of operations, it is essential for the retailer to make sure that there are certain checks that they run like understanding consumer needs, determining objective and assessing capability to build a strong back-end. Company That Understands the Market Before plotting an expansion plan, a retailer must assess his market opportunities with maturity. Headquartered in Mohali, Punjab, LOGIC ERP Solutions is one such pioneer in this industry providing the best solutions in the form of ERPs and Vertical-specific Software & Applications that bridges the gap between stores & headquarters, thereby making it easier to access real-time data & information across various stages. Equipped with a fleet of exceptionally skilled and qualified hands of professionals, the company has its own operational facility, branch offices and associated partners in every metropolitan cities of India. Flamboyant behind LOGIC ERP Swarndeep Singh, MD of LOGIC ERP Solutions Pvt. Ltd. is the trailblazer behind the company’s growth. Swarndeep post graduated from Ajmer University. Since the inception of LOGIC ERP in 1993, he guided the company’s expertise in providing integrated ERP Software, Retail & POS Software to thousands of customers till date, helping them to meet their business goals. Solutions LOGIC ERP Proffers LOGIC ERP’s assorted range of software is developed for diversified laterals and fields in a business. Instead of a generic one-size-fits all solutions, their portfolio includes Industry-specific, Vertical-specific and Module-specific ERP Software applications that are comprehensively available under an array of LOGIC Solutions. ERP solutions developed by LOGIC are characterized for its flexibility and scalability to aide in business growth of the customers in the time ahead. Cost-effective solutions that are designed for specific needs and verticals, help mid- sized to large business ventures to address issues, review business performances and assist in making strategic decisions to thrive in the markets. LOGIC ERP’s Mantra Justifying the LOGIC Mantra, the solutions and services are focused to Inspire Markets and Aspire Businesses. Over the span of twenty progressive years, LOGIC ERP, as a company, carved the forte of best in industry with at-par business solutions for their customers. They take pride in establishing the trust of esteemed clients and partners and share the joy of success and achievements with the entire The 10 Fastest Growing Retail Companies 2016 34 || September 2016
- 37. fraternity associated with LOGIC ERP. The Client Base Innovatively, the company is rendering its expertise to most of the big players, commercial houses and top business brands of Retail, Apparel & Footwear, Pharmaceutical, FMCG, Electronics & Telecommunication, and many other verticals. One of their striking stories speaks about their zest to accomplish that has never been achieved before. Kewal Kiran Clothing Ltd. has huge network of over 350 POS in multiple locations across India. They needed to be technologically supported for day- to-day technical & functional problems. Additionally, they wanted transactions of all PoS to reflect at head office for MIS, maximum or less than an hour old transactions of retail stores. They implemented LOGIC’s Online Reporting Solutions and Auto Report Mailer to manage their warehouse and head office operations and conveniently warded-off the worries of sales team that needed sales & target reports and ledger of franchisee & channel partners on the move. LOGIC ERP has successfully resolved concerns of other retail clients like Killer, Gini & Jony, Portico, Red Tape, Red Chief, Numero Uno and many more. Other concern addressed is the requirement of both books of accounts, i.e., Indian accounting format and foreign books, which was successfully implemented to their clients ‘Calvin Klein’ and ‘French Connection’. Their in-house workforce of professionally experienced teams always aim towards result-driven practices, attention to needs and real-time communication. Trustworthily, LOGIC has never ignored the security of the most important asset of their client i.e., ‘Data’. The servers are robust and coupled with the best security software to ascertain intrusion-proof protection. However, for ERP on Cloud, company strictly adheres to non-disclosure policy. Advancing with their ‘On Premises Model’, the data will now be available at the customer’s end. Moreover, the company is all set to roll out a new dimension in data security, where, every customer will have their own admin panel to manage their data and password policy. Mr. Swarndeep Singh MD ““We focus on our core products Web POS & Distribution, Omni Channel Retailing, Merchandise Financial Planning & Assortment Analysis and Auto Replenishment The 10 Fastest Growing Retail Companies 2016 September 2016 || 35
