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What is it about retail stores that make loyal customers? Is it their loyalty programs? Is it the position of the stores? The branding? You’ve certainly seen a bunch of these stores in and around your city. Each of them has their own personality, their own ambiance. Find out how brands like Westside, Zudio, Star Bazaar, and Landmark plan and market their stores, how they build their brand perception, and more, in today’s InsideIIM Career Podcast.
A Finance Graduate from XLRI Jamshedpur, Mayank Jha joined TAS early on in his career. From interning with Tata Capital to working as a manager in Tata Chemicals, he’s worked across the board, ultimately coming to becoming the Chief of Staff to the Chairman of Trent.
Mayank takes us through his journey with TAS, giving us insights into the different roles that he has held, including that of a category manager, and how he was responsible for designing the overall brand architecture of new projects that he worked on. He delves deep into how retail chains plan their stores and the thought that is put behind their overall personality. He talks about what Fast Fashion is, and how e-commerce is affecting the retail industry. He further explains how pop culture affects fashion trends.
He talks about how his formative years at BITS Pilani helped him steer his career. Finally, he talks about his role as a Chief of Staff to the Chairman, telling us in detail what it entails, and how taking up such a role early on in his career has benefitted him. From project management to assisting the chairman, he talks about the responsibilities that come with his position. This, and a lot more in today’s episode of InsideIIM’s Career Podcast with TAS officer Mayank Jha of Trent Ltd.
Interviewer:
Welcome to another episode of the InsideIIM career podcast. You know, a lot of people make this claim that they understand this country. I believe that there are certain businesses, people who work in those businesses understand this country slightly better than a lot of other academicians, politicians, professors, who claim to understand this country. And someone who runs a nationwide retail business understands this country at a very local level, across the length and breadth of this country. And that is why I really admire people who are in the retail business, because they really get what this country is about. One of those people sitting here next to me is Mayank, so welcome to the Inside IIM career podcast.
Interviewee:
Pleasure.
Interviewer:
What is the wide area of things that trend has in terms of its reach in terms of its retail presence across the country,
Interviewee:
We have fashion and food retail formats, we have Westside Zudio, and Landmark. These are the formats on fashion. Landmark over a period of time has evolved from books to now a mix of music, books and sports. But still there's a bit of fashionable athleisure products that we have in Landmark. Westside predominantly speaking, it's a departmental store where we own almost 22 brands. And those brands cater to almost a vast part of the society and Zudio is really a version of fashion. For example, all the merchandise in Ztudio is below 999 which I think is a fabulous proposition. Apart from these we also have a financial stake in Zara and we have a food format which is Star Bazaar through which we are present across Mumbai, Pune, Hyderabad and Mangalore and also a few stores in Gujarat.
Interviewer:
Some of your retail formats are constantly on expansion sprees, there's always a new store popping up somewhere. India is a story of growth and smaller towns see newer stores opening every day. So how does Westside or you know even your other brands like Star Bazaar etc. go about picking locations, saying that okay, this is where we're going to open a store?
Interviewee:
You have a lot of things to really look after. And that's why you will see that many times people make claims that you know, you should always have stores at a corner. Or you should have always stores at the front of the mall. But you will not find any fashion format for that matter, any retail format having the same kind of stores everywhere. So they have a variety across the country. So we do look at a lot of things. One of the things is catchment. The other is obviously the location. We also look at our existing presence in the same area. And then finally, all that needs to be wrapped up into the financial model. One of the key things is also the layouts, which we brainstorm a lot upon what happens to all these four, five things and the discussions that we do on these aspects is that the experience of the people around the table really comes out. You need to be able to imagine the tweaks that you can make to the location to the structure to perhaps the financials, you may need to go back to the developer and renegotiate on certain aspects just to make it viable.
Interviewer:
Where do you see the larger fast fashion industry going from here? We have a lot of international brands coming in to India. We have a lot of our own homegrown brands, the ecommerce space is exploding a lot of people are choosing to not go to the store and actually just pick it up on the e commerce sites. So, what are some of the trends that you see emerging in terms of fast fashion and to begin with if you could just define for our viewers what fast fashion is and then get us into that.
