Retail Leadership Summit throws light on Connected Retail: The New World Order

The Retailers Association of India (RAI), one of the unified voice of retailers in India, conducted its annual flagship two-day event, the'Retail Leadership Summit (RLS)'on Feb 10-11, 2016 at The Renaissance Mumbai hotel. The theme of the Summit was'Connected Retail: The New World Order'.  The Summit was opened by B.S. Nagesh, Founder, TRRAIN (Trust for Retailers and Retail Associates) and Chairman, RAI. Shri. Subhash Desai, Hon'ble Minister of Industries, Government of Maharashtra was the chief guest at the event. 

The focus of RLS this time was Connected Retail, which is about offering a personalised omni-channel shopping experience with the collaboration of sourcing, HR, supply chain, operations, payments and marketing across all channels. The impact of Connected Retail for retailers is enabling immediacy, control, convenience, touch-and-feel and face-to-face interactions. This demands an enterprise-wide transformation of systems, processes and priorities and job roles According to Forrester, by end 2016, Connected Retail is expected to influence 44% of retail sales.

Speaking about the Summit, Kumar Rajagopalan, CEO, Retailers Association of India, said, "The retail industry is changing at a rapid pace. Consumers have a whole lot of information at their fingertips, thanks to mobile phones, TV and social media. The Retail Leadership Summit brings together the best retailers and e-tailers on a single platform and also encourages every speaker, partner and attendee to rethink their strategies. The entire industry comes together during RLS to create new benchmarks for excellence. Policy makers, too, get involved to encourage the industry to invest more and employ more people. This is truly the place for crowd sourcing of ideas.”

Google for Work, the presenting partner for the Summit, offers cloud-based business tools that help organisations innovate, work more effectively while guaranteeing certified robust security and data protection. Mohit Pande, Country Head, Google for Work, said, "By bringing the best of consumer technology to the business world, organizations are able to engage with the marketplace at scale, drive innovation and create work processes that are collaborative, mobile and real-time. As consumers increasingly move online, retailers must embrace digital transformation.”

The event got off to a start with a stimulating panel discussion on the topic'Connected Retail: The New World Order. Are we ready?' The panel included Kishore Biyani, Group CEO, Future Group; Mohit Pande, Country Head - South East Asia and India, Google for Work; Rakesh Jhunjunwala, ace equity investor; Ramanathan Hariharan, Group Director & Board Member, Landmark Group; and Sachin Bansal, Co-Founder & Executive Chairman, Flipkart. The discussion was moderated by BS Nagesh. The panel discussed the readiness of retail organisations for providing shoppers with a Connected Retail experience.

Sharing the investor's perspective, Rakesh Jhunjunwala said, "Existing cash flows and/or the expectation of future cash flow is the bedrock of equity valuation.”

The highlight of the event was the session by Sachin Bansal of Flipkart as he spoke about the company's disruptive innovation that changed the country's retail landscape.

At the event RAI released seven knowledge reports in association with world-renowned consulting and market research firms, covering several aspects of retail.

â–ª  RAI - JLL: Convergence of Retail and Office Real Estate in India
â–ª  RAI - AT Kearney: Future India: Rise of Connected Customer
â–ª  RAI - Deloitte: Sense and Sensibility
â–ª  RAI - Knight Frank: Think India. Think Retail 2016
â–ª  RAI - PwC: Building an'Indian' Retail Operating Model
â–ª  RAI - BCG: Decoding Digital @Retail: Winning the omni-channel customer
â–ª  RAI - GPTW: India's Best Retail Companies to Work For

Cognizant of the fact that retail continues to diversify through newer channels, the summit discussed various unique challenges of Indian retailers in sessions such as'How connectivity will democratize Retail';'Connected Space: Customer Recency and Frequency';'Data to Insights- Understanding Big Data for effective Customer Engagement'; and'Innovating for Market Leadership'.

The session on the topic,'From Farm to Fork - The Future Focus (FFFFF)', moderated by K. Radhakrishnan, Co-Founder, Grocermax, with panellists Vijay Rajagopal, National Sales Head - Affiliate Partnerships Zeta; Damodar Mall, CEO Grocery Retail, Reliance Retail Limited; Hari Menon, Co-Founder & CEO, BigBasket.com; Riyaaz Amlani, CEO , Impresario Foods; Sadashiv Nayak, CEO, Big Bazaar; and Sagar Jagdish Daryani, Founder, Wow! MoMo threw light on how the changing food habits of the consumers are affecting the food retail segment.
The first day of the Summit concluded with an awards ceremony by RAI & Great Place to Work® Institute in which India's 10 Best Retail Companies to Work For2016 were recognised.

The second day saw discussions on'The Art and Science of Connecting with Consumers','Brand marketing: The challenge of Building a Brand Everyone Loves','Creating powerful Brands through Seduction & Differentiation', and'Indian Retail: The Future Footprint - Audience Idea Session'.