On the 26
th March, 2015, Vinod Gupta School of Management, IIT Kharagpur had the privilege of hosting Mr. Ganesh Subramanian – Head -New Initiatives, Myntra.com as a part of Vaarta ’15 series of guest lectures. Mr. Subramanian spoke about being India’s Largest Online Fashion Retailer, the journey of Myntra, its culture, latest developments and much more.
An engineer from Anna University and a certified professional from the Institute of Supply Management, USA, Mr. Subramanian has over two decades of experience in the retail and fashion industry. During his long and illustrious career in the industry, he has held various key positions such as Business Head at Arvind Brands, Head Operations at Tommy Hilfiger, Vice President and General Merchandising Manager at Walmart, Chief Operating Officer at Myntra, etc. Mr. Subramanian also has his own blog - whyoffashion.com which aims at bringing the best of fashion to common people with tips, articles and insights.
Mr. Subramanian began his lecture by talking about the rise of the e-commerce industry in the India, the latest trends in the industry, the opportunities and the threats that e-commerce firms faces in India. He then shifted focus and spoke about the road travelled by Myntra and its rise to become one of the largest e-retailers in the country. He spoke about the concept of enclothed cognition and how Myntra had embraced this principle in ‘Helping People Look Good’.
He gave the audience a virtual walk-around of the spectacular office of Myntra at Bangalore via various videos where he stressed the importance Myntra has in making its employees empowered and willing to come to work. He highlighted some of the unique features of the building such as shaping the entire office like a mall, having a complete wall for a particular brand, etc.
Mr. Subramanian then went on to speak about the people that make Myntra. He spoke about the unique work culture that Myntra enjoys and how the organisation strives to minimize destructive obedience and blind spots. He gave examples on how Myntra believes in exploiting the outliers and not ignoring them. He explained how out-of-the-box thinking was not only encouraged but also expected at Myntra.
Talking about the future, Mr. Subramanian gave examples of various Pilot Projects done by Myntra such as the one-hour delivery project last year. He explained the changes required in the supply chain to make such projects a common practice and gave instances of the technological developments and challenges in the field. He also spoke about the strategic partnerships that Myntra has entered into with L’Oreal, in order to increase the value that is being delivered to the customer.
A lot was discussed on the technology used in the warehouses and how it is being optimized to reduce delivery time and increase customer satisfaction. He went on to stress about the importance Myntra has for customer satisfaction and how various key decisions made by Myntra always revolve around the same. In the end, Mr. Subramanian answered various questions put up by the audience regarding the future of the industry and the decision of Myntra to become an app only service.
