TiE Retail SIG: Jumpstarting the Retail Entrepreneurial Ecosystem, 21 Apr 2012 TiE Retail event held on April 21, 2012 saw the launch of TiE SIG (Special Interest Group). This group will become a platform for retail entrepreneurs to network, listen to industry experts, interact with leaders and takeaway best practices on being successful in the retail industry. This group will see participation from successful retail business leaders, retail consultants, and venture capitalists, and will provide opportunities to have direct communication with eminent experts and have other mentoring sessions. The event saw an active participation with a packed hall of more than 150 members. S. R. Gopalan, President, TiE Bangalore gave the welcome address and Hemu Javeri, Ajoy Krishnamurti and Sherif Kottapurath launched the SIG Retail. Keynote was given by Dr. Gibson G. Vedamani, Industry Expert and Mentor. The subjects for the panel discussions were “Is Indian e-commerce eco-system ready for the next growth wave?” (Panelists: Vaitheeswaran, Indiaplaza, K, Ganesh, TutorVista, Bharati Jacob, Seedfund. Moderator: Ajoy Krishnamurti) and “How can new-age physical retail co-exist and flourish with the e-commerce generation?” (Panelists: Kabir Lumba, Lifestyle, Kiran Nadkarni, KaatiZone, Ajith George, Sysfore. Moderator: Hemu Javeri). Amuleek Singh Bijral, Founder, Chai Point shared his story. Ajith Mathew George of Sysfore who was part of the second panel shared his experience: “Retail industry has matured so much in India and the organized retail sector which is only 5% of the total size is growing at a very fast pace. The physical retail which used to depend a lot on people is now adopting to industry best practices and technology to bring in more efficiency and to compete against the rising cost of real estate, people issues, pilferage, inflation. The industry has widely accepted the fact that technology will play a vital role in all the future growth. Some of the key areas where technology will be critical are: just in time sourcing, inventory management, efficient forecasting, pricing and promotions, multi-channel sales and business intelligence. Even for start-ups it is advised to look for open source based retail solutions which are more affordable. It is easier to implement a process if you are using it from the initial stages of the business. It is important to understand that the business formats and items are all changing according to the market dynamics and any solution adopted should be able to adapt to such scenarios. Mr. Kabir Lumba of Lifestyle spoke about the growing competition among the organized retailers and the importance of right pricing of the products. He spoke about the emphasis the group gave in the last couple of years for streamlining their existing business and increasing the revenue to over 2000Cr. The most important aspect for them was not to just open stores, but increase profitability from their existing stores. He highlighted the successful implementation of an integrated ERP solution across all its stores. Their priority even today is not e-commerce or other channels, but more revenue from existing stores, better customer service and offering the right kind of products to the consumers. Mr. Kiran Nandkarni, spoke in briefly about his stint as VC in previous roles and then about his journey as an entrepreneur. Kaati Zone, under his dynamic leadership, has grown to establish a strong brand presence in the region. They offer a very standardized menu, ensure the same taste and quality for every item they offer. Item standardization is one of the key aspects they have taken care of by adopting various processes internally. The second most important success factor for them is their quick service of orders; time between order taking and order delivery is optimized and customers are very happy with the short delivery.” The event concluded with Dr. Gibson Vedamani, Hemand Jhaveri, Ajoy Krishnamurthy & Sheriff Kottapurathu leading the “Mentor Interaction” & “Investor Interaction” sessions mentioning about the leadership for the SIG group.
