Retail Dude

Indian IT Diversification:

We all know that Indian IT industry is facing a big time challenge with subprime crisis in US and appreciating Indian Rupee. Credit crisis in US Subprime-Mortgage Industry resulted into loss of business from global banks and financial institutions, which is one of the main source of income for them (BFSI).

In order to compensate for this slowdown, Indian IT industry is forced to identify new ways of increasing their overall sales. So, instead of waiting for customer orders, they started developing innovative products which will improve customer’s business processes and will help them serve their customers in a better manner. Some of these innovation and inventions are:

·         Wipro is building set-up box for digital televisions and marketing it to American Cable Companies.

·         Infosys has developed a cosmetics mirror. When a radio-tagged lipstick is brought close, it turns into an information screen and recommends coordinating colors and products to customers.

·         Infosys is working on “smart shelves” which automatically track which piles of shirts customers have picked up the most often. This will help Retailers to identify which are the products which attract customer attention but they don’t buy it for some reasons.

·         TCS has developed a radio tagged pass for airline customers which will help them to check in by just swiping it and avoiding other formalities.

·         TCS has developed a software which will help airlines know frequent fliers preferences and will help them in customization.

·         Infosys has developed ShoppingTrip360, a new offering intended to help retailers and consumer packaged goods (CPG) companies achieve visibility into in-store activity. It is a wireless-equipped shopping cart that charts the most efficient path through a store based on a consumer’s shopping list.

·         Wipro is designing water flow systems for Airbus’s new A380.

These initiatives in part of Indian IT Giants are showcasing that how they are moving from problem solving to business advisory mode.

-      Rajeev Damani

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Customer Centricity:

As Prateek posted..  “The Power in Hands of Customer”, the term ‘Customer Centricity’ again hit my mind after a long time (it use to hit more frequently during MBA classes ) And so I started thinking how can we be customer centric?? Especially in industry like us it actually holds a value. As we are moving from product-based competition to service-based, entire focus of our processes is toward customers. Customer is King, God, Lord etc. etc. or else customer is everything.

As I kept thinking for long , suddenly first class of service marketing flashed in my mind, where Dr. Kartik Dave (our Service Marketing Faculty) amazed us  by disclosing that there are actually 7P’s in case of Marketing of Services i.e. Product, Price, Place, Promotion (the traditional 4) and People, Process & Physical Evidence (the new 3) (guys trust me you should never miss your MBA classes ). It then took no time for me to realize that Customer Centricity is nothing but aligning these 7P’s with customers need (implied & latent). And technology is the facilitator and enabler in the process . So, very quickly I came up with following diagram:

I guess once we look at this diagram, everything is clear. Still I will like to give some insight,

Product: Customer centric merchandise planning.

Price: Pricing based on customers pocket size and affordability.

Place: Place which is convenient for customer to locate and relate. (Product affinity, aisle affinity, place affinity)

Promotions: Promote what customer need to know. Promote to right customers.

People: Instill the objective of customer service among your people. Hire right people for right position.

Process: Make all the process efficient and flaw less. Be it Billing, Returns, Circulation, Supply Chain etc. etc.

Physical Evidence: Give your customer what you promise to them. Clean Stores, Easy Navigation (no butt-brush), Good Lighting, etc etc.

Technology: Technology is the enabler as well as facilitator of the process. That is why we have applications for merchandise planning, space optimization, pricing, HR management, etc. Using technology makes the process more efficient and objective. Moreover, for global retailers, where they have bulk of work in all these areas, it makes sense to use these applications to pace up as well as make things smooth.

-  Rajeev Damani

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Hello Readers!

Well it was time before some one had to find the crack in the voice!  Like the Richter magnitude measuring earthquakes, this crackdown is measured by snores, booings and of course a pre empted (fake) applause. Of course people am talking about PRESENTATIONS. At schools, colleges and board rooms, this is something of a whiner. You have to pass through these confusing wolfensteins maze of communication before you can see some light (not necessarily at the end of the tunnel). And mostly when you see light at end of our presentations in colleges and offices you are more likely be facing the barrel. The torture that you have caused by your own sweet chords of voice, lashes back at you like a whip.

Making and delivering presentation is an art in itself. Most of all registered or unregistered organisations of this world run its bread and butter exercise to those limited sparks in new ideation and reporting presentations or the result orientation of the mighty excel. But many potential thoughts and credits are lost mid way since they are never reaching the decisive listeners. Those bug bunny ears are tormented through your boring bulleted presentations, and they resulted in the introduction of the new word ”Screw” . Its obvious that you are attached at the end.

Why lament and fear on what you can easily give away to your listeners by a breathtaking, awing presentations. There are ways and techniques to do it, as easy as Plug and Play. Its a way of thought, that you reach to your listeners and in-turn your ideas.

Dont want to sound like a preacher but a messenger to you all. Mr Mohit Chhabra an alumnus of Bimtech has done exactly that being the Chief Grunt Officer of his newly found website http://www.vocalite.co.in where there is a try to change what today is called a “Power ” ” Presentation” lacking the “Point” in between.

I encourage all of you to join this website, since its more based out of a face to face communication to get the best out of the Points in the presentations, to make life a bit easier and interesting to your listeners so that you get the deserved applause.

- Sudip

Yesterday is history, Tomorrow is a mystery. Live in today life a gift you have. And thats why its called the Present. (Kung Fu Panda)

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Welcome to Bimtech Retail’s blog, Which has been in the making since “I don’t even remember”….still, its up and running now. Kudos! for the 2006-2008 batch…for we have always done, what we belived in…

Promise to keep the blog rolling…

Cheers!

- Sarthak Taneja

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