RCCI to battle corporate retail chains

Rajkot Chamber of Commerce and Industry (RCCI) has chalked out plans to meet the challenges rising from the retail rush with the help of students from T N Rao College of Management Studies (TNRCMS), Rajkot.

The study titled 'Enterprise Zone', was conducted by the students in collaboration with RCCI. Subsequently, New Delhi-based consultancy firm Technopak has been roped in to help implement the proposed business strategies among the smaller traders in the city.

The study concludes that the economy of Rajkot has been largely dependent on the entrepreneurship skills of small-time business houses and manufacturing facilities and as a result has failed to avail benefits of post-liberalisation, as availed by the corporate sector of the nation.

While speaking to Business Standard on the rationale behind the project, Hitesh Bagdai, President RCCI said, "Retail boom from the corporate stable targetted at small cities has threatened the existence of small time operators in cities like Rajkot. So we have envisaged this project `Enterprise Zone' wherein grocery, green grocery, consumer goods, textiles, food would be catered to under one roof."

Through the project, RCCI plans to have similar billing procedures for buying and selling and similar brands in order to ensure complete customer attention and customer service.

The 'Enterprise Zone' project was conducted by the MBA students of TNRCMS and an RCCI team, "A team of nine students and a co-ordinator conducted a detailed survey understanding the retailing potential from global, national and local perspective and have come upon the viability of the project giving comparative SWOT analysis to combat the bigger retailers," said K K Khakhar, Director, TNRCMS.

The report has been derived out of observations from the retailing zones of the city of which mid-town occupies a share of around 55 per cent , said Khakhar.

The report also mentions that 68 per cent of the respondents have agreed to associate with RCCI in this project and 87 per cent of the respondents have agreed to attend the awareness programme undertaken by RCCI in form of Seminars, Workshops etc.

"Survival of the smaller players is likely to become tougher in coming days and as result such enterprise zones are in pipeline. RCCI is the third such trade body to approach us after two other prominent trade organisations from Madhya Pradesh and Tamil Nadu have also approached us to share our professional expertise in this direction, " said Anil Rajpal, Associate VP of Technopak Advisors.

Such collective efforts can help small time entrepreneurs encash on indenting, logistics supports, discount patterns, added Rajpal.