INTRODUCTION

Do you know that there are millions of unemployed youth in the country and by the time

you graduate, this number would have increased substantially? Do you want to be part of

that group which keeps knocking from pillar to post, checking with employment

exchanges, relatives, friends, and neighbours and still not able to get a job to their liking

and then settle for a second or third rate job?

You can also choose to be like Mr. Patel of Nirma who was a chemist’s assistance and

has a Rs. 2500 crore company today. Did you know that the original Mr. Bata was a

cobbler? And now has stores in more than 30 countries all over the world. Or you could

be like Dhiru bhai Ambani who started life as a clerk in a French company in Aden. He

was not born into a business family nor did he possess an MBA degree and yet, he is a

household name in India and figures in the Forbes list of the richest Asians. Lakshmi

Mittal, the steel giant, Satbir Bhatia of Hotmail fame and Narayan Murthy of Infosys are

some other names in the endless list you could choose from.

If your answer is yes then you can definitely opt for a career in entrepreneurship. And let

us remind you that this career opportunity is not only for boys but also for girls - all those

girls who think smart, are ready to act and script the story of their own life - like Shehnaz

Hussain or Ritu Kumar or Kiran Majumdar Shaw.

An entrepreneur is a person who starts an enterprise. He searches for change and

responds to it. A number of definitions have been given of an entrepreneur-

The economists view him as a fourth factor of production along with land labour and

capital.

The sociologists feel that certain communities and cultures promote

entrepreneurship like for example in India we say that Gujaratis and Sindhis are very

enterprising.

Still others feel that entrepreneurs are innovators who come up with new ideas for

products, markets or techniques.

To put it very simply an entrepreneur is someone who perceives opportunity, organizes

resources needed for exploiting that opportunity and exploits it. Computers, mobile

phones, washing machines, ATMs, Credit Cards, Courier Service, and Ready to eat

Foods are all examples of entrepreneurial ideas that got converted into products or

services.

Some definitions of an entrepreneur are listed below:

Stems: from the French word ‘entrependre’ meaning one who undertakes or one who is a

‘go-between’

Richard Cantillon: An entrepreneur is a person who pays a certain price for a product to

resell it at an uncertain price, thereby making decisions about obtaining and using the

resources while consequently admitting the risk of enterprise.

J.B. Say: An entrepreneur is an economic agent who unites all means of production- land

of one, the labour of another and the capital of yet another and thus produces a product.

By selling the product in the market he pays rent of land, wages to labour, interest on

capital and what remains is his profit. He shifts economic resources out of an area of

lower and into an area of higher productivity and greater yield.

Schumpeter: According to him entrepreneurs are innovators who use a process of

shattering the status quo of the existing products and services, to set up new products,

new services.

David McClleland: An entrepreneur is a person with a high need for achievement [N-

Ach]. He is energetic and a moderate risk taker.

Peter Drucker: An entrepreneur searches for change, responds to it and exploits

opportunities. Innovation is a specific tool of an entrepreneur hence an effective

entrepreneur converts a source into a resource.

Kilby: Emphasizes the role of an imitator entrepreneur who does not innovate but

imitates technologies innovated by others. Are very important in developing economies.

Albert Shapero: Entrepreneurs take initiative, accept risk of failure and have an internal

locus of control.

G. Pinchot: Intrapreneur is an entrepreneur within an already established organization.

Peter Drucker Entrepreneurship is defined as ‘a systematic innovation, which consists in

the purposeful and organized search for changes, and it is the systematic analysis of the

opportunities such changes might offer for economic and social innovation.’

Entrepreneurship can be described as a process of action an entrepreneur undertakes to

establish his enterprise. Entrepreneurship is a creative activity. It is the ability to create

and build something from practically nothing. It is a knack of sensing opportunity where

others see chaos, contradiction and confusion. Entrepreneurship is the attitude of mind to

seek opportunities, take calculated risks and derive benefits by setting up a venture. It

comprises of numerous activities involved in conception, creation and running an

enterprise.

Entrepreneurship is a discipline with a knowledge base theory. It is an outcome of

complex socio-economic, psychological, technological, legal and other factors. It is a

dynamic and risky process. It involves a fusion of capital, technology and human talent.

Entrepreneurship is equally applicable to big and small businesses, to economic and non-

economic activities. Different entrepreneurs might have some common traits but all of

them will have some different and unique features.

If we just concentrate on the entrepreneurs then there will be as many models as there

are ventures and we will not be able to predict or plan, how and where, and when these

entrepreneurs will start their ventures.

Entrepreneurship is a process. It is not a combination of some stray incidents. It is the

purposeful and organized search for change, conducted after systematic analysis of

opportunities in the environment. Entrepreneurship is a philosophy- it is the way one

thinks, one acts and therefore it can exist in any situation be it business or government or

in the field of education, science and technology or poverty alleviation or any others.

ROLE OF ENTREPRENEUR IN ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT

The industrial health of a society depends on the level of entrepreneurship existing in it.

A country might remain backward not because of lack of natural resources or dearth of

capital [as it is many times believed] but because of lack of entrepreneurial talents or it

inability to tap the latent entrepreneurial talents existing in that society. Entrepreneurs

historically have altered the direction of national economies, industry or markets- Japan,

Singapore, Korea, Taiwan to name a few.

