Rotarians learn about modern retail in India
Kishore Biyani
Known as the “Czar of the Indian Retail Bazaar”, Kishore Biyani is credited with being the pioneer of modern retail industry in India. He laid the foundation for a retail revolution in India by founding the Future Group in the 1990s.
He thanked the Club for inviting him to talk to people who could be his prospective customers. He discussed the way people look at business in India. “I believe that there are three businesses that everyone knows about in India — cinema, politics and retail. We fall in retail and it is a simple business wherein we sell our products directly to the customers. India is an effortless interaction of paradoxical ideas of tradition and modernity and that makes an entrepreneur’s job very difficult. We believe that ours is a country of the future, in terms of consumption, and our consumption needs are getting higher and higher by the day. India celebrates more than 72 festivals every year and all of them are based on consumption. Our consumption will touch three and a half trillion dollars by 2030 and we are here to make our country reach those numbers,” he said.
Biyani explained how the Future Group works on community-based consumption patterns in India. He said, “When we began our journey in modern retail, there was hardly anyone in the business, so our emphasis was on creating a demand for value-added products. We believe in combining art and science with the idea that you can take an Indian out of India, but you cannot take India out of an Indian, no matter where they are geographically.
“Indians love the concept of chaos and our outlets are based on this very principle as the buyers love the atmosphere. Understanding Indian consumers makes the art half of a retail business. American markets have grasped the science of it better than we have as we are still trying to understand Indian communities and their preferences. We always say that retail is our religion, stores are our temple and customers are our gods.
As retailers, we are forever in the process of learning and today, by being here, I have learnt a lot from all of you.”