Reverse mentoring Krish Shankar / Sep 03, 2012, 00:48 IST

Many big corporations in India are trying a new trick to stay at the cutting edge. Heres how Bharti Airtel used it to bridge the skill gap some older workers faced In a typical organisational setup, mentorship has traditionally been all about pairing an accomplished and senior leader with a younger colleague to facilitate exchange of guidance, both at a formal and informal level. It is viewed as a personal development technique, that is, an ongoing relationship of learning, dialogue, challenge and change. The conventional description of a mentor suggests someone who is wise and willing to share his or her knowledge and experiences to help the mentee succeed. Your mentor is that trusted ally you go to whenever youre feeling unsure or in need of support. Simple, right? In a young country like ours where more than 50 per cent of the population is below the age of 25 and more than 65 per cent below the age of 35, the traditional concept of mentorship may not yield the desired results. With our population becoming younger, it is essential for organisations to evolve to the needs of new young India. Within this broad spectrum of change is emerging a technique known as reverse mentoring. This concept, being increasingly adopted by savvy, new-age organisations, turns the old paradigm of mentorship into a higher and more effective collaborative effort. The clincher here is that the younger person becomes the mentor and the seasoned senior professional the mentee. Typically, the mentee has more overall experience (as a result of age) than the mentor (who is younger), but the mentor has more knowledge in a particular area and therefore reverses the conventional relationship. Clearly, the modern-day notion of an exchange of ideas and knowledge has changed, especially after the phenomenal expansion of the social networks, and the digital and mobile marketing platforms, blurring the rigid and accepted norms of relationships between individuals, teams and organisations. Today, an exchange of ideas is no longer restricted to an inner circle of influence, the purview of designations and age.

Reverse mentoring can re-energise older employees, keep younger workers engaged and improve relationships between the different generations in the workplace. For example, junior mentors can help managers understand how to motivate and retain young workers. They can also share first-hand knowledge of a younger customer base critical for companies aiming to tap the youth market. Some companies use reverse mentoring to enhance diversity training for the senior staff. Each successive generation tends to be more open and knowledgeable about diversity in society than the previous generation. With reverse mentoring, the junior mentor can help the senior leaders understand the issues around cultural diversity better. For Airtel, reverse mentoring as a concept was initiated in 2008 post the return of CEO Sanjay Kapoor from the Wharton Business School. As part of the reverse mentoring programme of Airtel, leaders across the country, including the Airtel Management Board (AMB), and the function heads are mentored mostly by our young managers, hired from the top B-schools of the country, and into their second or third year in the organisation. The topics,the seniors are educated on, include brand activation opportunities, downloading apps, fashion trends, latest gadgets or what young people do in their free time. Its not always soft stuff, even hard business strategies get discussed and sometimes adopted by the company. Today, with over 20 active pairs nationally, we are successfully leveraging learnings from these engagement programmes across all areas of our businesses. Younger mentors are tutoring senior executives on new campus recruitment programmes or exciting ways of engaging with young potential employees or the consumption of data on mobile devices and the other technology specific interest areas. Since the youth today uses different tools to express their feelings, like blogging or social networking sites, the Airtel leadership is proactively working at embedding these insights to enhance our young customers experience with the brand. My mentor is a 27 -year-old senior business manager Ila Wadhwa, who has taken it upon herself to enlighten me on the aspirations and challenges of young managers. Thanks to reverse mentoring, many of the senior leaders in AMB are now on Twitter and subscribe to numerous blogs and have started using apps that they normally would not have. That said, reverse mentoring is not exactly a new concept. It was initially advocated by Jack Welch in the late 90s in the nascent days of the internet, when, as CEO of General Electric, he urged 500 of his top executives to reach out to people in the ranks to learn how to best

use the internet, with new and fresh perspectives from younger minds, and to stay in touch with the times. In return, GEs Young Turks found a new way to be seen, understood and appreciated in the company. Taking the cue from Mr Welch, many global companies in the telecom and technology industries followed suit, including many in India, using reverse mentoring principles to remain competent in an increasingly complex business environment. Reverse mentoring programmes could take place within existing mentoring programmes with a little bit of flexibility to match the expectations of employees engaged across different generations. Yet, this comes with a few challenges. Reverse mentors and their mentees can run into a few stumbling blocks. A big challenge is persuading senior managers to embrace the role reversal and start listening instead of talking. They need to let go of their leadership role and learn the art of followership. They also need to suspend their judgment of the younger generation, often characterised as being less dedicated and loyal to their employer than older workers. Dont expect your 20-something mentor to have the same work ethics you had when you were in your twenties. If you do, then youre likely to shut them out and start coaching them on their careers, which means youre not going to hear all the ideas theyre just dying to share with you. Benefits of reverse mentoring FOR THE MENTOR Gets access to a wealth of experience for his/her own personal development. A good mentor would keep on picking the mentees brains Mentor gets valuable insights on the virtual world, which is becoming increasingly relevant for the business The challenge of mentoring a leader forces the mentor to venture into unexplored territory something that he/she may not be doing in the routine job

