MY FIRST MEETING WITH KISHORE BIYANI-THE RETAIL GURU

Because the store was just few months old and also because this concept itself was new to the organization it took some time for things to get settled. Everyone from the top level to the floor level was in a learning stage. The entire team was greatly inspired by the one person, Kishore Biyani, the man behind Future Group. I remember the days when he used to personally drop in to our stores early in the mornings and move around on the floor. He wouldn’t even dither picking up litter lying on the floor, helping cashiers to bill, and of course also get rankled at us if things were not proper in the store. He used to insist that each and every employee should take ownership of the job entitled to one and never come out with excuses for job not being done. I’ve learnt a lot from him. He was a man with an average height, dark complexion, huge face, a simple hair cut, and dark circles around his eyes, which was a clear sign of his passion towards setting up his retail empire. By the look on his face he might come across as a tyrant,but in reality he was benign, very simple, down to earth and optimist in nature. He used to be dressed in simple attire, use a normal wrist watch and used to commute in a very simple car.
My first encounter with him was at the entrance of our store, during one of his visit. It was late in the evening and the store was very crowded as usual. He told me to meet him in his office the next day. I was very excited about this, but at the same time was confused as to why he wanted to meet me in his office. It was like breaking news inside the store and word spread like fire. Everyone wanted to know from me as to why he had called. Even Sandeep and Sarika were surprised to know that KB, as he was known within the group, had called me in his office.

I wanted to go fully prepared to meet KB. I had no clue as to what his agenda was behind inviting me for the meet, so I prepared a presentation on the basis of ; how many staffs were there in the apparel section?, who managed which department?, what are his job roles and his target for the coming week? , and how many staffs were assigned under one department manager?
The next day I reached his office early at 10 am. I introduced myself to his secretary who was sitting behind a desk just outside his cabin.
“Good morning madam, I have come to meet Sir.”
“Do you have an appointment with him?” was her immediate question while she was looking at me curiously.
“Yes madam” I replied immediately.
“Please have a seat”
Before I went to take a seat she immediately asked me “What’s your name?
“Chinmaya, from Big Bazaar Lower Parel”.
From my seat I saw her pick the receiver and speak on the intercom.
In a few minutes the secretary told me to go inside the cabin.
It was a huge cabin, and KB was sitting at his desk, behind the desktop, brooding and typing. He looked at me and asked me to sit.
I was very nervous, but at the same time very tantalized.
‘Yes tell me”
“Sir, yesterday you had asked me to meet you in your office” I reminded him.
He looked a bit lost, but then he nodded his head slowly, trying to recollect, maybe. He then asked me about my background and work profile. I immediately told him about my work experience and then asked his permission to show the presentation which I had made.
He liked the presentation, and after seeing it he said, “We need to develop ownership within the team. Make smaller sections within the store, similar to small shops, and make a staff the owner of that small shop. This way he will feel he is the real owner of the shop and build ownership.”
I agreed to what he said.
“One minute” he said and picked up the intercom.
“Send Rajan to my cabin” Rajan was the Head of the entire apparels category team those days. As I was managing the apparel section in the store he wanted Rajan to join the meeting.
A very tall, handsome, smart looking gentleman entered the cabin. He was Rajan who exuded a zealous approach. KB, Rajan and I had a meeting together for another 20 minutes or so discussing on stocks, new arrivals, placements and plan for the week end.
KB wanted me to sell 500 pieces of shirts for the coming weekend.
He looked at Rajan and said, “Create a shirt mela”. Rajan just nodded his head.
He then asked me, “How many shirts we would sell during weekends?”
I replied “around three hundred sir” and then looked at Rajan.
Rajan knew that I was hoping for some schemes from his side.
He promised me the famous “Buy 3 shirts and get two shirts free” offer.

Once I came out of the cabin I was thrilled. I felt very proud about myself that day. I immediately went to the store and shared my experience about KB with the team. I felt like I was the “MAN OF THE STORE” for that entire week. The moment that I had spent with KB was a treasure, which I would always cherish and would be hard to forget.

