Guest Post by Mr. Shiv Murti, A mentor for most Indian retail professionals!

I can remember the first time I saw the site sometime in 2000 1st. Quarter. The site comprised of 2 factory sheds with a road in between and I wondered how we would make a Hypermarket out of it. Many months later the final design came out and when the civil work was completed it was like a transformation of the Ugly duckling. India's first single level Hypermarket was born.

The next step was filling it up. 45,000 sq.ft. of store space - a team that was more used to filling up supermarkets of 3,000 sq.ft - new product categories to handle. It was a learning experience and a very enriching one and within 4 months we had the Product Master ready with the space allocations etc.

Then the order placement and the drive to fill up the store. We set ourselves an impossible task of 15 days time from first receipt to opening. I remember Kruben saying it normally took 60 days but he had done it in 45 days with a supply chain that worked, vendor supply efficiencies of 90% plus and with experienced staff. We had none of these but we had a team that was willing, eager and did not know the meaning of the word impossible. We were ready 1 hour before the store opening with what even Michael and Kruben admitted was a very high level of store readiness and a store fill of approx 84% of what we had planned as the SKU count. It took passion and an immense drive from everyone concerned to make it possible.

And then of course the store opened. And within the first hour we knew it was a runaway success. That was the story of the opening of the first true hypermarket in India and it was all made possible by a very committed team.

Guest Post by Mr. Saurabh Chadha, who was the Business Head, then

27th June is etched in my memory as one of the most memorable days in my life and also "INDIAN RETAIL HISTORY' as it marks the arrival of HYPERMARKETS in India. It’s been 8 years since then and the industry has grown by leaps and bounds but the trigger for that was the 27th June 2001.

The team had worked relentlessly for 15 days 24 hours a day to ensure that "GIANT" opens on the designated date and I thank the entire team for the support and the able guidance of Raghu, Kruben and Shiv who made it possible.

Once again let’s celebrate this day by dedicating ourselves for the cause of "INDIAN RETAIL".

Guest Post by Mr. Arun Vishwanath, Head – Training at RAYMOND Retail

One thing which is always working on the mind of a business head of a company is "how do we ensure that we have maximum returns from our investments"? Same is the case with learning and development investments. Six months ago, we at Raymond Retail, were looking at various ways of making learning fun and easy to digest, while being cost effective. With a bit of brainstorming within the Training Team, we came up with a brilliant idea of using SMS for Training through mobile phones. The rationale behind this was:

• Every staff including the housekeeping staff and the doorman carries a mobile phone these days
• SMS is unobtrusive and gives you the flexibility of accessing the message at a time when you are comfortable (the absence of urgency factor!)
• You can reach anyone across the country without too many hassles
• And of course, this is a cost effective tool, with charges of less than 20 paise per SMS!

With the spread of over 400 Plus "The Raymond Stores" Pan-India, reaching over 2000 plus staff, SMS training works wonderfully for us. This way, we can ensure that training is effective, continuous and it does not overload the front end staff with a lot of information at any one time. Probably, for the first time in India, SMS is being used extensively as a learning and development tool.

We use a service provider for Bulk SMS and program the messages to be sent on a weekly basis. We have a weekly theme and cover a range of topics in a "question and answer" format, which include:

• Product knowledge
• Selling Skills
• Customer Service
• Company updates
• Safety
• Visual Merchandising
• Personal hygiene and grooming

One message is sent everyday at 9.30 am, just before the store opens. This way, this knowledge can be used and shared during the regular store meetings and briefings. SMS training complements our other regular training efforts and is not a substitute.

The success of any training module or tool depends on its effectiveness. To ensure that there is regular interaction and to check how effective the training was, we have a "weekly test" which is conducted every Sunday, on the topic / theme covered the previous week. Respondents are required to reply with the correct answers to a standard mobile number at regular SMS charges. One lucky winner who gets a gift voucher worth Rs. 500/- which can be redeemed in any of "The Raymond Shops".

The popularity and success of this initiative can be gauged by the responses we get every week. The most encouraging aspect of this aspect is that it is extremely cost effective and helps in reinforcing learning. Currently this program is available in English and we are exploring options of extending this initiative in other Indian languages as also management related.

Overall, the "SMS Training" initiative has been received very well by both the staff and the management. In fact, most of the staff look forward to receiving the "learning message" every day.

Happy innovating and learning!

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Comment by VR - Retail is all about such innovations and ideas. Great to hear about such happenings. I am sure, many readers would benefit from this idea.