FOR THE MENTEE Gets to understand the consumer preferences, likes and dislikes of the youth segment Helps engage his/her team better by understanding their needs and desires Helps getting acquainted with technology, social media, trends etc

A reverse mentor could be a good sounding board for the mentee to test and develop ideas

Ensuring the flexibility and buy-in of senior and more accomplished professionals is always a matter of concern and ever so crucial especially when it involves the notion of being mentored by a new or younger employee. This is where business and organisational leaders must step in with the right interventions to make their point. Leadership should role-model the right behaviour. When a CEO is mentored by a young leader, all others wont see it as a threat. To create a positive environment the mentee should let go negative biases based on age, gender, culture or the role and should look forward to a great learning experience. The mentee, who is about to begin working with a younger mentor, should practise being a follower. Similarly, the mentor should give serious thought to the new role as leader. Organisations must look at this as a unique new way of boosting workplace ingenuity for greater productivity and ultimately create a business environment that is truly knowledgedriven. Reverse mentoring is simply another way of brewing your workplace cappuccino in a new way-we have always known that there is a lot we can learn from younger workers and they likewise from us. In fact, the genesis of Bharti Airtels association with football club Manchester United called Airtel Rising Stars and F1 was through one such mentoring partnership. The mentor felt that cricket was for Gen X, while young Airtel customers comprising Gen Y had moved towards football and so should the company. Sparkplug, our business ideation platform, also thrives on the philosophy of reverse mentoring in which youngsters from across functions come together to discuss, debate and solve a business problem posed to them by the business leaders. The added twist is that none of them belong to the same function or business as the leader who owns the problem. Thus, what we have is unbridled energy and imagination, ready to be harnessed by the organisation. Some of our new businesses like direct-to-home have capitalised on this platform by implementing ideas proposed by reverse mentors. The key to success in reverse mentoring is the ability to create and maintain an attitude of openness to the experience and dissolve the barriers of status, power and position.

Krish Executive director of human resources, Bharti Airte

Shankar

Low budget, big bang Conventional wisdom says there is a direct correlation between marketing spends and market impact

Conventional wisdom says there is a direct correlation between marketing spends and market impact. But products like Nokias Asha, M&Ms XUV500 and Vicky Donor have shown that you can win big on a shoe-string budget. Heres how they did it. You have a new product and you have done your SWOT analysis. You have put together a relevant product proposition. You have resear- ched your potential buyer and know what she wants. You have a reasonably strong distribution network to reach her and you have kept a keen eye on what competition is up to. You know what your unique selling proposition is, and what makes you a better alternative to your competition. You are clear in your mind about your margin and turnover goals. Above all, you have a compelling pricing strategy. So you are set for launch. Think again. The real work starts now: you get only one launch to impress the consumer. You need a big bang. And the budget is never good enough. Conventional wisdom says there is a direct correlation between marketing spends and market impact. If a new product is supported by heavy advertising, as opposed to limited advertising, it is 70 per cent more likely to be bought by consumers, wrote Nirma lya Kumar, professor of marketing and co-director of Aditya Birla India Centre at London Business School, and Jan-Benedict E M Steenkamp, professor of marketing at Kenan-Flagler Business School, UNC-Chapel Hill, in a June 2012 essay prepared specially for The Strategist (issue dated June 25, 2012). Thats conventional wisdom, but in recent months, brands like Nokias Asha, M&Ms XUV500 and Vicky Donor have shown that you can make a big impact even on a shoe-string budget. Without exception, all of them have opted for a slow and low-decibel launch strategy but have managed to make a huge impact. They have demonstrated that a product launch is as much about branding as it is about how you manage logistics, alliances and the various channels of communication.

