Don’t miss the latest developments in business and finance.

KIT: The future of hypermarkets in India

Strategic tools for the practising manager

Image
Technopak Advisors New Delhi
Last Updated : Jan 29 2013 | 1:14 AM IST

A hypermarket is a large retail format that offers low prices and stocks all items of daily and household needs under one roof, and is located at non-prime locations, primarily outskirts of major towns and cities.

Reliance Hyper, Big Bazaar, Star India Bazaar, Spencer's Hyper (formerly Giant), Hyper City, Choupal Sagar (rural hypermarket) are the major hypermarkets in India.

Investment in hypermarkets is expected to be over $35 billion by 2013, which would be 33 per cent of the total investment in organised retail by 2013.

There will be 1,400 hypermarkets with 66 milllion sq feet of retail space by 2010, which will generate a revenue of $47.17 billion.

NUGGETS
Selections from management journals

More From This Section

A multiunit enterprise is a geographically dispersed organisation built from standard units (stores, restaurants, or branches) that are aggregated into larger geographic groupings (districts, regions and divisions).

Although this organisational structure has become the norm in several industries, it has received little attention from academics and consultants. Garvin and Levesque set out to fill that gap in management thinking with their research.

The authors closely studied the office supply company Staples for two years and then collected data from 12 other multiunit enterprises. In this article, they discuss the unique problems that such corporations face, describe how managers tackle those challenges, and offer lessons that will help all types of organisations execute strategy.

In a multiunit enterprise, four tiers of management constitute the field organisation: store, district, regional, and divisional heads. All these managers are responsible for meeting targets set by corporate headquarters and implementing strategy. To do so, they adhere to five principles of organisational design.

First, the field organisation's different tiers have overlapping responsibilities; together they create a multilayered net to catch any problems that arise. Second, managers at all levels serve as integrators, coordinating diverse activities and optimising the efforts of the whole organisation rather than its parts.

Third, higher-level managers filter data from headquarters to frontline managers, who otherwise might feel overwhelmed by a constant stream of initiatives. Fourth, regional heads in particular act as translators, defining in concrete terms how the field organisation can roll out initiatives. Finally, all managers share responsibility for talent development.

The multiunit enterprise
By David A Garvin and Lynne C Levesque
Harvard Business Review, June 2008
Read this article at www.hbr.com

To optimists, India's consumers represent a huge, untapped middle market; to skeptics, India is still too poor by global standards for mass-market retailers to rush in.

According to panelists at the recent Wharton India Economic Forum, the propensity and capacity for Indian consumers to spend depends on a unique blend of price and value, and retailers that understand this complexity stand to reap enormous benefits of scale.

Retail in India: Capturing the opportunities of a complex consumer class
India Knowledge@Wharton, May 30 - June 12
Read this article at http://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/india/

What is the real key to elite performance? According to sports psychologist turned executive coach Graham Jones, star athletes and businesspeople share one defining trait: mental toughness. People who become champions aren't necessarily more gifted than others; they're just masters at managing pressure, meticulously tackling goals, and driving themselves to stay ahead.

Jones, who has advised Olympic medalists and Fortune 500 executives, sees many parallels between the arenas of business and sports, especially in the behaviour of people who rise to the very top. These stars have learned to love pressure because it spurs them to achieve.

Inner-focused and self-directed, they concentrate on their own excellence and forget the rest. They don't get distracted by others' victories or failures

Also Read

First Published: Jun 10 2008 | 12:00 AM IST

Next Story