After that day, there were many such magical moments where I got a chance to interact with KB. One such day was the day he took a meeting of all the management team within the store. It was one early week day morning routine time inside the shop floor, he called all the managers at the back office.
“I do not know most of you so can you please introduce yourself and the section you work for.”
Once everyone introduced themselves and explained their job profile to him clearly there was silence in the room for a few moments.
He then asked what problems they come across in the store. The common problems were about inefficient processes, lack of stocks, late decisions from the head office and so on. They also discussed about how the store should actually run, and the various solutions for the problems. What came out from the meeting was a clear gap between the head office team and the store team.
“You should handle your department all by yourself. It’s your own shop, and you need to manage it. Do not create dependency. You should take ownership of this shop that you are handling, only then you will enjoy”.
“Start taking decisions from now on and if you have any problems contact me directly.
“I think this is a wonderful team. We need to have such meetings very often. Lets consider this as a core team.” Saying this he stood up. Everyone stood up. He then thanked everyone and left the office.
Each one of us felt immensely motivated and animated. Such was an impact of his presence.
From that day onwards everyone started contributing their best efforts to make the store a better place for the customers as well as the employees. Every one witnessed a sudden change in the store from that very day. Thanks to Kishoreji, as he is known, people from the head office started visiting frequently to the store, the lay outs started changing, the category team started building up the product mix in every department, the choice of merchandise changed, and suddenly we saw a revolution within the store. In few months time the store started looking beautiful, well organized, the staffs were all motivated, and full of energy.

A good feeling and experience is what one should tend to provide to all the customers entering your store. What I have noticed is, here in India fixtures are placed so near to each other inside the shop floor that it makes the entire space very congested. It gives a very claustrophobic effect to an individual. The main reason is because of the hike in real estate value they tend to make use of as much space available as possible. Retailers also feel that, the more stocks displayed in maximum fixtures will increase the sale of the store. But it isn’t the case. It in fact reduces the sales as customers feel uncomfortable to shop in such a scenario. The space between two fixtures is so limited that it becomes difficult for two individuals standing between the two fixtures to browse for the stocks displayed on them. At times it is difficult for customers to move across aisles, especially on week ends, and due to these reasons the customers tend to avoid such aisles, and in turn sale is lost from that particular area. During my tenure at Pantaloons Retail we had experienced this at all our Big Bazaar outlets and hence had decided to decongest the fixtures and merchandise from all the stores so as to give more space for customers to move around. Fixtures and bins used to be placed at the ramps, making it more difficult for customers to move their trolleys as a crowd used to gather near the fixture blocking the ramp. Extra bins were placed near the lifts, and also at places near every walkway. All such fixtures were removed, the volume of merchandise displayed was reduced and excess merchandise was taken off the shelves. After doing this we noticed a tremendous increase in footfalls and sales. Hence the notion of getting more sales from displaying more stocks in more fixtures was washed out by the operations team. A proper layout and placement of fixtures is hence an integral part of merchandising and needs to be looked at seriously by the visual merchandisers.

As the Big Bazaar store at Lower Parel was a flagship store, it was also the pet store of Kishoreji. Many events and fun filled activities used to occur in this store. The ‘Great Exchange Mela’, (where one can exchange all scrap goods for new ones) was one such big hit event which pioneered from this store. I also got a chance to meet many famous personalities in this store. During one of the promotions I got a chance to meet the then Miss World Yukta Mookhey and the privilege to show her around the entire store.
But the best part was when I got a chance to be filmed along with KB on one of the famous news channels for the famous show “India Business Report- Back to the Floor”- a documentary which portrays the passion of CEO’s and MD’s of various organizations working along with the sales team on the field without any inhibition.
It was a short film on KB showing him working as a sales executive on the shop floor. That day I as the manager of the store had to assign him a role in one of the sections and set a target for him. This was all pre-decided by the channel. It was a great day for me and all my staffs to see and experience our MD working side by side with us.
After a year or so the lay-out of the entire store was completely changed. Rajan planned the entire new lay-out for the store. He was like a commander in charge of the fleet. He was a real expert in his job, carried an aura that made everyone feel that he runs the show, and was also the decision maker, after Kishoreji. He is now the Chief Executive Officer of Big Bazaar. The new layout was much better, more spacious and convenient for customers as well as employees. All the fixtures were newly designed, and were in a better position to merchandise stocks. I felt very excited by the new look given to the store. The structure and design, the planning and execution of the lay-out with the new fixtures were such a success that it was implemented in all the future stores, of course with some added features and benefits to the ambience of the new stores.