Economic Development - Entrepreneurship is basically concerned with creating wealth

through production of goods and services. This results in a process of upward change

whereby the real per capita income of a country rises overtime or in other words

economic development takes place. Thus entrepreneurial development is the key to

economic development. In fact it is one of the most critical inputs in the economic

development of a region. It speeds up the process of activating factors of production

leading to a higher rate of economic growth, dispersal of economic activities and

development of backward regions. If a region is unable to throw up a sufficient number

of entrepreneurs then alien entrepreneurs usually step in to provide goods and services

needed by the people. However the profits earned by these entrepreneurs are usually not

ploughed back but repatriated to their place of origin. As a result development in that

region cannot take place. Dr. M.M. Akhori refers to this practice as ‘The Leech Effect’.

The above reiterates the importance of entrepreneurship development for fuelling

economic growth of a region.

Entrepreneurship begets and also injects entrepreneurship by starting a chain reaction

when the entrepreneur continuously tries to improve the quality of existing goods and

services and add new ones. E.g. when computers came into the market there was

continuous improvement in the models, their functions etc. like first generation

computers, personal computers, laptops, palmtops etc.

Not only had this fostered the development of the software industry, computer education

institutes, computer maintenance and stationery units etc. but also other industries like

banking, railways, education, travel, films, medical and legal transcriptions, business

process outsourcing [BPOs] etc. In this manner by harnessing the entrepreneurial talent a

society comes out of traditional lethargy to modern industrial culture. India needs

entrepreneurs to capitalize on new opportunities and to create wealth and new jobs.

Education - Towards the end of the sixties, two significant contributions were made in

the field of entrepreneurship .One was that there is a positive linkage between

entrepreneurship and economic development and the other was regarding the emergence

of a strong hypothesis that entrepreneurship can be developed through planned efforts1.

Consequently planners realized that absence of a strong entrepreneurial base acts as a

serious handicap in the industrial development of a region. The identification and

development of first generation entrepreneurs through Entrepreneurial Development

Programmes is an important strategy.

There is a growing realization that presence of resources and favourable government

policies cannot automatically manufacture economic development. It is the

entrepreneurial spirit of the people, which can transform the economy of that region.

Both the quantity and quality of entrepreneurs are of utmost significance for achieving

the goal of economic development. The myth that entrepreneurs are born with some

innate traits is fortunately no longer held. You will learn more about this in the lesson on

motivation. Many research studies have brought out that entrepreneurship can be taught

and learned. Entrepreneurship is a discipline and like all disciplines it has models,

processes and case studies, which can help an individual to study this subject. The

necessary competencies required of a successful entrepreneur can be acquired through

training and development. Numerous courses in entrepreneurship are being taught all

over the world in schools and colleges, seminars and conferences are being organized and

EDPs are being conducted. The thinking today is why just create managers why not

create people who can absorb managers. One can acquire the traits and learn the skills for

becoming an entrepreneur .

FUNCTIONS OF ENTREPRENEUR

An entrepreneur frequently has to wear many hats. He has to perceive opportunity, plan,

organize resources, and oversee production, marketing, and liaison with officials. Most

importantly he has to innovate and bear risk. The main functions of an entrepreneur are as

follows:

1. Innovation: Innovation is one of the most important functions of an entrepreneur

according to Schumpeter. An entrepreneur uses information, knowledge and intuition to

come up with new products, new methods of reducing costs of a product, improvement in

design or function of a product, discovering new markets or new ways of organization of

industry. Through innovation, an entrepreneur converts a material into a resource or

combines existing resources into new and more productive configurations. It is the

creativity of an entrepreneur that results in invention [creation of new knowledge] and

innovation [application of knowledge to create new products, services or processes.]

Systematic innovation means monitoring the following for innovative opportunity:

The unexpected success or failure or any unexpected outside event, (e.g. when the IT

bubble burst the ITES sector started growing.)

Innovation based on process need [e.g. plate based cameras, film based cameras, digital

cameras]

Changes in industry and market structure [e.g. video cassette VCD, DVD, Blue ray disc]

Demographics changes (e.g. increasing number of working women and nuclear families

in most metropolitan cities)

New knowledge (e.g. Pentium chip)

2. Risk and uncertainty bearing: According to Hozelist an entrepreneur performs the

function of risk and uncertainty bearing. Every decision pertaining to development of

new products, adapting new technologies, opening up new markets involves risk.

Decision-making in an environment of uncertainty requires anticipation of risk. Profit is

said to be the reward for anticipating and taking such risks. However it is pertinent to

mention that the entrepreneur is not a gambler, he only takes calculated risks. An

entrepreneur develops the art of decision-making under conditions of uncertainty as a

matter of survival.

3. Organization building: An entrepreneur has to organize men, material and other

resources. He has to perform the functions of planning, co-ordination and control. He has

to use his leadership qualities to build a team, generate resources and solve problems.

