One reason why Aditya Birla Group is big in life is because of its Fashion Retail Chain, Pantaloons. Being a student, time has always been a precious resource to trade off for shopping. In this hustle of B-school, every student dream of just one thing and that is 2 extra hours in a day, which I probably will devote to sleeping. But when it comes to shopping which sounds so dreadful, pantaloons have been a real saviour. It has been a one stop solution to the fashion needs at affordable prices. I see Pantaloon as an exclusive brand retailer, discount retailer, specialty retailer and food retailer: all at once. One of the reasons for this versatility is that the brand name has not been forced on, or even associated with the different products and stores other than the original menswear line. Instead, each store and product has been given its own identity and presence along with the introduction to a number of private brands. For example, it has experimented with launching clothing lines based on famous Bollywood blockbusters. Within the brand retailing space, Pantaloon has also tied up with some of India’s most popular brands like Gini and Joni to sell them at their stores. Rather than attempt to compete with existing popular brands the company has decided to partner with them and leverage them in the ambiguous Indian market. These brands have achieved success and a loyal fan following; Pantaloon’s move has brought in more customers than they could retain. Through a carefully executed policy of comprehensive multi-format experimentation, Pantaloon has managed to understand and take advantage of the compressed evolution of the organized Indian retail industry to become the dominant player.
How I dealt with the challenge that came my way?
Through the ebb and flow of life, I think giving back to the society is what really matters to me. I believe it all comes down to looking beyond myself; my flows and possessions, which is not an easy thing to do. But challenges are something we come across every day. And I relish challenges because it brings the best out of me. I remember a situation when I was made the leader for the special initiative, called as Gyaan Daan, undertaken by MASH Project Foundation during the Daan Utsav week, for the training of young social change makers. The event was planned in a rush and had a really short period of time for execution which also required a great amount of personal involvement. Also, it was the first time when I was entrusted to lead a team for successful accomplishment of desired goals. But the time crunch made the discharge of my responsibilities really challenging given my pre-commitments for other activities. So, to overcome this situation I had to make a decision of sharing my responsibilities with someone, which could have made me look incompetent. But I made a choice and I asked a person from the team who was working closely with the event to be a co-lead for the initiative and share some of the responsibilities to ensure the successful execution of the event. Therefore, I advocate that everyone should appreciate the challenges that come their way because this is how we learn to make tough decisions and develop to be a better person.
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