The reasons for choosing such a strategy have been different in each case. If for Godrej Consumer Products the issue was to put the distribution network in place before building up buzz around its air care product Godrej Aer, for Micromax, the plan was to ramp up manufacturing capability before launching a full-scale campaign around its new tablet Funbook. Interestingly, all of these brands have restricted the use of mass media to keep the costs low and have chosen to exploit the social media to gain a head start. They have wooed bloggers and reviewers and in some cases have relied exclusively on good old-fashioned word-of-mouth. Take Hindi movie Vicky Donor launched earlier this year: a small budget film, made with Rs 5 crore and a relatively unknown assortment of actors. The movie raked in Rs 40 crore purely on the basis of word of mouth. Compare that with Ra.One, the film that may or may not (whatever your view) make it to the rolls of history for its content, but will surely be remembered for its marketing blitzkrieg, unleashed by lead actor and coproducer Shah Rukh Khan just before its release. The movie truly enjoyed a big bang launch with close to 25 brand associations, worth around Rs 52 crore. The film also generated more press for its marketing than for the product itself. The pre-launch buzz ensured the audiences flocked to the theatres but trade analysts remain divided in their views about the level of success attained by the film. While in absolute terms the return for Vicky Donor was smaller, in percentage terms its an impressive performance by all accounts. Now take Mahindra & Mahindra XUV 500 (pronounced as five-o-o), also considered to be one of the most successful launches of 2011 according to The Brand Derby study of The Strategist. In the pre-launch social media campaign, M&M tried to create excitement about the product but didnt talk about its features or try and create too much expectation around it. Various online activations simply asked users to guess the cars name or price, revealing the cars look in parts, instigating curiosity and conversation around the launch. Unlike the Tata Nano, which harped on the features and price before launch, XUV 500 spoke of the overall car experience the car will offer. The post-launch advertising too steered clear of speaking about functionality or price. It stuck to the experiential realm. The consumer was kept at the centre in all the communication pre and post the launch and his interaction with the looks, the design, the feel of the car was the key, explained Pravin Shah, chief executive, automotive division, M&M. Possibly because the brands USP was considered its clutter -breaking design. When XUV 500 first opened bookings post its official launch in September 2011, the company

received around 8,000 bookings across five cities, and had to close bookings in 10 days. The XUV 500 started with a production capacity of 2,500 a month. The thinking was that it is better to have a smaller, successful launch than having it all explode in your face. Return on investment

Rebecca Robins, co-author of Brand Medicine: The role of branding in the pharmaceutical industry, says in her paper on managing brand lifecycle, Getting the branding right will never compensate for a poor product; but getting the branding wrong, or failing to unlock the true potential of a brand, can make the difference between good brand recognition and loyalty and great brand recognition and loyalty, thus impacting on the bottom line in terms of the difference between good ROI (return on inv estment) and great ROI. A corollary to this in the context of launches would be: getting the correct launch pad and providing the brand the necessary support at the launch phase may not ensure that the brand will hit a home run, but it can surely aid the brand by giving it a certain momentum. Now consider the Nokia Lumia and Asha series phones. Straddling the two ends of the market one for the premium consumer and the other for the masses the brands entered the market around the same time. The Lumia, the glamorous cousin hogged the front pages and was endorsed by Hindi movie actor Priyanka Chopra. The Asha, the earthy one was conspicuous by its restricted presence in the mass media. It is only now, after almost 10 months of being present in the market, that the Asha is being seen on air with an ad set in a college canteen. So why was the launch of Asha singularly devoid of Nokia-esque razzmatazz, at least compared with the hullabaloo around the Lumia? Well, the Lumia is a whole new religion (its a Windows phone, in other words), Viral Oza, director, marketing, Nokia India, told Business Standard in an earlier interview; so it required a treatment different from the Asha range, which was conceived as a bridge phone a bridge between a smart phone and a feature phone so to speak that starts at slightly over Rs 4,000. In other words, the launch strategy is also a factor of the personality you are trying to build for your brand. If the Lumia fashions itself as the glamorous one, then it has to been seen in the right places, in the right company. The Asha, on the other hand, needed to make inroads into the markets and first connect with the consumers on a one-to-one level, says a brand consultant commenting on different launch strategies for the two brands. Besides,

