It is disconcerting sometimes when one sees the low level of restraint and sense of responsibility that is exhibited by Indian public figures, be it the Captain of the Indian cricket team or the Minister of Environment making snide remarks at a matter of national importance and sensitivity, or the leader of one party calling some other party leader a "dog".
Have we ever heard a Chinese leader make a statement that leaves the nation embarrassed? I am not so well read but I think not.
Of what use is personal freedom if individuals cannot exercise judgement and restrain in private and public life? Of what gain is education if it does not teach forbearance and patience towards weak and impatience to get work done and not the other way around?
When will we be seen, individually and collectively as a people who pride in following the law and rules if not for the sake of pride, at least from fear of punishment? But then who are we to fear if we drive on the wrong side of the road, or litter the street?
This has always bothered me when I have dealt with store managers. We leave stores of 2000 to 100,000 sft to a store manager in his/her late 20s. The store is a like Country by itself - has a boundary to protect, goods to guard, staff to motivate and train to follow the rules of the store, serve the consumers, make profits and manage the stocks and costs. There is but that much the company can do to train them, but a lot of the foundation of his (using the male gender only for convenience - read her as well) action is built on the innate personal beliefs and values. What we personally believe is also highly influenced by our national beliefs and that of the community that we live in.
The store manager is influenced by many layers of influencers
1. level 1- parents and family
2. level 2- immediate community (society) - friends, neighbours, and colony
3. level 3- company- how they train, and practise the values
4. level 4 - political- news papers and channels - what politicians say and do
A Store is very much like a sailing ship. that is why mariners are considered very resourceful people - no one to turn to other than to they themselves for any help on high seas. A store in this sense is much less isolated but equally self contained. So a store manager must be well rounded not only in the processes of the store, but also in the values that the company wants the manager to imbibe. It is very possible for a Company to instil values that are different and better than some of the values that the store manager sees around him. For example, punctuality, and hard work. The company can inculcate standards that are different from what the store manager sees from some government employees around him- may be even the way his father of mother who may be government opine about certain issues or work.
The point is, the Retail store can be the unit that changes values in society and not only the other way around. Hence, if organised retail employs 1 million people, can influence as many households and four fold the number of people.
Let me therefore, entreat all companies to begin the reverse Influence, much like the "jago re" campaign of Tatatea.
So lets remember what J F Kennedy said. Think what you can do for the country and not the other way around. JaiHo, JaiHind !
Have we ever heard a Chinese leader make a statement that leaves the nation embarrassed? I am not so well read but I think not.
Of what use is personal freedom if individuals cannot exercise judgement and restrain in private and public life? Of what gain is education if it does not teach forbearance and patience towards weak and impatience to get work done and not the other way around?
When will we be seen, individually and collectively as a people who pride in following the law and rules if not for the sake of pride, at least from fear of punishment? But then who are we to fear if we drive on the wrong side of the road, or litter the street?
This has always bothered me when I have dealt with store managers. We leave stores of 2000 to 100,000 sft to a store manager in his/her late 20s. The store is a like Country by itself - has a boundary to protect, goods to guard, staff to motivate and train to follow the rules of the store, serve the consumers, make profits and manage the stocks and costs. There is but that much the company can do to train them, but a lot of the foundation of his (using the male gender only for convenience - read her as well) action is built on the innate personal beliefs and values. What we personally believe is also highly influenced by our national beliefs and that of the community that we live in.
The store manager is influenced by many layers of influencers
1. level 1- parents and family
2. level 2- immediate community (society) - friends, neighbours, and colony
3. level 3- company- how they train, and practise the values
4. level 4 - political- news papers and channels - what politicians say and do
A Store is very much like a sailing ship. that is why mariners are considered very resourceful people - no one to turn to other than to they themselves for any help on high seas. A store in this sense is much less isolated but equally self contained. So a store manager must be well rounded not only in the processes of the store, but also in the values that the company wants the manager to imbibe. It is very possible for a Company to instil values that are different and better than some of the values that the store manager sees around him. For example, punctuality, and hard work. The company can inculcate standards that are different from what the store manager sees from some government employees around him- may be even the way his father of mother who may be government opine about certain issues or work.
The point is, the Retail store can be the unit that changes values in society and not only the other way around. Hence, if organised retail employs 1 million people, can influence as many households and four fold the number of people.
Let me therefore, entreat all companies to begin the reverse Influence, much like the "jago re" campaign of Tatatea.
So lets remember what J F Kennedy said. Think what you can do for the country and not the other way around. JaiHo, JaiHind !
Interesting point Radha! Just as a Chinese philosopher has put it " a journey of 1000 miles must begin with one step"... transformation of a billion people can start with targetting a million!!
ReplyDeleteAprt from what you mentioned about punctuality and hard work, I'd like to add the following from my experience of running stores in a place like Orissa.
1. Job pride leading to heightened sense of self worth and achievement
2. Improved standards of Personal hygiene
3. Respect towards women( hopefully!)by interacting with women in 2 roles - as customers and as colleagues.
Great Vision encapsulated very well!
ReplyDeleteStore staff are like "soldiers" who deliver on varied fronts. Sensitizing store staff to act as change agents for a nation's cause to bring societal changes will enable develop responsibility & accountability. They will be responsible corporate citizens performing dual organizational roles fulfulling business as well as CSR objectives.