- 38. Founded in 2014, NextOrbit is a cloud platform to predict and mitigate Out-of-Stock in Retail. This platform produces on-demand, daily and weekly predictions of SKUs which will be going out-of-stock by store location, date, and time. It provides alerts about the quantity by which the store ordering needs to be updated. NextOrbit is headquartered in Frisco TX with its product development center in Bangalore, India. Services Proffered by NextOrbit The NextOrbit platform enhances the operational effectiveness of a Retailer’s merchandising and planning. This platform helps discover and service latent demand. The primary feature of NextOrbit is a granular understanding of out-of-stock of each item, at each store every day. NextOrbit predicts out-of-stock enabling a Retailer to take proactive action before losing sales and impacting the customer experience. The store allocations created by NextOrbit enables right-stocking of products to meet full price customer demand, no more and no less. The demand forecasts created by NextOrbit, especially for the fashion industry, enable procurement/manufacturing of the right quantity of each product to maximize full price sell through, and minimize markdowns. The early warning signals of their fashion platform enable the Retailers to understand how a new product is behaving. Their OOS (out-of-stock) alerts enable store staff to effectively replenish store shelves in a way to meet customer demand. The Transformation Artist Kishore Rajgopal, Founder & CEO of NextOrbit, represents the spirit of enthusiasm, perseverance, and inspirational leadership to build startups that impact businesses and society. Kishore holds a master’s degree in Industrial Management and a bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering both from Indian Institute of Technology, Madras, India. Kishore understood the power of Data Sciences and Predictive Analytics to transform the way businesses run. He saw the endemic problem of out-of-stock in the Retail Industry. As retailing is all about creating the “moment of truth” so all the efforts in creating the moment of truth are of no use if the product is not available on the shelf or on the website when the customer needs it. Kishore and the team crafted the algorithms and models to predict when an item will go out-of-stock. This enables retailers to be proactive in merchandising their products on their shelves or their websites. Understanding and addressing a lost opportunity and latent demand is critical for retailers, now more than ever. Kishore believes that retailers can enhance same-store-sales by 4- 10% by mitigating out-of-stock. The opportunity for fashion and apparel Retail is even larger. Critical to the NextOrbit is the cloud platform that crunches not only data from the retailer, but also external variables such as local events, holidays, weather, and growth of the local economy. Kishore sees NextOrbit growing like a bamboo tree. The company wants to build foundations that too rock solid NextOrbit: Mitigating Your Retail Out of Stock The 10 Fastest Growing Retail Companies 2016 36 || September 2016
- 39. platform with successful onboard clients. The company wants to obtain testimonials. And according to Kishore, a typical testimonial will be like: “Because of NextOrbit and a supportive team we have improved same store sales by 12% and enhanced full price sell through to 90%. Their diagnostic helps us to understand the extent of the lost opportunity we were sitting on. Their OOS alerts make us get the store shelves with fewer staff. Yes. It is not as if US retailers have less staff. It is just that they do not have data-driven tools to help them in the job of replenishing shelves-a boring but most important work”. Once the foundations are building, Kishore just wants to see the company growing and scaling rapidly. Strength and Forte NextOrbit is headed to creating a unique category. They believe that the genre of the product they are envisioning does not exist today. Creating a category requires leading with thought leadership, working closely with academia, creating a global brand and a brand that creates pull demand. They see themselves creating IP, being written about in well-known publications and obtaining patents. The Clientele Most Retailer systems focus on transaction execution. The intelligence element is often weak. The biggest benefit that NextOrbit’s clients see is improved customer experience and loyalty. Clients often see a same-store- sales improvement of between 4 to 10% and store inventory reduction of 5-10%. And on a continuous basis, NextOrbit ensure optimal operations and foundations for scaling Retailer operations. Future Perspective As the CEO of NextOrbit, Kishore sees NextOrbit becoming a cloud system of record for most Retailers worldwide. The synergy arising from such a situation will be tremendous, and the value created will be shared by all parties-Retailers, CP brands and others. Kishore created the change by leading from the front, constantly in touch with clients, understand true client needs, ensuring that it gets baked into the platform and most of all are to hire and inspire a good team. Kishore Rajgopal Founder and CEO ““Our goal is to infuse enormous intelligence and data-driven into demand planning, merchandising, allocation, and shelving operations The 10 Fastest Growing Retail Companies 2016 September 2016 || 37