delaying the advertising can also help you to gain market insights and interpret perception to build upon your identity. Choosing the decibel levels as well as the tone of your launch campaign, especially for manufactured goods, is as much about branding tactic as it is about a brands overall strategy. It is a direct play between your targeted sales and the period over which you aim to generate them. The marketing spends must then justify themselves based on the volumes to be generated. It is also a function of your backend capabilities: manufacturing as well as distribution. Mobile phone manufacturer Micromax launched its tablet, Funbook early April this year. The entire promotional campaign, starting with engaging with bloggers for reviews, exploring various media (print, television, outdoor), retail initiatives etc was spread over a period of three months. Quite unlike the Bling campaign. The mobile phone model, designed specifically for women was promoted via a high octane campaign, with a 360-degree media coverage. The difference in the approach for the two products is explained by Pratik Seal, head of marketing at Micromax: The choice is quite simply guided by matching the manufacturing capabilities vis-a-vis demand mapping, also generated through your marketing efforts. For instance, it is pointless to make noise about a product and not be ready with product availability. In the case of Bling, the product was made available to meet the projected demand following the test marketing phase. Funbook took baby steps to begin with; now, after selling 1.8 lakh units, it is on a much firmer ground, opening the doors to a large-scale promotional campaign. Getting the mix right DOs Define objectives of branding clearly; you cannot do everything on a shoe-string budget, so select and priortise before hand Decide on the budget independent of objectives; dream and wish big and then be demanding to fit that within a budget Be very unreasonable when negotiating the cost of media or anything else; there's nothing like a fixed or lowest possible, there is always room for lower Work with experienced professionals; in ones zeal to save on costs don't work with less experienced/cheaper options that may waste time and not deliver real value

Measure the success of all initiatives carefully and continuously so as to change the course when needed and move effort elsewhere Collaborate with other firms that have interest in same target customer group; tie up with an insurance firm if you are healthcare company; leverage each other's brand equity and budgets Use PR to the hilt; create stories about the brand that media finds interesting and customers connect with

DONTs Believe in thumb rules, like media mix or minimum burst or spurt, or least possible budget Overestimate the power of new media like online and mobile Underestimate the power of traditional media like print and television Make campaigns for yourself, your distributors or staff but for the end customers Lose patience and continue investing in brand building even if it is small amounts

Put together by Harminder Sahni, founder and managing director,Wazir Advisors Moment of truth The point of sale is the moment of truth, where all the monies worth is known. Being available, when the consumer seeks your brand out, is absolutely imperative. So proclaiming your presence without putting in place a strong distribution network is counter effective, say experts. Take Godrej Aer, the recently launched air care product from Godrej Consumer Products stable. Says Sunil Kataria, executive vice-president, sales and new business development, GCPL, The promotional strategy television and print commercials etc will be put into action only after the distribution is in place. Similarly, if purely skimming the market is your intention, opt for media channels that provide a targeted reach. Consider Nivea Sun, a sunscreen lotion from the skincare brand. Given that the category (sunscreen) is fairly nascent in India and largely an urban phenomenon, the company excluded television from the media mix. It was deemed an unnecessary expense. The frequency of new launches is easily the highest for the fast moving consumer goods (FMCG) category. And yet, only few get noticed. Then many of the new launches are not

exactly new brands, more often than not they are simple extensions of an existing brand. The cost of building brands today has gone up significantly. Most new launches are for extensions, rather than completely new brands, says Rakshit Hargave, managing director, Nivea India, explaining why launches from the FMCG category are becoming muted. This is, however, not unexpected. Unless completely new categories are being built, the launches will stay muted. But there is also a significant opportunity to explore new media and channels says Hargave. For instance, brands can invest more in retail level activations. They can amass a wealth of information from the consumer as well share a great deal with him, making the buying experience personal, rather than depending on the one-way communication of the mass media. That is really the essence. So far, brands have spoken about generating noise around their launches. But in the current age, when the talk has moved from monologue to dialogue to engagement, this noise can end up being a raucous disturbance. Leaving aside the cut-anddried you-cant-escape-my-brand approach, marketers must reach out to the consumer in spaces she operates in. For instance, bloggers, those who write about technology and tech products, enjoy popularity and following. Like Micromax, many other tech product manufacturers are engaging with bloggers. The example of Acer India can be cited here. Its chief marketing officer, S Rajendran, spent an entire day in Mumbai engaging with bloggers about the companys latest series with Dolby sound system. As is evident, brands built with little or no media support were once relatively rare, but theyve begun to proliferate in recent years, thanks to social media and the inhabitants that populate that space. But the thumb rules for a new launch remain the same: cover your flanks well; mitigate your risk as much as possible with great planning. Above all remember that your existing customers (whether they are using a free version of your product or not) are your best friends.