Interviewee:
Fast fashion obviously is a concept which has been pioneered in the Western world and then it has flown to the other parts of the of the globe. It makes fashion very affordable. It makes people look good, so it is here to stay. Feeling good is one of the core necessities of every human being. You may do it in various ways, wearing the right cloth and feeling good about it is one of the ways of expressing yourself. So as long as the need to express yourself is there. I think the fashion industry will grow fast fashion will grow. A lot of global retailers have already announced long term plans. Everyone is really looking at Raise means through which they can bring in sustainability into the business.
Interviewer:
I'm wearing chunky sneakers, for example, how do chunky sneakers start from the ramps? How are they picked up? What is the process in terms of getting a designer to create merchandise around that, and then putting it in the store and then seeing how it is doing in the store?
Interviewee:
To get the speed right and to catch the trend is really at the heart of it. And it was more an artistic exercise than a scientific exercise. You need to have that sense of that creative sense of what might sell that may not just come from ramps. ramps are of course where the fast fashion started from, but it may also come by simply observing people in malls. So you see a lot of people, you see what they're wearing.
Interviewer:
Also pop culture right? Just a liberal wearing something.
Interviewee:
Absolutely,
Interviewer:
that becomes a big deal.
Interviewee:
You have to be aware of your surroundings and You're to pick up the right queues, what is it that is gaining traction and that is an artistic exercise, you cannot capture it in numbers. You cannot scientifically do a regression analysis on all these trends and which all of us engineers are very happy with always what the result that comes out will be good. If you have done the art bit of it well.
Interviewer:
You were an engineer at BITS Pilani. And then you did your MBA at XLRI. So can you take us through those initial years what it was like? What are some of the things that you picked up that are helping you today?
Interviewee:
I really think my formative years were at Pilani, where you have a lot of culture of quite a bit of electives. So that lets you experiment a bit. Me and a lot of my friends specially we were in a group who just went to a college because we got a certain mark and that certain number of marks qualified for a particular branch. So you pick that up you go and we really didn't have that kind of an exposure at that point in time, then you join a college with an MBA at XLRI. So they're the people, the mix of people. It's very eclectic, and all these people have been some of the best performers in the past life already. So you get to push yourself, and you get to learn a lot from them. By the end of it, I just wanted to experiment a bit more, and continue on the general management part. In fact, that's how I decided on TAS. So I really think the years at Pilania and the push that I got at XLRI kind of have framed up what I am today.
Interviewer:
So you've been at TAS for like six, seven years now. You've taken up a bunch of roles, varied roles over the years and now you are at trend. So take us through the journey which brought you finally to trend.
Interviewee:
I had my eyes set on task by the end of my engineering in Pilani because I pretty much knew that I wanted to be as opposed to business as possible. But I wanted to learn the many parts of business TATA group is really committed to the value system that it has created, the stints that we get got to be in our Tata trusts. They really show you the work that a lot of these trusts have done in every nook and corner of the country, the legacy that you see the work that you see really humbles you. So that's a part of the reason why you choose TATA’s also because the value system of the Tata Group is quite unique. So I started in sales in Tata chemicals in the east India, you have spans of an on 13 states there. So obviously, it's a very wide geography and it's quite a daunting role in that sense, but obviously great learning after that, I moved to the category management tool, where we were actually in the process of coming up with the new brand, which is now called TATA Sampann. So I got to work a lot on the brand architecture of TATA Sampann, and then the new product portfolio mix for the TATA Sampann, which is still getting launched. It's been getting on for a long time. Logged on more than 200 concepts, product concepts which we selected around 44 of those 20 of those we converted into prototypes, we did qualitative and quantitative testings. And finally, we chose some of them to launch around five of them for every product concept and because this is a very initial stage, you need to think about how relevant it is, how differentiated it is. And finally, is it value or not? Overall, between these three things? Consumer gets a reason to believe on what you are saying,
Interviewer:
You are chief of staff to the chairman of Trent limited. A lot of people pick up these kinds of roles, Executive Assistant, Chief of Staff kind of rolls to the CEO to the chairman of big companies, after their MBA and often students find it very confusing under secretaries to do that kind of a job. Why would an MBA earning x lakhs of salary want to do something like this? And what are the benefits of this kind of picking up this kind of role early in your career? So can you throw light on what are the kind of work you do and why do you think this is something that works for you at this stage of your career?
