There are several initiatives aimed at generating employment and employability in our country with an aim to transform opportunities for India’s youth to move up the value chain of employment and make our demographic dividend a blessing. In this context the Mumbai Chapter of the National HRD Network had recently organised their 'Career Fest' in Mumbai, as a platform to provide the student community and young professionals an in-depth understanding of career opportunities in diverse sectors and enable them to make informed career choices. Human Resource professional, change and culture evangelist, Geethaa Ghaneckar, CHRO, Raymond Group, has a career of over 24 years across industry and function. Corporate Citizen presents her talk on career opportunities in retail and lifestyle sector, at the career fest, wherein she predicts how the world of work will change in the future, the new competence that will define the future like Digital Mindset and Mindfulness and use of predictive analytics in sharpening and customising business processes
For those who are interested in branding and marketing know that Raymond is one of the three most powerful brands in the country—the top recall as you call it. There are three brands that are recalled top of the mind, Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC), Colgate and then there is Raymond. So, these three names are highest recalled brands across India. Now for any marketing or branding professional to actually change the tenet to what completeness means, to a brand that is entrenched into the Indian psyche, is a very difficult job. So, we are known for our branding for many years now and certainly for the lifestyle business and lot of what is retail business.
A brand means a feeling and how you associate with that feeling when you think of that name. There are many other brands that you can think of were there is a feeling that gets generated when you think of that brand. For example, Haldiram for taste, Dettol for safety and cleanliness, Lux for glamour, or Apple for its iPhones and laptops. You pay that kind of money for the product, which almost does the same thing as any other product, probably some other product may do much better job. But, you love a brand because when you carry it, it does something to your persona. The challenge for marketing or branding professionals is to create that association with the brand.
“You have to be better than many and you have to have specialised skills that will set you apart, to be able to sit in plum positions or to have career of your choice”
Raymond is a conglomerate with four major divisions and the largest part of the business, which I represent, is called the lifestyle business. We have Raymond Suitings, which is a 90-yearold company now, a brand entrenched into the Indian psyche. We managed it for the last 90 years, but now the millennials’ understanding of brands is very different and moving to that transition is one big challenge that Raymond faces.
The other challenge is to align to newer methods— for instance, we were always a product company, we made the world’s best suiting fabrics. But, today not many of you will be interested to pay a premium for a suit that will last for the next 20 years, it is enough for you if it goes for 20 months. Consumer today is saying that I am ready to pay two-third the price, give me something that looks fabulous on me and it’s alright if it lasts for three years, I will discard it and buy a new one. So, are we here to address that kind of consumer? We always held ourselves as epitome of quality. How can we make a product that will flare at the seams, colour would fade or something else will happen. We are vested in quality, we keep that as non-negotiable. Yet, we transform from a product company, which prided in making the world’s best product, to a consumer company, which is saying that irrespective of what we are capable of making, we will now produce what the consumer wants.
Now we are saying we will produce what the consumers want and we will sell where they want to buy—almost 60 per cent of our consumers are switching to online. It is the easiest form of completing a transaction. Suits in the past were not being bought online, because fitting was very important. But there are today mechanisms to get the fit right, in an online process. So, we have to move very quickly—we know that the new consumers who are coming in, are digitally savvy. Now we need to be more powerful digitally—in two years we have to create our digital capability that is as big as what we created for 90 years in retail space. These are some of the challenges not only for Raymond but for any organisation. How do you make a contemporary brand to remain relevant for the younger population and yet be leaders in the market? The only way to read the change is that you create the change. If you are in a leading space, that’s the privilege you have, otherwise someone else will come and break the mould for you.
A company called Airbnb—is breaking the mould of the industry. The hospitality industry was shaken-up five years back, when Airbnb got launched. There was a myth that people don’t give their houses to strangers and neither a traveller want to go and live in a stranger’s house. These were some of the mind blocks we had and hospitality industry thrived on that, offering us a home outside our home, with the right ambience and comfortability. What Airbnb does is, say if I have a house in Goa, I hire that to Airbnb. There are many people in the world who want to come to Goa and they don’t want to stay in a hotel. So, at one-tenth of the cost of the hotel, they stay in my house and Airbnb manages that. Look at the business model of Airbnb, they do not own any hotels or rooms—they are the most valued company in the world today.
Digitalisation is changing the way people look at business and this is happening as we are speaking. Retail sector is where the consumer is experiencing the first level of change. For us in retail and lifestyle business, how do we keep up with this digital transformation, at the same time not lose the core of our business, is a challenge. It is not only for us, but all the major organisations in the world would experience this.
“A brand means a feeling and how you associate with that feeling, when you think of that name. And the challenge for marketing or branding professionals is to create that association with the brand”
When organisations change fast, what should not change, is its culture—it is important and as HR head of the business, I am obsessed with that. We will change the ‘what’ of the business, we will change the ‘how’ of the business, but we will not change the core of the business, which is our culture. When organisation survives for nine decades and still goes on, it survives because there is something unique about it. There is something that is resilient, there is something that is transient and is moving as the time moves, but at the same time holding it back. No matter what we do, tomorrow we may become hundred per cent digital, but all of our culture pillars are something we will not compromise on.