A friend in need In the new campaign, Airtel shifts focus from the mobile handset to the internet in other words, from mobility to sharing Rajarshi Bhttacharjee / Aug 27, 2012, 00:01 IST Friends came to its rescue when the pug, the Zoozoos and sirjis what an idea began to eclipse its visibility. Friends, each of whom is unique, and went viral to give Airtel the much needed leg-up, are back this year with a new story. While last year the attempt was to show how one could stay connected with all the friends one couldnt do without, the idea this year is to focus on sharing. Which means from an accent on mobile connectivity last year, the focus has shifted to the internet as the delivery platform in 2012. And the earlier youthful rendition of Har friend zaroori hai has evolved to Jo mera hai woh tera hai. The new television commercial (TVC) emphasises the importance of internet in

strengthening the bond of friendship. The tempo in the ad picks up as an energetic bunch of young adult gets rocking on an open-top, double-decker bus, celebrating the way they can share their lives via the internet. The jingle is catchy, which, say its makers, is one the youth can relate to. The idea is to associate Airtel with friendship and all that the idea of friendship stands for. The double-decker bus brings out the idea of mobility very strongly and the jingle helps the environment come alive, says Bharat Bambawale, global brand director, Bharti Airtel. While working with the young people Airtel realised that friends are the network the youth is connected to most of the time. We decided to take this up and make it the central thought in our communications, says Bambawale. By usurping friendship as an objective co -relative Airtel has attempted to do two things target a population, mostly in the 18-20 age-group, that has taken to data services faster than any other demographic, and tell them that the service provider is the best option they have in staying connected. The concepts of friendship and bringing people together are widely used in categories that target the youth in a big way. Beverage brands, in particular, portray themselves as best enjoyed with friends, be it a night out with the boys or an all-girl night in. Examples that come straight to mind are Chivas Live with Chivalry global effort that was launched in 2008, and Budweisers US campaign Band of Buds. While both the campaigns are based on the close association that groups of friends enjoy, Chivas has taken a moral high-ground in that it shows groups of men united through a chivalrous code of conduct, men who understand how true gentlemen should live.

For Airtel, however, the target is a slightly younger audience and so it takes the usual songand-dance routine to establish an instant connect. Launched on Friendship Day earlier this month, the new campaign attempts to demonstrate how friends can share their lives if they have a good internet connection. For friendship on internet this year, we thought that a really interesting insight would be to show the innumerable ways in which we share each others lives, says Agnello Dias, co-founder and chief creative officer, Taproot Communications, agency that conceptualised the campaign. Elaborating on the reason to focus on sharing through net working sites, Dias adds, We found that among the various things you do on the big four networking platforms on the internet YouTube, Facebook, Google and Twitter the common feature is sharing. While these platforms cater to different needs and uses for the youth, the common factor that binds all is the need to share. But why scrap a campaign idea that completely changed the way Airtel was perceived? That was seen as an apt repartee to popular campaigns of rival brands? Airtels Bambawale clarifies, We wanted to present the brand in a clear leadership voice in the internet space. And we wanted to do that through the idea of friendship that we have usurped with the Har friend zaroori hai campaign. So if har friend zaroori is one insight into the friendship territory, jo mera, tera is one step forward in the same terrain. We were clear that we will explore a fresh insight within the friendship territory that will be appropriate for the internet. That is when, working with our agency, we came up with the thought about sharing, an insight that drives internet behaviour for young people, adds Bambawale. The TVC is supported by digital as well as on-ground activation. Through a Facebook event leading to the launch of the TVC, Airtel generated a virtual friendship band, touted as the longest in the world, that helped create a lot of buzz around the new campaign. Airtel, Indias largest and the worlds third largest mobile services operator, saw more than 1,80,000 people downloaded the app, with 12.6 million friends putting on the virtual band.

Dhara: A new mantra of marketing Arunima Mishra / Aug 27, 2012, 00:04 IST Remember the little boy, enticed to return home with the lure of jalebee on TV? Behind the ad was Dhara, the edible oil brand, which brought in a lot of firsts to the Indian market. The first to sell branded packed edible oil and in tamper-proof pouches by Tetra Pak, Dhara had come up with many other memorable campaigns. However, of late it had not been on the airwaves. It has now created an all-encompassing positioning to mark its 25th anniversary. The Rs 350-crore edible oil brand has unveiled its new positioning Dhara: India ka Tadka. The television commercial marks Dharas comeback in the mass media after six years, during which it underwent a packaging revamp and a merger. Dhara, a brand of National Dairy Development Board (NDDB), Anand, India, had been always sold, distributed and marketed by Mother Dairy Fruit & Vegetable (MDFVL). NDDB merged Dhara with MDFVL in 2008 and the Dhara range contributes to 12 per cent of MDFVLs turnover.