- 40. The entire human history and anthropology is full of evidences as to how intelligent human beings have given rise to new technology and how they utilized that new technology to further our chances of survival. The technological development has reached such a phase now where human survival is something which is taken for granted. The enormous size of human population is a testimony to that fact. If it wasn’t for the newer drugs and equipments and procedures we would have still been dying of minor diseases like diarrhea. This is just one example as to how deep an impact the new inventions and technological developments have had on human life at large. Technology, of its own accord, cannot reach the millions and millions of human beings. It needs some assistance from another aspect of human interaction i.e. Economy. In today’s parlance Economy and Market go hand in hand. The Market forces have been instrumental in the spread of newer technologies to the grass roots. The combination of these two factors has had a humongous impact on our individual, social, political and personal lives. But this wasn’t the case if you travel only a few hundred years back. The current phase of technological and economical development could be traced back to the period which is famously known as ‘Industrial Revolution’. It started in the late 18th century Britain and spread to the various parts of the world. The parts of the world which could garner these forces in their favor are currently known as ‘Developed Countries’. The so called “West” with capital ‘W’ is the single word to describe them. Honestly speaking the rest of the world is still catching up with them. So where does India stand in all of this? We are a developing country and currently among the emerging economies of the world. The tag of “Developing country” means we are among those who are still catching up with the developed world. But the tag of ‘Emerging Economy’ gives that much of a positive outlook about our future prospects. Now keeping this larger picture in mind we can now discuss as to how Indian entrepreneurs can make it big in the Global arena. Last year was hailed as a year of Start-ups for India. With the change of political guard and a new found optimism of “Achchhe Din” young Indians have indeed come forward with their skills and courage in the business arena. It would be a bit too early to reach a judgement about the viability and success that these start- Emerging Technologies and where do we stand as a Start-up Nation in Global Market… Emerging Technologies and where do we stand as a Start-up Nation in Global Market… 38 || September 2016 Executive Talk
- 41. ups will have in the long run. We need to give them some time before they can establish themselves in the market, domestic as well as global! However there is this undeniable trend among these start-ups that not many among them are based on Inventions or something Substantially New. What I mean by ‘Substantially New’ is something which can have a Global impact. Something which might fundamentally change the way we do things. The period of Industrial Revolution is abound with such examples. For example, Telephone completely changed the way we communicate with people. And if telephone seems to be an example from the distant past then we can consider Internet and Mobile technology which has further fundamentally changed the way we do things. None of the Start-ups that have come up in the last year in India show such a promise. Unfortunately most of our Start-ups are kind of Imitation ventures. For example, online shopping websites like Flipkart, Snapdeal. They are the ideal representatives of the Indian start-ups although they are more than a few years old now. There are limitations to such ventures because as soon as domestic market is opened up to similar players in the global arena (e.g. Amazon) there is always a chance that our smaller fishes will be swallowed up by the bigger ones. To be fare to our young generation of entrepreneurs they do have all the skill sets and leadership qualities to make a huge impact in the global arena. Our young minds are fed with the same knowledge about how to run a business as do those in the West. Our business schools are imparting quality knowledge to its students which can help them become great business persons of the future. So problem of Indian Start-ups does not lie in the qualities that the individual entrepreneurs possess but in lack of an organized effort at a national level to do well in the extremely competitive global economy. An organized effort at national level means a synchronized, complementary and harmonious movement of the major players in the country’s economy i.e. the Political will, Research and Development efforts and the Market forces. Research and Development should give our young creative minds enough incentives to explore and come up with new inventions rather than make do with ‘The Jugad’ method which is a buzzword of today’s young generation. These new technological inventions will then require the assistance of market forces in order to penetrate the grass roots of our domestic as well as global market. The abundance of political will in last couple of years has been a major advantage that the young entrepreneurs can make the most of. In absence of this organized effort our Indian start ups are facing competition from an organized research and development industry of the Western world which is well supplied with finances from the transnational private players which are hungry for more and more profits. The already established industrial giants have the capacity to eat our young start ups in absence of new inventions. No matter how good the managerial skills and leadership qualities the individual might have, there are limits to what they can do alone. This opinion may smell of an IP professionals bias towards Research and Development but if we turn some pages of history then this bias might well be justified. Suneet B Sabale Owner & CEO, Brainiac IP Solutions. September 2016 || 39 Executive Talk