By Circumstances of Our Birth ?

I have once again been convinced, after over 13 years in Organised Retailing in India, that retailing as a career will humble anyone who feels he/she can know all there is to know in this field. Every day is a day to cherish, and wonder at the combinations of pieces that fall together. It is a celestial game of chess! Such is the respect with which I approach my work.

Yet a few weeks ago I had another humbling experience.
It is common in retail companies for senior personnel to “walk the stores” and during such visits, they tend to take high ground and preach to the store associates and managers of all that they are doing wrong. It is part of the training that improves store standards when done in detail and in mentoring manner.

The reality in retailing is that all decisions that happen at the back-end of the supply chain only two people ever get to bear its consequences. The Store Manager and the Manager of the distribution centre. They are the ones who handle vendors and consumers face to face, numerous times everyday. Often the companies, at large, fail to realize this.

One such visit to a store in North Karnataka, I will not ever forget. I make it a practice during such visit to spend one-on-one with one of the staff members and ask them about their lives and work atmosphere. I first called a staff meeting and shared with them their below par performance, in terms of sales and shrinkage. Particularly their low sales of Fruits & Vegetables. For 30 minutes as a group we discussed and they know that retail companies tend to inevitably shut down perennially poor performing stores. I then called on a girl associate who participated well in the discussions to share her views with me.

She told me that her father had died when she was young and that her mother was a maid servant and worked in 4 houses in a day from 6 am to 11 pm everyday. She had the determination to pass matriculation exam from the local school. She said that the work she did at the retail outlet was life changing, in that she worked eight hours, in a decent work place, got her provident fund, and medical care, something her family could never even aspire to get. She spoke fluent Hindi and passable English. She said Abhisekh Bachchan was her favorite actor and Rahul Dravid the best cricketer. She spoke briefly about how we can improve the store performance. The conversation ended with a few light remarks, I walked back into the store spend an hour walking the bays and then planned to exit, when the same girl came to me asking to speak to me in private.

She said, “sir, we all will work very hard and honestly, please don’t close down this store, or I too will become a maid servant like my mother”. I could see a streak of tear in her eyes. My heart went weak. I shook her hand and told her that I would work hard to see that this store would not close.
I carry that comment deep in my heart. At the head office I shared that with my colleagues. This leads me to think- why is she there and me here? Is it not just the circumstances of our birth?

It convinces me that senior executives at any decision making levels must remember this at all times that decisions they take have a ramifying whiplash that affect the lives of those who depend on those directions. Do we not see in meetings where personal interest overtakes the best-fit direction? How can we be self-effacing in our decision making? This is what I guess Jim Collins calls the Level 5 leadership- building enduring greatness through a paradoxical blend of personal humility and professional will. How can we keep our self interest aside when we make these direction changing decisions solely focused on three entities in an executives life that he/she works for, without whose long term success they themselves cannot prosper - the consumer, employees and shareholders?
How can we save little girls from going back to becoming a maid servant from where they are today? Let not the circumstances of our birth blind us from our responsibilities to those who have not been so fortunate.