The earlier campaigns of the brand such as Dhara Dhara, Shudh Dhara and My Daddy Strongest had scored high on the recall list of consumers. The TVC drives home scientific research, which says that consumers need to keep rotating the type of their edible oil to moderate their consumption. DDB Mudra, Dharas creative agency on -board since its inception, has conceptualised the TVC. The TVC is a montage of people from all across the country enjoying their food while the voice-over by actor Raghubir Yadav celebrates everyones love for it until Yadav cautions viewers about the various health issues. The next frame: Everyone stops eating, anxious about the after-effects of cooking in oil. The voice-over takes over and tells the people to eat without worrying with: Arre khayiye, khayiye, health ki tension Dhara pe chodiye, jo de tailon ki itni healthy range ki aap vibhinnn tailon mein pakaye, behtar swast paye (Please continue eating and leave your worries to Dhara, whose range of edible oils with allow you to cook your food in different types of oil for better health). Amit Kumar Taneja, senior brand manager, Dhara, says, The TVC talks about how well one should use oil. Dhara has done consumer research over the last three years to show that tadka (tempering) is the flourish that gives Indian food its special flavour. No matter what

part of India someone belongs to, they know the magic tadka can work. The wafting aroma of spices in oil turns an ordinary meal into the most exquisite treat. But, tadka is also more than that. It is a metaphor for the joie de vivre, the spice of life. We want Dhara to be synonymous with adding the same to peoples life. The ad has been shot in Mumbai over two days with a budget of Rs 2.5-3 crore. It is produced by Thumbnail Production. Radhika Kapur is the senior creative director and Sudip Bandyopadhyay has directed the film, while Thumbnail Pictures is the production house. KIT: Workwear and uniforms market in India Strategic tools for the practising manager Technopak Advisors / New Delhi Aug 20, 2012, 00:47 IST Our economy has already reached a stage where the services and manufacturing sectors contribute significant portion to the economic output. Workers employed in manufacturing and allied sectors such as automobile, oil and gas, construction etc. are becoming aware of occupational hazards and, as a result, the companies are developing a safe working environment. Vendor companies are required to meet international safety requirements as prescribed by buyer requirements. This, coupled with the need to build a strong corporate identity, has increased the demand for basic and protective workwear. The domestic workwear market is currently estimated to be around USD 357 million and is projected to reach USD 1,108 million by the year 2021 growing at an impressive CAGR of 12 per cent. It is estimated that jackets and trousers will witness highest growth of 15 per cent and 14 per cent respectively, outpacing the domestic market growth of basic workwear. Workwear has been traditionally associated with uniforms and single-colored overalls. A new emerging trend in the workwear industry is adding a fashion element to workwear. Traditional coveralls or boiler suits have given way tojackets and trousers or a bib-andbrace combination. Workwear is transitioning from traditional designs to youthful designs such as low cut trousers made from functional textiles.

Organising unorganised markets The benefits of organising markets are obvious. But there are many hurdles to overcome Rajarshi Bhattacharjee & Alokananda Chakraborty / Jul 02, 2012, 00:59 IST The winds of change might have warmed Gupta and Narayanan, but marketers say India has a long way to go when it comes to organising the huge unorganised segments of the market. Yes, the signs are all there but the so-called boom is limited to the urban markets, as a big part of Indian retail, hospitality, entertainment, travel fleet management continue to be unorganised. In fact, a recent Pricewaterhouse- Coopers report says while the Indian retail sector is worth between Rs 18-20 lakh crore, the organised portion is just about 8 per cent. Take the pharma retail market in India that was valued at Rs 50,000 crore in 2011. The organised segment of that market was just about Rs 4,000 crore. For consumer goods, the organised modern trade format has just 5-8 per cent of the overall market.

When it comes to retail, a key reason that seems to stand in the way of wholesale reorganisation is the capital intensive nature of the business it is often not so easy to spread the retail networks without worrying about additional working capital requirements. Rohit Bhasin, leader, retail practice, Pricewaterhouse- Coopers India, says, Because of political compulsions, foreign direct investment (FDI) in multi-brand retail has not been allowed. The day FDI opens up to multi-brand retail, we will see a larger penetration of organised retail and the 8 per cent figure will clearly go up. As global players enter the Indian retail arena, they will come in with the capital and the know-how required for operating organised retail networks. Bhasin says the decision to step beyond tier 2 markets is not an easy one for retailers they would rather exploit areas that are likely to offer better returns. The gestation period is very high in this sector. Achieving break-even is a major challenge for players; especially in a situation when raising capital is becoming difficult, the propensity is to go to the metros and tier 1 cities first. The other reason can be related to logistics particularly for the pharmacy and the food and grocery segments. It is not so easy to reach tier 2 and 3 cities as the supply chain networks are not well developed yet, explains Bhasin.

