The Hindu Business Line : `Organised retailing has to find ways of addressing unorganised supply side'

WHILE envisaging the technological advances such as `brick and portal' malls and futuristic inventory management, organised retailing has to find ways of addressing the unorganised supply side. These were the final deliberations of India Retail Summit held here.

"The future will depend on right kind of policies, right kind of economic environment, right infrastructure and right people," said Mr T.K. Banerjee, President and CEO, Haier Appliances.

Mr Banerjee said that while India stood sixth in retail development index in the world, it was still tackling fundamental issues related to unorganised supply chain, legislation and lack of real estate reforms.

The other challenge for retail industry was lack of manufacturers' understanding of retail formats that they cater to. "Does the supply side have understanding the needs of each store?" questioned Mr Jimmy Ankleshwar, Managing Director, JL Morrison.

"What is it that attracts us to McDonalds? Is it the food? Is it the service? Or is it the ambience? Let us state some facts. As far as food goes, let us face it, McDonalds does not offer the best burger, there are better available," said Mr Sachin Marya, Vice-President, Franchise India Holdings Ltd.

So what is it that makes McDonalds one of the most popular eateries in the world? "It is franchising at its best. McDonalds has 13,000 restaurants in 65 countries and a similar number in the US and the assembly line is so simple that it is run by kids," Mr Marya said, adding that retailers need to adopt international retail models besides setting up simple assembly line techniques at the supply end. The last segment of the seminar also discussed an important aspect of retailing - the challenge of HRD.

The panel deduced that unlike the BPO counterparts, there was too little training that went into retail manpower. "The retail sector has to adopt a HRD strategy as similar to BPO industry. The employees of call centres undergo rigorous training and every movement is monitored", said Mr Niranjan Hiranandani, Managing Director, Hiranandani Developers.

Mr Bhaskar Bhatt, MD, Titan Industries, said that retail companies also needed to work on the remuneration of their employees. The front-end sales executives of most corporations were paid better than the retail manpower, he said.