With his organizational skills an entrepreneur builds an enterprise from scratch, nurtures

it and makes it grow. His vision sows the seeds for a sound and vibrant organization and

synergies are built in he enterprise. According to Kilby in a developing country even the

imitator entrepreneurs are very important and the entrepreneurial role encompasses the

following:

Perception of market opportunities

Gaining command over scarce resources

Purchasing inputs

Marketing the products

Dealing with bureaucrats

Managing human relations within the firm

Managing customer and supplier relations

Managing finance

Managing production

Acquiring and overseeing assembly of the factory

Industrial engineering

Upgrading process and product.

ENTREPRENEURSHIP AS CAREER OPTION

The vast majority of human beings direct their activities towards earning a living,

generating wealth and improving their standard of living. You can choose your career

from two broad categories of options – Wage Employment or Entrepreneurship. The term

‘career’

signifies a continuous, ever evolving, ever expanding opportunity for personal as well as

business growth and development. We may define entrepreneurship as a career in your

own business [YOB] rather than wage employment [JOB] .If you opt for a job then you

ill work for others. In case you opt for entrepreneurship you will be your own boss.

In case of wage employment one is engaged in routine work carried on for others for

which he receives salary or wages. He has to follow instructions and execute plans laid

down by his superior. One can choose to be employed in Government Service or the

Public Sector or the Private sector. Some of the main differences between

entrepreneurship and wage employment career options are as under:

Wage Employment Entrepreneurship

Work for Others Own Boss

Follow Instructions Make own plans

Routine Job Creative activity

Earning is fixed, Can be negative

never negative sometimes, generally surplus

Does not create wealth Creates Wealth,

contributes to GDP.

Can choose from- Can choose from-

Government service Industry

Public Sector Trade or

Private Sector Service Enterprise

In the context of employment generation the three terms- Income generation, Self

employment and Entrepreneurship are often used interchangeably.

Income generation is the initial stage in the entrepreneurial process in which one tries to

generate surplus or profit. They are often taken on part- time or casual basis to

supplement income e.g. a man with some surplus money might put his money in a fixed

deposit account in a bank or a chit -fund to earn some interest.

Self-employment is the second stage in the entrepreneurial process and refers to an

individual’s fulltime involvement in his own occupation. e.g. a person who starts a tea

shop and remains happy and satisfied and has no plans to add on any other items like

samosas, buns, soft drinks etc. or to grow in any other manner[e.g. supplying

tea/coffee/sandwiches to others in the vicinity].

Entrepreneurship is the terminal stage of the entrepreneurial process wherein after

setting up a venture one looks for diversification and growth. An entrepreneur is always

in search of new challenges. An entrepreneur is not a routine businessman he might not

have resources but he will have ideas. He is innovative and creative. He can convert a

threat into an opportunity. Small businessmen might shut-down or change his business if

he anticipates losses but an entrepreneur will try again after analyzing the situation. On

the other hand an entrepreneur can leave a perfectly running business to start another

venture if he so desires.

Functionally all entrepreneurs are self-employed and income generating persons but the

reverse is not true- all self-employed and income generating persons are not

entrepreneurs. If seen on a continuum, income generation, self-employment and

entrepreneurship can be considered as the initial, middle and final stages of the

entrepreneurial growth process. Income generating experience encourages self-

employment, which in turn facilitates graduating into entrepreneurship.

INTRODUCTION

Things are easier said than done! To realize our dreams and that also in such a grand

manner is really a tough task. The founders of Flipkart have probably conquered their

dreams with the amazing success of Flipkart. Flipkart is something which has really

opened up the Indian e-commerce market and that also in a big way.

Flipkart was co-founded by Sachin Bansal and Binny Bansal in Oct 2007. Both are

graduates from IIT-Delhi and have prior work experience in Amazon.com They both

were solid coders and wanted to open a portal that compared different e-commerce

websites, but there were hardly any such sites in India and they decided to give birth to

their own e-commerce venture - Flipkart.com

Thus was born Flipkart in Oct 2007 with an initial investment of 4 lac (co-founders

savings). It was never going to be easy since India has had bad past experiences with e-

commerce trading. It was not an easy segment to break into, people were very particular

in paying money for something which they had not seen and received. The trust was

missing in the Indian customers. So what Flipkart had to do was to instill trust and faith

in their customers. And they did exactly the same, will discuss more on how they did so

later in the post.

Flipkart began with selling books, since books are easy to procure, target market which

reads books is in abundance, books provide more margin, are easy to pack and deliver, do

not get damaged in transit and most importantly books are not very expensive, so the

amount of money a customer has to spend to try out one's service for one time is very

minimal. Flipkart sold only books for the first two years.

Flipkart started with the consignment model (procurement based on demand) i.e. they had

ties with 2 distributors in Bangalore, whenever a customer ordered a book, they used to

personally procure the book from the dealer, pack the book in their office and then

courier the same. In the initial months the founder's personal cell numbers used to be the

customer support numbers. So, in the start they tried their best to provide good service,

focus on the website - easy to browse and order and hassle-free, and strove hard to

resolve any customer issues. Since there were not any established players in the market,

this allowed them a lot of space to grow, and they did in fact grew very rapidly.

