The mind of a retailer

No one interested in retail and consumer products industries will fail to notice the meteoric growth of the Future Group (still better known as Pantaloon by most) and of its sometimes mercurial, usually iconoclastic, and at most other times irreverent but incredibly intrepid and amazingly ambitious promoter Kishore Biyani. He personifies different things to different people and hence, his autobiography It happened in India is extremely timely.

As Biyani has himself mentioned more than once in his maiden book, many have failed to correctly understand him or his philosophy and his management style. He, by his own admission, has a remarkable disdain for conventional paradigms relating to the modern retail business and an undisguised disdain for those who have questioned the wisdom of some of his moves in the last 15 years in particular.

Yet, it cannot be ignored that the Future Group today is India's biggest retail business, and while it may be overtaken in scale by some of the new entrants such as Reliance and Wal*Mart in the coming years, credit has to be given to Biyani for demonstrating outstanding entrepreneurship to catalyse the growth of the modern retail industry and for achieving so much so quickly and with so much diversity. Questions may still be in some minds about the future of the Future Group though by this time, Biyani has also demonstrated a remarkable ability to learn, adapt, and create and hence there is no reason to believe that his many businesses including retail, financial services, real estate development, brands, design, and others will lose any significance or importance in the years to come.

Very much like the personality of its author, It Happened In India has been penned in an inimitable way. It seamlessly blends, like the Future Group's Central Malls, a fascinating array of ideas, anecdotes, and a business philosophy in its 260-odd pages. The book has a very liberal, and perhaps sometimes too liberal, commentary from a wide array of friends, family, employees, and select business associates to Biyani and his Future Group. For most of the time, the commentary provides additional insights into Biyani's personality and decision-making process. At times, of course, some of the comments do look like paeans to a king from his courtiers""something that Biyani does not really need now, having been already acknowledged and feted by some of India's and the world's best institutions and businessmen and academics.

The structure and the style of the book are very reader-friendly and do give an excellent insight into the mind of one of India's more fascinating contemporary entrepreneurs / CEOs. It would be of great interest to most readers, as it was to me, as to what events shaped Biyani's thinking and personality the way it has developed. It is a revelation that he has been an iconoclast from a very young age and did not hesitate to disagree with anyone, including his own family's elders, if that belief or activity failed to meet his own rational thought process.

As an observer and an indirect participant in the Indian retail sector myself, I also find it interesting to read between the lines about various instances and individuals who may have irritated Biyani, or knowingly or unknowingly slighted him, and how he got back at most of them by creating his own new businesses and other entities as his way of demanding and getting the respect and recognition he craved for at that time.

For most of the length of the book, the flow is logical and riveting though sometimes, the repetition of some of the ideas and instances can be jarring. The book does meander a bit in the middle when there is an overdose of commentary from some of Biyani's colleagues but then it picks up momentum (and depth) again towards the end, especially in the chapters titled the "Business Of Life," and "Who Says Elephants Can't Dance." Obviously, Biyani has remarkably matured during his incredible entrepreneurial journey of the last 20-odd years and therefore those having anything to do with the Indian retail sector and many others outside it should keenly look forward to many more innovations and many new ideas from him in the years to come.

It happened in India must be read not so much for getting too many insights into the nuances of retailing per se but for getting to know the abrasively earthy but very fertile mind of Biyani. It would be even more fascinating to read a sequel in 2017!

The reviewer is Chairman, Technopak Advisors

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It happened in India

Kishore Biyani and Dipayan Baishya
Rupa & Co
Price: Rs 99; Pages: 268