The students of IIM-Indore Mumbai Campus were obliged by the presence of Mr.Mahesh Khetan, Head(AVP) - Supply Chain Management, Aditya Birla Fashion & Retail Ltd., who delivered an insightful lecture on the Retail Management sector.
He started off with explaining the Gorillas (the major factors hurdling the growth) which seldom are noticed by anyone and how the retail industry is affected at length by the same. The students named a few which included GST, customer preferences, unforeseen competitions.He also explained in detail about the population is a big gorilla in the Indian sector. He then talked at length about the growth being forecasted to be doubled in the coming 4 years and how the shortage of land could adversely affect the same. He shared his views on the losses incurred due to change in customer expectations which in turn leads to heavy End Of Service.
He gave an experiential study of Subhiksha to give a better understanding of how ignorance of Gorillas can lead to the downfall of an utterly successful venture paving way for the competitors. He also explored the inventory management, logistics and warehouse management side of the business and shared some innovative ways for optimization and elaborated on the same in terms of fuel, electricity, rentals and other factors to save on the operating costs. The session turned interactive with the discussions about the various disruptions that can be introduced in the supply-chain industry and concluded with a brief insight into the forecasting techniques for maximising the optimisation followed by Q & A.