Flipkart had a revenue of 4 crore in FY 2008 - 2009, 20 crore in FY 2009 - 2010, 75 crore

in FY 2010 - 2011, and the revenue for FY 2011 - 2012 which ends on 31 Mar 2012 is

expected to be 500 crore. This is indeed a massive growth. The company targets revenues

of 5000 crore by 2015.

The company started from 2 employees and now has around 4500 employees.

Flipkart started with consignment model as discussed above, since most of the customer

issues like delivery delays etc. result from procurement model, the company started

opening its own warehouses as it started getting more investments. The company opened

its first warehouse in Bangalore and later on opened warehouses in Delhi, Kolkatta and

Mumbai. Today the company works with more than 500 suppliers. As on date more than

80% orders of Flipkart are handled via warehouses which help in quick and efficient

service.

A humble beginning from books, Flipkart now has a gamut of products ranging from:

Cell phones, laptops, computers, cameras, games, music, audio players, TV's, healthcare

products, washing machines etc. etc. Still, Flipkart derives around 50% of its revenue

from selling books online. Flipkart is the Indian market leader in selling books both

offline and online, it enjoys an online share of around 80%. The electronic items have a

large number of players like Naaptol, Letsbuy, Indiaplaza, Tradus, Infibeam, Yebhi etc.

The electronic market share is distributed among them in different unknown proportions.

India has around 13.5 crore internet users today where as the number of homes with

Cable and Satellite (C&S) television is 10.5 crore. The expected internet users will reach

a figure of 30 crore by 2014 and C&S homes are expected to be 14 crore by 2014. Thus

India has a tremendous internet growth and with the customers getting accustomed to e-

commerce, the future of e-commerce sector is definitely rosy. An approximated 25 lac

people have transacted online this year, the number is all set to increase with time.

Also to mention most of the Flipkart customers use internet from PC's/Laptops to order

goods. The use of mobile internet is very less at the moment, but with the advent of smart

phones the use of mobile internet for e-commerce transactions will soar with time. India

has 8 crore mobile net users at the moment, the number is expected to swell to 22.5 crore

by 2014.

Funding: Initially funded by the Bansals themselves with 4 Lakhs(INR).

Flipkart has since then raised two rounds of funding from venture capital funds Accel

India (in 2009) and Tiger Global Management (up to the tune of US$10 million) (in

2010).

Private equity firms Carlyle and General Atlantic are in talks to jointly invest about

$150 million to $200 million in Flipkart, according to sources.

Acquisitions:

2010: WEREAD, a social book discovery tool. The stated goal was to give Flipkart a

social recommendation platform for buyers to make informed decisions based on

recommendations from people within their social network.

2011: Mime360, a digital content platform company.

2011: Chakpak.com is a Bollywood news site that offers updates, news, photos and

videos. Flipkart acquired the rights to Chakpak’s digital catalogue which includes 40,000

filmographies, 10,000 movies and close to 50,000 ratings. Flipkart has categorically said

that it will not be involved with the original site and will not use the brand name.

2012: Letsbuy.com is India's second largest e-retailer in electronics. Flipkart has bought

the company for an estimated US$ 25 million.

Flipkart’s Success Mantra

Great customer service: Flipkart users are more satisfied than that of their competitors.

Great customer service has been its hallmark.

Easy to use website, hassle free payment system: The user interface is sleek and easy to

use.

Cash on delivery/Card on delivery mode of payment: This has been a major instrument in

Flipkart’s success. Almost 60% of its sales happen through this mode. Cash on delivery

created trust in the minds of Indian customers who were always weary of making payments

online.

Focused on user experience: Every other e-commerce site, tried to cram the maximum

of amount of information possible into every single page whereas Flipkart focused on

providing only the relevant info

Future Road Map

They aim at 10 times growth and eyes at $ 1Billion sales by 2015.

They will look at bigger investments in their supply chain and technology.

Investment will be made in large warehouses and increased automation of their

process, so that the product is not delayed.

They intend to enter in to various new categories and expand their current categories as

well.

Everything except for groceries and automobiles will be available on Flipkart in future.

To go further in the value chain, Flipkart is looking at associations with a larger

number of suppliers and partners, both nationally and internationally.

Threats in future:

There are no major foreseeable threats in the future. The company has built a great brand

name, they just have to maintain and enhance the same. Need to keep introducing more

products, adapting to the changing needs of the customer with time. The entry of

Amazon.com in 2012 in the Indian e-commerce space has been cited as a big challenge to

Flipkart. However Flipkart is a respected Brand name in India and should be able to

compete with Amazon. Amazon being a very big company can bring in serious

competition to Flipkart, since Amazon can bear more losses in the beginning to gain

customer base. But again Indian market is growing at a rapid pace as access to internet

increases and people become more aware of e-commerce sites and start trusting the same;

hence Indian market is sufficiently big at-least for these two giants to co-exist beneficiall

Advertisements Used in Newspapers and Magazines:

Newspaper advertising works on the fundamental of building trust and confidence with

the readers.

