Can Shoppers Stop do it? Does Shoppers Stop have it within them to fight the slowdown and one day become India’s answer to WalMart? angshuman paul investigates...
‘First movers create the market but it’s not necessary that they sustain the first mover’s advantage. You can enter late but simultaneously, you can cash in on the market created by the first movers.’ That’s what Sam Walton, the god of retail, always touted; and his first WalMart store (then named Walton’s 5&10, which he opened in Bentonville in 1950 on borrowed money and savings from a stint in the army), wasn’t even actually USA’s first discount department store. In fact, it wasn’t even his first – Walton had to actually sell off his first store in Newport because of the lease running out. Neither was Walton the pioneer in the industry, nor was he one of the best, but what he surely knew, was that no success is worthwhile if the same is not attached with a world beating vision. From just one store to making Walmart the world’s largest and number one on the Fortune 500 list, there’s surely much to learn from Sam, and vision tops the bill.
Is B.S.Nagesh India’s answer to Sam? In his vision to revolutionise retail buying, surely yes. In his vision for making Shoppers Stop a world standard, perhaps not. That brings us to the next question. Is Shoppers Stop India’s answer to WalMart? Not yet; and strangely, mostly because of reasons that seem to be beyond their control (or are they?). And that’s where the pain starts; of being Shoppers Stop, of being B.S.Nagesh, of operating in an industry and environment that can only support you this much, of being enmeshed in a vision that is entrapped within not only the limits of the sector’s operations, but also of the vision of the government.
Despite my evident undercurrent of the critic’s clarinet, I accept that Nagesh (and even Shoppers Stop for that matter) is the best that could have happened to India in a century of retailing. Well, at least until the past year (I’ll come to that later). There can be no better logic that justifies this status than the manner in which a single man and a brand jumpstarted the view of India to retail.
‘First movers create the market but it’s not necessary that they sustain the first mover’s advantage. You can enter late but simultaneously, you can cash in on the market created by the first movers.’ That’s what Sam Walton, the god of retail, always touted; and his first WalMart store (then named Walton’s 5&10, which he opened in Bentonville in 1950 on borrowed money and savings from a stint in the army), wasn’t even actually USA’s first discount department store. In fact, it wasn’t even his first – Walton had to actually sell off his first store in Newport because of the lease running out. Neither was Walton the pioneer in the industry, nor was he one of the best, but what he surely knew, was that no success is worthwhile if the same is not attached with a world beating vision. From just one store to making Walmart the world’s largest and number one on the Fortune 500 list, there’s surely much to learn from Sam, and vision tops the bill.
Is B.S.Nagesh India’s answer to Sam? In his vision to revolutionise retail buying, surely yes. In his vision for making Shoppers Stop a world standard, perhaps not. That brings us to the next question. Is Shoppers Stop India’s answer to WalMart? Not yet; and strangely, mostly because of reasons that seem to be beyond their control (or are they?). And that’s where the pain starts; of being Shoppers Stop, of being B.S.Nagesh, of operating in an industry and environment that can only support you this much, of being enmeshed in a vision that is entrapped within not only the limits of the sector’s operations, but also of the vision of the government.
Despite my evident undercurrent of the critic’s clarinet, I accept that Nagesh (and even Shoppers Stop for that matter) is the best that could have happened to India in a century of retailing. Well, at least until the past year (I’ll come to that later). There can be no better logic that justifies this status than the manner in which a single man and a brand jumpstarted the view of India to retail.
Source : IIPM Editorial, 2012.
An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri
and Arindam Chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist).
For More IIPM Info, Visit below mentioned IIPM articles.
An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri
and Arindam Chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist).
For More IIPM Info, Visit below mentioned IIPM articles.
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