The retail story in India is of particular interest to Darrell Rigby. As the head of Bain & Co.’s global retail practice, Rigby says the uniqueness and size of the Indian market not only makes it interesting, but also attractive.
Rigby, who joined the Boston-based business consulting firm in 1978, specializes in corporate strategy and global retailing, and has led assignments in a wide variety of industrial and consumer verticals including technology, health care, retailing and financial services.
The 55-year-old American founded and launched Bain’s Management Tools Survey, a global survey on the usage, satisfaction and effectiveness of several widely-used management tools among a broad range of senior executives in 1993. And for the past 14 years, he has published Management Tools: An Executive’s Guide, containing the 25 most popular and pertinent tools. The study has expanded to include a survey of executive attitudes towards current management trends.
Rigby, who is a Harvard Business Review author on strategy issues, including innovation, managing in turbulence, and change management, is a management graduate from the Harvard Business School. When he is not speaking or writing, Rigby spends time fly-fishing and travelling with his family.
Rigby, in an exclusive interview with Mint, spoke about the great retail opportunity and challenges of the Indian retail space on the sidelines of the India Economic Summit 2007, organized by the World Economic Forum and the Confederation of Indian Industry. Edited excerpts:
Everybody says India is a difficult market to crack. What are the specific challenges retailers face?
I would say it is different from any other market in the world. There are so many different consumer segments in India, with different needs, and consumers here are accustomed to being treated very specially. These people are used to having grocers create products for their most loyal customers. The delivery is often taken care of and, sometimes, even special credit is extended to specific consumers. They expect more than standardized services and products. I think any multinational retailer that believes it can come to India with a single standardized approach will be sorely mistaken. So, it’s going to take a very special approach for retailers entering the Indian market.
So, what’s the way out? What would determine a foreign retailer’s success in India?
There are a number of ways in which companies can succeed in entering India. Some of them are already using methods such as partnering with a company that already knows the market, infrastructure and requirements for success here.
I think another possible entry strategy would be picking a particular segment of the market, figuring out how to succeed with them in a particular geography and then, over time, rolling out to additional segments and additional geographies.