Newspapers have the greatest impact because of the following reasons:

1. Experts say the greater the exposure of the advertisement, the longer is the period of its

impact among the readers. Therefore experts feel if an advertisement stays in the memory

of a consumer for a longer time, chances are quite probable that he might opt for

purchasing or availing your services as and when required. This counts for higher sales

and brand awareness.

2. A newspaper reader is so involved in his reading that sometimes the content in the

advertisements creates an emotional impact on him. It is this power of being able to

evoke an emotional response with the reader that goes in favor of newspaper advertising.

3. In other media, especially online media, people get perturbed by the distractions in the

form of pop-ups and other advertisement forms that keep flashing on and off the screen.

In fact experts’ points out that instead of having any favorable impact, these ads serve to

distract the readers. However newspapers, point out experts, involves a focused reading

where there are no disturbing and unwanted flashes of advertisements. As there is no

distance between the reader and the story it seems that the reader actually undergoes all

the emotions in the story himself, leading to increase in the trust factor. Taking advantage

of this trust quotient, advertisers cash on newspapers to send their messages loud and

clear among the readers.

Hence, Flipkart has used advertisements in newspapers and magazines which are

colorful, bright; most of the images consist of kids, and have clear messages. Here are

some of the advertisements used by Flipkart in Newspapers and Magazines.

Online Advertising

The number of internet users is on a rapid rise worldwide and is used by people of all age

and types. Internet has become a major medium for communication, entertainment and is

in the process of replacing traditional entertainment, promo products, and informative

Medias. Some businesses are finding that handing out a promo product such as pens,

business cards, and mugs are too costly and yield little results. Likewise, traditional

marketing forms such as television, radio, newspaper, magazines, etc., are becoming a

thing of the past.

Internet has also become a major and effective medium for advertising and it has be

predicted that the online advertising and marketing is soon going to replace the

advertising through traditional medias such as television, radio, newspaper and

magazines. I have picked around 10 advantages of online advertising (not in that order)

when compared with the traditional offline advertising.

1) Wider Coverage -The online advertising gives your ads a wider coverage and this

globally wider coverage helps in making your advertisements reach more audiences,

which may ultimately help you in getting better results through your online advertising

campaign.

2) Targeted Audiences when compared with offline advertising, online advertising

always helps you to reach the targeted audience and this helps in making your campaign

more profitable and getting more relevant leads.

3) Affordable -Another main advantage of online advertising or marketing is the much

affordable price when compared with the traditional advertising costs. With a much lesser

cost you can advertise on the net for a wider range of audience and geographical

locations.

4) Easy to Track and Measure Conversion -

Measurability and easiness to track the conversion makes online advertising miles ahead

on the traditional advertising methods. A lot of effective analytics tools are available to

measure online advertising campaigns which help in more improvisation of the ads.

5) Speed -Online advertising is much faster than offline advertising and you can start

sending out your ads to a wider audience, the moment you start your advertising

campaign.

6) Informative -In online advertising, the advertiser is able to convey more details about

the advertisement to the audience and that too at relatively low cost. Most of the online

advertising campaigns are composed of a clickable link to a specific landing page, where

users get more information about the product mentioned in the ad.

7) Flexible Payment -Payment flexibility is another added advantage of online

advertising and marketing. In offline advertising you need to pay the full amount to the

advertising agency irrespective of the results. But in online advertising there is the

flexibility of paying for only qualified leads, clicks or impressions.

8) Better ROI -Since online advertising is mainly focused on performance based

payment, you ROI is sure to be far better when compared with offline advertising.

9) Easy Audience Engagement -Online advertisement makes is easy for the audience to

engage with your ads or products. As an advertiser we would be able to get more

feedback from the audience and thereby improve the quality of our ads going forward.

10) Better Branding -Any form of advertising helps in improving the branding and online

advertising stands a notch high in improving the branding of your company, service or

product.

Flipkart being an online mega store advertises its products and the offers in different

internet sites, screenshots of which are being shown below

Suggestions:

Flipkart has successfully placed itself into the prospects mind making it the India’s

largest online store with huge range of products. But Flipkart still needs to work on their

core competence that is books and stationery items.

With the entry of Amazon.com it will be a huge competitive market for Flipkart and

hence will have to position itself better, as we still see that huge percentage of females

are still unaware of Flipkart. Those female who purchase, has a very less frequency

which has remained unchanged. Therefore they need to get aggressive at providing better

services which can be fulfilled by reducing the delivery time, selling second hand

products which will increase consumers’ affordability much more and enhance

penetration into the market.

They can even have their retail stores which can give an access to consumers to feel and

analyze the products, which will help them win the consumers faith.

Price will still be a factor as amazon being a huge company will use its economies of

scale to remove their competitors from the market; therefore they need to be more

competitive on that aspect. Be very focused on consumers and build amazing experiences

for the customers.

1. HISTORY

Kishore Biyani is the person whose talent is transforming India Retail and Indian

Economy with his vision and power to grow. He is the person, who stood up and is going

well to break the parameters of Indian Retail. He is known by several names: the king of

retail the unstoppable Indian the man who saw the future.