Bhasin, however, adds organising retail formats in India is a function of time, economic growth and opening up of FDI in multi brand retail. And its not a distant dream because the Indian consumer has started changing and is demanding more efficient customer interfaces and better services. Consumers across segments tend to prefer brands for their uniformity, provided cost-effectiveness is attached to the marketing proposition. An organised player with well-known branding induces confidence among its consumers in a similar way as a popular newspaper evokes credibility among its readers, says Om Manchanda, CEO, Dr Lal PathLabs. In a sense the ball is in the marketers court. It is incumbent of them to educate retailers about the benefits of organisation and step out of their comfort zones to devise ways and means of wooing consumers in markets that remain fragmented and outside the radar of other manufacturers, says a Mumbai -based brand consultant. Y V Verma, director, home appliances, LG Electronics, agrees. The challenge is to educate the small retailers that the whole experience is becoming very important even in smaller cities products need to be displayed according to the planogram. He has to identify which are the hot -spots on the shop-floor-when a customer walks in, where does she spend most of her time; they have to figure out what type of products should be kept where, at what height, and they have to take on the task of training the shop-floor executives to not just sell a product but satisfy the evolving consumer. Organised brand outlets offer advantage in terms of retailer margin, cost-benefit and inventory-management. This, however, doesnt mean the 12 million mom-and-pop stores (according to a PricewaterhouseCoopers report) will cease to exist as Indian retail turns organised. It is true that certain margin is lost in the unorganised retail value chain, more so in case of food and grocery retail. But at the same time the margin deployment is coming at a very low level of investment. Price flexed organised trades tend to work on a lower spread but at a higher investment. As such, it would be safe to say that apart from commodity products, in most places, the unorganised trade has showed more efficiency than what most people presumed it was, says Ashutosh Tiwari, executive vice-president, strategic marketing, Godrej Group. Tiwari adds that while most people approach organised retail format from cost and efficiency viewpoint, for the bulk of the organised traders the advantage lies at the value end and not as much at the cost end. Here we are seeing a lot of success stories. A lot of

our brands have a higher market share in modern trade/organised retail as compared to traditional trade. This is because organised retail offers us some consumer and shopperfriendly opportunities. One, introduce new products and variants specifically at an entry threshold which is a fraction of the entry threshold that was required to introduce in a traditional market. If we do not have a Rs 10 to 20 crore line-of-sight (advertisement) immediately after the launch a product, the product will not succeed. But organised retail offers us the opportunity to bring down these thresholds dramatically. This is because we can advertise and communicate in-store, super-segment or even hyper-segment the offerings, divide them into a lot of complementary slices and at an investment that is only a fraction of the investment quantum that was earlier required. This also creates a lot of value for the consumers, he elaborates. Travel smart Retail might be the most obvious first stop for any discussion on organised formats, but the whole issue of travel and hotel booking/stay is becoming smoother right under our nose. As the average Indian has become more net-savvy and therefore a better informed customer the largely unorganised travel service space is fast sprucing up its act. It is a far cry from the scene earlier which was controlled largely by fly-by-night operators. A big part in this whole effort has been played by the online travel/tourism companies that not only help you plan your itinerary better but help you execute the whole plan in the most cost-effective manner. Of course, the scene is far from being perfect. For the players, becoming organised will require investment in technology and human capital, as well as automation and standardisation to support real time inventory and balance the demand-and-supply pipeline. Keyur Joshi, co-founder and chief commercial officer, MakeMyTrip, says the tax structures need to be supportive of the needs of a nascent industry that is trying to organise at a massive scale. When MakeMyTrip first tried to consolidate the hotels inventory and bring it online (in 2009), we faced many challenges. We had to actually invest in automating our hotelpartners so that customers visiting our website could access this inventory real-time. Small boutique properties were either apprehensive of the investments required to ramp up their technology platforms, or it was not financially viable for them, says Joshi.

