The Summit focused on "Collaborative Retail: The New Engine of Growth".
"We operate in a new world order, wherein collaboration with stakeholders is key to profitable business and growth hereon. Areas like marketing spends, real estate, recruitment and training, sourcing, back-end and advocacy offer tremendous scope for cooperation. Ideally, we should look at collaboration on common processes that provide no competitive advantage. This alone would enable shaving off 5-8% of costs." Mr. Biyani further added that, if retail as a sector is to be given a boost, there has be a shift in the way it is viewed. "Retail needs to be seen as a necessity rather than a luxury; hence it needs to be given an industry status."
Infusing an optimistic tone to the summit, Mr. V Vaidyanathan, Executive Director & Member of the Board, ICICI Bank Ltd., said, "The extent of collaboration is much higher in the last 3 months as compared to the last one year." On the subject of economic slowdown and its implications, he stated, "In this period the question should not be how to face this economic slowdown rather it should be - are we prepared to take on the opportunities that will come across after this economic phase."
Speaking on the current economic conditions and the retail industry Ms. Ireena Vittal, Partner, McKinsey provided valuable insights into - Why Retail Industry matters to India, What will it take to ensure Indian retail industry succeed and What will ensure Indian retail industry's success.
Why Retail Industry matters to India:
- Catalyst that converts consumer confidence into consumption; oxygen for Indian economic growth:
- 68% of GDP growth is from private consumption. Private consumption is the biggest hope for the Indian retail industry because Indian consumers have Big dreams, Jobs and Employment still stable and higher disposable income
2. Create jobs, essential to channelise the youth energy:
- India is a young country and the working population will keep growing, thus the need to create 20 million jobs each year (For every job in retail, 7-9 jobs in support infrastructure created)
3. Triggers for an efficient economy:
- Multiplier Effect
- Improves Productivity, reduces inflation
- Higher tax revenues
What will it take to ensure Indian retail industry succeeds:
Three critical enablers for retail success in India:
- Shared understanding of success amongst the various stakeholders in the retail industry
- Seamless collaboration across the entire value chain
- Build critical capabilities to ensure profitable growth and flexibility
What will ensure Indian retail industry's success:
Create a common agenda
- Government declares retail as a essential service
- City master plan designs to include retail
- Licensing simplified - single window clearance
- Reference case of 3 big suppliers as category captains
- Win-win terms of trade with real estate
- Roadmap for 20 vendors to scale up 10 times in the next 5 years across retail
- Critical costs(power, service tax, etc.) manage Collaborate at back, compete at front
- Common supply chain for sourcing in specific categories
- Manage promotion intensity in the market
- Joint investment in training capabilities Build Core Capabilities:
- Clarify pricing and develop core merchandise platform
- Define differentiated supply chain
Concluding the summit Mr. Pradipta K Mohapatra, Immediate Past Chairman, CII SR & Chairman - Governing Board, Executive & Business Coaching Foundation India Ltd. stated that, "Collaborative Retail is what will take the retail industry gallop to further growth."
The day long seminar saw several industry stalwarts including Mr. Ajit Ranade, Chief Group Economist, Aditya Birla Group, Mr. Abheek Singhi, Partner, BCG India, Mr. Aniruddha Deshmukh, President-Retail & FMCG, Raymond Ltd., Mr. Ajay Kaul, CEO, Domino's Pizza India, Mr Atul Goel, Managing Director, E-City Ventures, Mr. Vinod Sawhny, President & COO, Bharti Retail Pvt. Ltd. and a special address on 'Prognosis of consumer demand' by Ms. Rama Bijapurkar, Visiting Professor, IIM Ahmedabad.