Interviewee:
Chief of staff is a role, which involves I think largely three things. One is project management. Second is as a team, the chairman. And third is office management part of it, for example, if growing quickly is a priority in this particular year, which it's been for Trent in the last particular year. So opening new stores is important opening new stores, which are right stores is even more important. So ensuring that all those variables come into whether it's a property review discussion, whether it's a business review discussion, do you have enough people enough capability are you delivering Are you on track, it's a constant process. It doesn't happen overnight. It doesn't happen without planning. And because there are so many stakeholders involved, there's a lot of churn in the information. Also because there are so many reviews, there's a lot of churn in information, and as I explained to you earlier, each properties are debate in itself. So on each property, you have all those chunks and then to select hundred properties of those kind is great learning experience.
Interviewer:
So, then this month say there are 20 property launches happening, there will be months like that right maybe a month before Diwali it will be that kind of a month for example. So, then at that time you have 20 property decisions happening parallely where you get into one meeting where you are doing a discussion on one particular property having a business discussion, then you get into another meeting, where you having a merchandise discussion about some other properties that how that works?
Interviewee:
Pretty much, so you have to be very organized, there is a gated process. Obviously, a property which has not been approved will not go into fit out stage, if it's been approved is a set of decisions to be taken before it moves into the fit out stage. If it moves into the fit out stage there's a certain timeline certain number of activities that the project teams need to deliver. So you need to continuously keep a track of it. There are constant trackers, which you have to keep opening. And I think one of the key things that you learn in an MBA is how to look at the most important information from the load of data. That is thrown at you. So you get to practice that. And you need to learn on the go that for which property for which project? What is the most important thing? So this is just one example that I'm saying the second bit is assisting the chairman, which mainly involves two kinds of activities. One is, you are consately at the vantage point of all the communication lines. So you need to be abreast of the situation and you need to be effective in managing that. Second, which is in the beginning, a very new thing for me was a lot of speech writing. So you get to all these events places. Yes. I mean, AGM. I mean, there could be any sorts of events,
Interviewer:
You handle all the communication that goes out from the chairman's desk. So can you elaborate a little bit more on that? Because it seems like a very scary thing to take responsibility of such an important thing. So how do you go about doing that?
Interviewee:
So it takes A little bit of time to get used to it and to be to become good at it. I've been through my own journey, and I think I still am getting better at it. So one of the things that you learn over a period of time is being organized in your own mind, and how that clarity transfers and to whatever you write. The other thing that I guess what I've learned is to keep it simple and to keep listening, because only when you keep listening all the things that are going around you, you can recall the most important thing when you are finally writing down.
Interviewer:
The XLRI grad who entered the TATA ecosystem and the XLRI grad whose sense today, right now, how have you growed in the last seven years? What are some of the things in which some of the aspects in which you transformed as a professional here at TAS.
Interviewee:
I think as a professional, I have got an opportunity to try different things which has made me a more well rounded person. When I started out, I was Deep finance person. My first role was in sales. Then I did marketing, though I got a PPO from a private equity stint at Tata capital. But the subsequent experiences were as polls apart as it could be.
Interviewer:
It feels like a lot of professionals don't have time to pursue any of their interests or passions. Beyond work. The really good professionals still find time and space to pursue whatever else they want to and they bring that kind of knowledge and that kind of expertise into their main line job as well later on. So what's it like for you? What are some of the things that you pursue beyond your work?
Interviewee:
I have been a defense kid so sports activities have always played a role in my childhood, I am a big time into reading. And which as a corollary, it has resulted in me getting into writing also. So I've recently kind of finished my book also first book, which is into editing right now,
Interviewer:
Which direction do you see your career going from here? What are some of the things within TAS that excite you that you might want to take up once you are done with this stint of yours.
Interviewee:
So for now the through pet in my current role is so high that I'm still focusing on just that. Going forward, the I would certainly remain in the consumer and retail space. And it will largely depend on the opportunity that comes up.
Interviewer:
Okay, thanks a lot Mayank for doing this with us. We really appreciate this some of the insights that Mayank has given us about the retail sector, how properties are picked up, how you build a profitable retail business are really valuable. Understanding how the consumer works, how the consumer makes decisions, some of the things that you mentioned about the whole launch of TATA Sampann were really valuable, handling a big guys officer chairman's office and running projects and managing the office and internal stakeholders and external communication is some really large pieces of responsibility that you handle and we appreciate you bringing those out today for us. Thanks a lot Mayank. That's all for now at the Inside IIM career podcast. Thank you so much.