For organized retailers, to incorporate as a CSR initiative will be a challenge as they have to go a long way in streamlining HR systems & processes which are relatively very primitive hiring & retaining store staff and keep them motivated for long. In a haste to achieve the desired numbers within specified time limits, the search for the right talent is compromised.
First the selection process of the store staff needs to be streamlined to enable recruit competent talent at the store level on whom trust can be reposed.
Retail HR should incorporate policy of "know your store staff" and consider certain qualitative factors like married / un-married, family background, residential locality & proofs (permanent & temporary), income level (family), dependents & neighbourhood reference checks. Considering these factors will help in filtering the competent and trust worthy human capital join the retail band wagon at the store level who can fulfill the dual objectives.
Inductive and regular training schedules (Completion of mandatory training days every year) will further improve their capabilities to fulfill the expected responsibilities.
Implementing transparant policies on compensation, benefits & recoginition will keep the store staff motivated and deliver as per the expectations. Often, HR practices are found wanting in these areas.
Developing interface mechanisms at stores with senior citizens will instill cultural values amongst the store staff.
Thanks...
madhu.Right you are. There are some basic values missing in the training programmes. Training tends to be many a time, hard skills-soft skills dont seemingly earn you money immediatly. But only Soft skills will last longer, though it takes long as well to train in them.
ReplyDeleteWell said. I was truly inspired by your catchy Headline and went on to read. One could see the depth and width of involvement in organized retailing and perspectives to change at the grassroot level Great...
ReplyDeleteJust one observation ; a friend of mine who has been in the retail industry used to say " Go to Panagal Park / T .Nagar if you want to see what goes on in Retailing " . Strangely and co-incidentally I happened to watch this movie "Angadi Theru" just y'day and am still coming out of the shocks of it.... I wish People like you who are pioneering big initiatives in retailing can / will do something to make change there as well.
Good luck.
I do believe that Organized Retailing & the fundamental values practiced within it, has already had a good impact on Kirana retailers in India. Their behaviour is hugely different from what it was 20 yrs back. Take the Meru & Easy cab culture. What a joy compared to the rickety ride and arrogant behavior of the past. The customer has also evolved, not putting up anymore with bad products and less than efficient service. Corporates are more careful given the twitter/facebook/mobile spread of information. Even some systemic corruption has been eradicated (e.g. goods sold without bills). Can only get better from here, given that we are yet to see MNC retailers and their best practices. Never a more optimistic period ever in the history of this country.
ReplyDeletePrahlad and Hamel saw the organisation as a tree and its core competencies as its roots. More often than not, it's the non-tangible resources which form the core competencies of an organisation and give it sustainable competitive advantage.
ReplyDeleteI agree to the point Radha Sir, on the significance of soft skills and I think in the same context, a persons core resources are its soft skills, which would give him/her the SCA.
I wonder the efficiency India could achieve, if not only our store managers, but even rest of us were trained on these soft and intangible facets.
Absolutely great analogy between a retail store and a ship sailing on the high seas. Its important to note that the fuel that drives the ship forward is store profitability. If the store is unprofitable management/managers/employees will have little option but to abandon ship! The thing about soft skills/CSR/change the world ideals is that these can be implemented either in small highly profitable companies (niche s/w comp.) or large highly profitable conglomerates (tatas etc)... I wonder if this is possible in Retail with net margins of 2%-3% !!
ReplyDeleteDear Hari. Will watch "angadi theru", interesting.Your friend is so right, panagal park is abso amazing! Saravana, ratna, kumaran, nalli, etc..they are truly mass retailers. One apparel expert commented to me that chennai consumes the lowest quality apparel in India. Wonder how true that is! But what the heck, retailing is about giving the consumer what he/she wants, who are they to decide? Right?
ReplyDeleteSiva. Yes service levels are changing for the better. Now consumers, are willing to pay for quality service.But good quality need not be more expensive(blue ocean strategy).
Ravi. Love the last line. We sometimes think soft skills are only for store staff. Do VPs know how to do "mentoring, coaching"? these are critical needs at that level.
Mr Anonymous. Sorry totally disagree. Soft skills don't follows profitability, it is the other way around. We believe that we have to do things right only if we are rich. Not a great line of thought. Even a pan ka dukan must and does extend courtesy and good service. Only when we move from livelihood to salary "natural duties" are forgotten. So sorry cant totally agree with your views.
Hi Radha,
ReplyDeleteVery rightly you have equated running a store with running a country. For me whatever brief experience i have had in retail front end and back end, i see lack of good leaders( we have managers)who could take accountability themselves and inculcate that ownership right till the store level and instill faith and ownership in Store managers for being responsible and accountable for store profitability. Retail being in nascent stage in india and very dynamic in terms of people management needs those leaders not managers to steer the stores/retail giants to profitability.
Dear Mr Anonymous again, I agree totally. How many of the Owners who run Retail today have run stores? very few I think. Conversely retailers like Nalli, Pothis, Witco, all have run their own stores, have eye-balled the consumer. Even the CEOs today have not run or spent time in stores, many of them. How will they be ready to take minute decisions in such a complex business?
ReplyDeleteRadha ,
ReplyDeleteThe viewpoint is well deleivered , Let the organised retail ( present nascent stage )adopt 80% of other countries and let us blend 20% of our indian emotional touch and feelings . The growth would be very fast and really influance the whole country too. Also would be adopted fast too.
Thanks
In principle, a good happen, support the views of the author
ReplyDelete