Kishore Biyani belongs to a trading family from Rajasthan settled in Mumbai for more

than 60 years now. He was never interested in studies but did complete his commerce

graduation and always had ambition of making it big in business. He didn’t join the

family trading business but rather than tried out different things on his own, like

readymade garments, textile production, creating brands before he ventured in retail

business of selling garments. he is true visionary when he started selling readymade

garments when nobody preferred ready-to-wear shirts or trousers.

Kishore Biyani is an Indian businessman. He is chief executive officer (CEO) of Future

Group, and Managing Director of Pantaloon Retail. Biyani's Future Group has over 17

million square feet of retail space in 90 cities and 60 rural locations. He managed to raise

$170 million by taking venture capital arm Future Ventures public in March 2011. Biyani

is married to Sangita Biyani and they have 2 children and are based in Mumbai. His older

daughter Ashni is a director of Future Ideas, group's innovation and incubation cell.

Kishore is the co-author of the book "It happened in India". It is the story of Pantaloons,

Big Bazaar, Central, and the Great Indian Consumer, co-authored with Dipayan Baishya.

The book has sold some 100,000 copies, more than any other business book published in

India so far.

2. WHY DID YOU CHOOSE THAT PERSONALITY?

Kishore Biyani isn’t quite the poster boy of India’s organized retail industry. He lives its

periphery ever willing to take extraordinary bets. His peers dismiss him as compulsive

risk taker. He was first who dared to try out the hypermarket model. During his initial

struggle period, the press fed up with his recalcitrance to meet or talk, largely ignores

him. He is seldom invited for retail seminars. But Biyani didn’t care. He was quite

content being outsider who at the end built up his Rs220 crore business in nascent Indian

retail sector.

Born in a middle class trading family Kishore Biyani started his career selling stonewash

fabric to small shops in Mumbai. Years later, with the launch of Pantaloons, Big Bazaar,

Food Bazaar, Central and many more retail formats, he redefined the retailing business in

INDIA. India's retail czar, Kishore Biyani, replaced conventional wisdom with "guts and

instincts" to create Future Group, a $1 billion company that includes Pantaloon Retail, a

department store group; Big Bazaar, the company's name for hypermarkets; Food Bazaar

supermarkets, and Central Mall, a more upscale aggregation of merchandise. Known for

his insights into Indian consumer behavior, Biyani also represents an enigma to the

country's emerging retail players, both domestic and foreign.

He trusted his own ability so strongly from day one that he never needed to be on the side

of established hero. Like while playing game of cricket, he was ever willing to take up

the opponent’s challenge in spite of a weak team. Out of his own confidence he

encouraged his team members to give it their best, even if they were destined to lose the

match. And he did everything to win the match. While in college he organized Disco

Dandiya in his own locality first of its kind in south Mumbai. It was first popular trend

that he picked on early and was able to capitalize on it.

So as one grows and starts to learn and understand life, he starts to question as well. At a

very early stage, one starts creating mental models to interpret various observations. At

that point if one finds that what he has learnt on his own is different from what is being

practiced in reality. He tries to distinguish the right from the wrong. He soon starts to

seek answer to everything and then life transforms. So attitude of questioning is very

important. Until one questions the establish way of doing things, one won’t be able to

come up with something new.

Thus he left his family business and started his own journey- entrepreneurial journey…..

He kept looking for beachheads to realize his dreams. He tried multiple things that could

be ideal for ‘new’ India that was emerging.

3. DREAM OF THE LEADER

His dream was to make a place on a simple idea: Rewrite rules, retain values. His

fundamental belief created a new kind of marketplace, forever transforming Indian retail.

Today his core values continue to guide how he does business and improve the quality of

life of the people they serve.

At his Future Group they are committed to being a catalyst of positive change in the

communities, societies, and business sectors in which they operate. They envision India’s

transformation into the legendary 'Sone Ki Chidiya' (golden bird), taking wings once

again to reach greater heights.  

He takes pride in being Indian. Their belief in inclusiveness for long-term sustainable

growth and economic prosperity evokes trust among consumers, employees, suppliers,

partners, shareholders and the community.

He even mentioned in his interview with FORBES INDIA...” I believe that what

differentiates us from animals is imagination and fear. One of my own observations on

life is that 7 out of 10 thoughts an average person has is negative. So the big question

becomes – How do we use reduce our fears and increase our imagination? I dream of

being able to reduce the fear quotient and convert negative thoughts through imagination.

We are a nation that doesn’t believe in ourselves as much as we should. Even with our

rich history and knowledge, we have yet to produce strong thought leaders out of India. If

we are to prosper and grow, we need to plan future scenarios that not only look at

economic indices but also take into account the measures of happiness, culture, and

values. This is a long-term approach to planning the future of India.”

4. SWOT ANALYSIS

5. STAGE OF BUSINESS (CURRENT STAGE) Every day, Future Group brings multiple products, opportunities, and services to millions

of customers in India. Through over 17 million square feet of retail space, we serve

customers in 93 cities and 60 rural locations across the country. Most of all, we help India

shop, save and realize dreams and aspirations to live a better quality of life every day.