He believes that being part of an organised sector will provide a stronger representation for the sector. Despite creating more jobs per million rupees of investment than any other sector of the economy, the travel and tourism sector has not received its due in terms of sops, special benefits or policies to fast-track growth and seize the advantages, he points out. A World Travel & Tourism Council estimate indicates the tourism industry in India is likely to generate US$121.4 billion of economic activity by the year 2015 and become the second largest employer in the world (employing 4,037,000 people, directly or indirectly) by 2019. With most players in this segment being small and medium enterprises, marketers say the key challenge is to bring them all under one comprehensive umbrella and create a regulatory framework that is credible, so that even the smaller players find it advantageous to be a part of it. Thats the story in inter-city/inter-state travel. For intra-city travel, which is still largely unorganised, a whole host of operators have burst onto the scene trying to bring some method into the madness. With about a dozen players across India cashing on this lucrative market that included players such as Mega, Meru, EasyCab, Select Cabs, Delhi Cabs, Mumbai Gold, Fast Track, Metro Cabs, Quick Cabs, and women-driven cab services like Priyadarshini Private Cabs, Go For Pink, and For-She the business is set to boom and spread to new cities. These radio cabs are air-conditioned cars equipped with state-of-theart GPS-based communication technology and most have well-groomed drivers. The service is supported by a 24x7 customer call centre and in most cases you can book online as well. A pet peeve among these operators is scarcity of trained manpower trained not just in the art of driving but in dealing with consumers, in building relationships. So most operators end up investing in training their personnel, besides building the fleet and the back-end. Sharing his experience, Si ddhartha Pahwa, chief executive officer, Meru Cabs, says, In the early days even the consumers did not understand how this service is going to be any different from the local taxi service used by them. Urging them to make a call to a customer to book a cab rather than hail a taxi on the road was a new experience. Pahwa says whether it is retail or fleet operation the need of the hour is grooming passionate managers. And it is an added advantage if they come from a completely different industry they bring new consumer insights and management ideas and redefine the whole business in the process.

Test result Another industry where trained professionals have changes the face of business relates to healthcare. Even a couple of years back, a visit to the neighbourhood pathology shop would mean walking into an ill-kempt dimly-lit hole-in-the-wall establishment, strewn with strange looking vials. The smell wafting through the room wouldnt be particularly pleasing, while the man at the counter would typically wear a dont-bother-me-look. In short, one wouldnt want to enter a pathology shop, except under dire circumstances. Circa 2004, all of these began to change. In keeping with increased awareness about best practices on patient care, pathology shops by now christened as medical diagnostic establishments started looking their part. Smart, neon-lit hoardings went up in place of old and worn-out signages; glass-panes replaced rickety doors; dingy rooms metamorphosed into well-lit and well-ventilated rest areas. And, the new personnel, most important of all, are handpicked professionals trained in patient-care. While patients certainly did not complain, there were solid economic reasons which prompted new-generation entrepreneurs and dyed-in-the-wool businessmen from the organised sector to enter the sector by mid-2000. The medical diagnostics market was about Rs 5,000 crore about seven years back. Now, it has touched Rs 8,000 crore, growing at a steady rate of 15 per cent every year. However, whats interesting that the organised segment continues to grow at a much faster clip of 30 per cent. Being recession proof and offering good returns, does it really take rocket-science to explain why entrepreneurs new and old made a beeline for this market? As of date, the top five players within the organised sector in revenue terms are Super Religare Laboratories (SRL: FY12: Rs 500 crore), Dr Lal PathLabs (LPL: FY12: Rs 325 crore), Metropolis (FY12: Rs 300 crore) and Thyrocare (Rs 100 crore). A handful of others (about 20 city level players) constitute a market of Rs 275 crore. Many players are offering a combination of pathology and radiology services to patients. This market is also faced with many hurdles. The biggest roadblock is the absence of a level-playing field, says Om Manchanda of Dr Lal PathLabs. For an organied player such as

Dr Lal PathLabs in an unorganised medical diagnostics market, initial corporate overheads are very high. Apart from the salaries, issues like cost of air-travel and holding banquets at quality hotels provide a strain on the finances. A local player faces no such expense heads. Therefore, it is only beyond a certain inflection point that an organised player starts making profits in newer centres. The absence of quality standards is another big impediment to organising the unorganised pathology markets. The bigger, organised players align themselves to international medical quality standards, and are forced to reckon with associated costs. Then, there is the issue of unethical doctor referrals, where some unorganised players tend to pay off doctors in return of their support, Manchanda adds. So there you have it: across segments there is a concerted push to get markets organised. But while the benefits are obvious, players are still grappling with issues relating to the availability of capital, trained professionals and ensuring quality. And the consumer is waiting for the pieces of the puzzle to fall in place