High quality talent: We are moving into a space in the next 5-7 years, where almost 30 per cent of jobs at the bottom of the pyramid is going to be automated and taken up by AI and robotics— it is real. So, there is going to be demand for high quality talent—careers that will require high quality thinking, which computers cannot simulate. Computers may begin to think better than human beings in the next 20 years time, but till then this quality of non-cognitive thinking from human beings will be in demand. If you bring high quality of curiosity, high quality of resilience, high quality of human understanding, competence and skills, then you are going to be one step above the other.
Fresh thinking and not experience: Understand that the work scenario is not going to be an easy ride. You have to be better than many and you have to have specialised skill that will set you apart. Today a designer for us is irreplaceable resource, because our collection depends on him. If you have brilliance and no experience, we will pick you, because what we need is fresh ideas and not experience. When the platform shifts, your experience was relevant for the earlier platform, now we need you to come with new thoughts, original thinking, creativity, and passion for what you are doing. And all these is more valuable for the recruiter, than your experience.
Better than many: It is a great time to be young, because there are huge opportunities, but at the same time there are huge challenges, that you haven’t even opened your mind to. Some of who are doing work on future of jobs and understanding the impact of technology, it is a scary scene. But, those who are in colleges and learning, are not exposed to it yet. You have to be better than many, to be able to sit in plum positions or to have career of your choice. But, the good news is that you can do anything that you want and that you dream of—provided that you have what it takes to be able to do that.
Original thinking: What I mean by original thinking? Lot of people echo what other people are saying—but do I have an original thought and do I have the courage to express it. Many of us coy down because we are either afraid of ridicule or we are not sure we will be accepted or we are too bothered about what other people will say. But that does not set you apart. Companies when they are recruiting people…I go to all major campuses in the country and the one quality that I look for is, does this person say something that is outside the regular. After you meet twenty students, you know what the tape is. There are these key words and they have all been trained in how to crack interviews. We recruiters are looking for that spark, were you have a point of view—being able to have a point of view is very important.
“We will change the ‘what’ of the business, we will change the ‘how’ of the business, but we will not change the core of the business, which is our culture “
Product design: Exploration is important, curiosity is important-these are things we will encourage, because we are a company that is in the lifestyle space and it needs to be deeply entrenched in creativity. A designer, every season he is required to put out a new portfolio. It requires him to think differently, it requires him to be connected to what’s happening in the world outside. Therefore curiosity for any young person, is what will define your success. And that is what will be different from one person to other.
Quality Professional: Quality is such an important aspect of product and increasingly the consumers will push companies to give quality and demand better for lesser price. So, there will be tremendous push on quality and quality professionals will have skills that computers cannot easily takeover in the future. What will define an organisation from another organisation, is how closely aligned you are to what the consumer wants. So, quality professionals who work in this space will be immensely valuable.
Product Development: Take product development as a career if you are having passion in what you are doing and have creativity. When you have a bright new idea, don’t hold back and kill the idea before even it is born.
Business HR Management: Because as lot of automation will become real, a lot of digitalisation will become real, and there will be some erosion of human in workplaces. So organisations will require, high quality HR professionals who understand the interface between technology and human beings, yet create an environment where people can thrive.
Customer Relations Management (CRM): Why CRM is really big now? If you have done online shopping, you notice that the ads they display on the opening page, is more or less of what you like. It means, they are tracking you online, because you are leaving digital footprints everywhere— they know what you read, they know where you go, they know what kind of stuff you like to wear, they know what kind of friends you hang on with and lot of this is mined to present to you products, exactly the way you thought you will like. There is big data crunching happening in the background. This is real business and all businesses in the world are doing massive work on big data mining. Which is then translated into almost magically to customer relations and customer experiences. The CRM is responsible to watch out for if anybody is interested-in data, in analytics, and in consumer experiences.
Digital Social Media: All the social media that you see, the YouTube that you watch, they are subtle advertising. They are not talking about the brand directly. They are beautifully told stories in small snippets. You can forward it, download it, share it and it lives a mark on you, but the brand is subtle. Somewhere in the end, it gets mentioned and these are real stories that people are sharing. This is all social media—there are marketers sitting behind this, to actually engineer it in such a way, so it looks almost incidental and real to you. So, social media is a real career, everybody who is keen on marketing as a profession, social media is the space to be.
Sourcing professionals: They will continue to be important. There is a pressure on price; people are wanting better at lesser price and faster. Amazon is able to do that, because it is among the world’s most powerful sourcing engines. They are able to buy at the cheapest price anywhere in the world, because of their volumes. And the sourcing professionals sitting inside Amazon are considered to be amongst the best, because very few other people could match them, to bring a certain quality at a certain price.
Brand management: This role will continue, because there will always be people willing to pay more, as you live to every brand differently. But brand management of the past will be very different from brand management of the future, because it will be digitally aligned and differently experienced by the consumer.
By Rajesh Rao