Future Group understands the soul of Indian consumers. As one of India’s retail pioneers

with multiple retail formats, we connect a diverse and passionate community of Indian

buyers, sellers, and businesses. The collective impact on business is staggering: Around

300 million customers walk into our stores each year and choose products and services

supplied by over 30,000 small, medium and large entrepreneurs and manufacturers from

across India. And this number is set to grow.

Future Group employs 35,000 people directly from every section of our society. We

source our supplies from enterprises across the country, creating fresh employment,

impacting livelihoods, empowering local communities, and fostering mutual growth.

We believe in the ‘Indian dream’ and have aligned our business practices to our larger

objective of being a premier catalyst in India’s consumption-led growth story. Working

towards this end, we are ushering positive socio-economic changes in communities to

help the Indian dream fly high and the ‘Sone Ki Chidiya’ soars once again. This approach

remains embedded in our ethos even as we rapidly expand our footprints deeper into

India.

BUSINESSES:

6. STRATEGY (HOW THE RESOURCES ARE MOBALISED)

A new normal is being defined in the Indian consumer market every day. With far-

reaching socio-economic changes that India has undergone in the last decade, the drivers

in urban and rural India are maturing fast.

With a growth strategy tempered with localization and an inclusive business model,

Future Group is the only pure play local retailer poised to lead India’s consumption story

with sustainable value creation.

Our multi-format retail strategy captures almost the entire consumption basket of Indian

customers. As modern retail drives new demand, efficiency and consumption in new

categories, our strategy is based on our deep understanding of Indian consumers. We

understand the varied buying behavior of the Indian consumer across regional ethnicities

and are constantly innovating to craft strategies that address the subtle differences.

Future Group's strategy is aimed at achieving inclusive, sustained, and profitable

growth with three levers

They believe that modern Indian retail rests on the strength of two pillars – scale and

efficiencies. As front-runners in both areas, they firmly believe their core responsibility

lies in providing protection to customers from the overall rate of inflation. While the

scale and size of our operations helps them improve efficiencies, it also ensures they

deliver greater value to their customers.

Their retail thrust is focused on four principal verticals of Food, Fashion, General

Merchandise, and Home. These four categories together account for nearly 65% of the

consumption in the country and represent mass consumer aspirations. Acknowledging

this, they are creating retail pure play through divestment and demerger of non-retail

businesses to concentrate our efforts on these verticals.

India’s retail boom is being driven by resurgence in the economy. Modern retail still has

around 6% share of the total retail spend in the country that is estimated at around US $

400 billion. Thus, the potential for modern retail growth in India is huge. Currently,

leading retailers in mature markets occupy the top three slots by turnover, employment,

and value creation. As the Indian economy matures, it is upon us to make the same

happen in their country.

Future Group was conceived as a force to drive domestic consumption and capture every

addressable need of Indian consumers.

They have different braches like:

RETAILFuture Group makes every effort to delight its customers, tailoring store formats to

changing Indian lifestyles and adapting products and services to their desires.

We operate some of India’s most popular retail formats. Across value and lifestyle

segments, our multi-format retail strategy caters to the complete consumption needs of a

wide cross-section of Indian consumers.

As modern retail drives fresh demand and consumption in new categories, our strategy is

based on a deep understanding of Indian consumers, the products they want, and making

these products available in every city, in every store format. Future Group offers

innovative offerings at affordable prices tailored to the needs of every Indian household.

Pioneers in the India’s retail space, our formats are household names in more than

93 cities and 60 rural locations across the country

Our stores cover around 17 million square feet of retail space and attract around

300 million customers each year

Pantaloon Retail (India) Limited focuses on the lifestyle retail segment led by the

Pantaloons and Central formats

Future Value Retail focuses on the value retail segment through the Big

Bazaar, Food Bazaar, and KB’s Fairprice formats.

FINANCE

Created on the foundation of our belief to help the Indian dream fly high, our finance

business aims to empower people to pursue their dreams. Our finance solutions, an

important component of our business portfolio, aim to help enterprises transform and

differentiate their offerings.

Future Group has broadened its finance services portfolio to strengthen its position in the

highly competitive consumer market through user-friendly and dynamic services based

on Indian consumer needs. Our group companies provide consumer finance and

insurance to customers besides offering corporate loans and equity investments to

companies engaged in consumer businesses.

The key aspect of our business model is to provide a unique personalized customer

experience to expand and capture a greater share in the highly competitive finance market

and help people realize the Indian dream.

Financing Dreams

Future Group’s financial arm - Future Capital Holdings Limited (FCH) is a provider of

financial services across consumer and wholesale businesses, with aspirations to grow

into a significant financial conglomerate.

Conceptualized around a unique positioning of a financial services business, integrated

with a retail chain, Future Capital is establishing financial superstores within the Retail

stores of Future Group such as Big Bazaar, E-zone and Home Town to create India’s first

‘consumer-centric’ retailer of financial products and services

Securing Lives

Future Group’s foray into life and non-life insurance services and products is led through

Future General India Life Insurance Company and Future General India Insurance

Company, respectively.

These ventures are in partnership with Italy’s General Group that is amongst the three

largest insurance companies in Europe and is ranked amongst the Top 50 on the Fortune

500 list.

Enabling Entrepreneurship

Future Ventures promotes and participates in innovative and emerging business ventures

in India. We aim to empower entrepreneurship by focusing on consumption-led sectors in

the country such as Fashion, FMCG, Food Processing, Home Products, Rural

Distribution, and Vocational Education.

We also participate in businesses where we can exercise control and add value as an

active shareholder by utilizing the experience and knowledge of Future Group.

SERVICES

In a highly competitive retail marketplace with changing consumer preferences, different

formats and large geographical spread, retail logistics is a critical business activity.

At Future Group we believe the viability of a retail operation hinges as much on

achieving efficient logistics and supply chain as it does on attaining success at the front

end.

A seamless logistics function to move our products from the manufacturer to our store

shelves is at the heart of our retail operations. Our robust presence in logistics and supply

chain helps us move millions of products to customers each day of the year across India

in the most efficient and cost-effective manner

Future Supply Chains, a specialized subsidiary, offers a strategic, focused, and

consolidated approach to meet the group’s large supply chain requirements as well as

those of select suppliers and business partners.

Future Supply Chains provides integrated end-to-end supply chain management,

warehousing and distribution, multi-modal transportation and container freight stations.

Operates 5 major verticals: Warehousing, Transportation, International Logistics,

Brand Distribution and Reverse Logistics

Current warehouse footprint of over 3.5 million square feet with 67 warehouses

across 32 locations.

Dedicated fleet of over 400 vehicles and an outsourced fleet of 400 trucks that

move goods across India in the most efficient and cost-effective manner

Li & Fung, the Hong Kong-based largest retail supply chain company, is an

investor and partner of Future Supply Chains.

PAYBACK LOYALTY PROGRAMME

Future Group has taken the whole concept of customer loyalty to the next level by joining

hands with PAYBACK. PAYBACK is India’s largest and one of Europe’s most

successful multi-partner loyalty programs. With PAYBACK, customers can shop, save

and get rewarded. This program enables consumers to collect millions of points across

online and offline partners – with just a single card. Customers can accumulate points

across Future Group formats, thereby making “shopping rewarding”.

7. LEADERSHIP STYLE

Since his young age, he had a rational thinking. He would question each and everything

and do it if he found some logic behind it. He was an introvert and shy person at young

age. He believed in the ideology i.e. create and destroy. He would observe people, judge

them and then accordingly associate or dissociate from them. He has got following

characteristics:

VISIONARY-He is a true visionary when he started selling readymade garments

when nobody preferred ready-to-wear shirts or trousers. Now his vision is serving

Indian society and which is unchallenged.

RISK TAKER-He tried out different things on his own, like readymade garments,

textile production, creating brands before he ventured in retail business of selling

garments.

SIMPLICITY-You’ll never catch him in a tie and jacket. He doesn’t drive

expensive cars.

He has got all the TRAITS OF AN EFFECTIVE LEADER:

8. AWARDS AND RECOGNITION

Starting from 2003 they have been awarded many a times like in 2003-

Indian Express Award and Idusland Bank(India brand summit)

Images Fashion Award in the year 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, & 2012.

Images Retail Award in the year 2004, 2005, 2007

Reid & Taylor and DLF Awards in the year 2004, 2006, and 2008

Retail Asia Pacific Top500 Awards in 2006 & 2008,

Singapore, Asia Money Awards2006,

Ernest And The Young Entrepreneur Of The Year Award2006,

CNBC Indian Business Leaders Award 2006

CNBC Awaz Consumers Awards In 2006,2008,2009,2010.2011

World Retail Congress Barcelona Award2007 &2009 ,

Coca Cola Golden Spoon Awards in the year 2008, 2009 & 2010

The India Star Award 2008,

The Gurukul Awards 2009

Asia’s Best Employer Brand Awards2010

Golden Spoon Awards in the Year 2010 And 2011.

ICAI awards 2011, Food retail & SCM and Agro Logistics Summits & Awards

2011

Star News Brand Excellence Awards 2011

DNA & Stars Of The Industry Group Innovative B-SCHOOL Award 2011,

And recently he has been awarded in the year of 2012 with

CISO Awards,

Golden Spoon Awards,

Images Fashion Award,

ET Retail Awards

Bloomberg UTV B-School Excellence Award.

conclusion

Business organization is living, breathing entities which grow organically. And he also

believe that there is lot that org can learn from understanding nature. Nature is the best

designer and very often they have been inspired nature work. In nature, there are no

fundamental tension between conservation change, Order and freedom, organized and

disorganized. Complex city and simplicity co exist in nature, there is continues fight for

survival and yet there is harmony interdependence among all living organism

The idea of flow is extremely for any business organization and it part of their

organization’s core value. if one believes in the idea of flow one always move on rather

than getting stuck and wasting time in making decision . In most org manager keep

working in circle discussing and re-discussing everything from every possible angle. And

yet of the 10 decision they make only 8 turn out to right. Two still go wrong. An

organization never has perfect info or complete consensus before leading a new initiative.

There will always be some amount of conflict and a lot of certainty. But the movement it

stops to resolve each issue and make everything certain, it moves towards stagnation.

Everyone in their organization, irrespective of what level they work is encouraged to take

initiative and make decision.