April has opened eventfully around the world, when it comes to food prices. A leading Indian business daily opened the first week of April 2008 with a story saying that chain-stores may be as much as 15-40% cheaper than street vendors for staple vegetables and fruits. When we put this against the backdrop of concerns at skyrocketing global prices of rice and fuel, as consumers we may have a reason to thank the chains for helping to balance our monthly budgets. But is this really a victory for proponents of organized retail, or a blow against retail chains? The same…
I had the privilege of bringing the Prime Source Forum in Hong Kong (April 1-2, 2008) to a close. As in the previous year, the Forum had senior executives from companies based in the Americas, Europe, and Asia, as well as government officials and highly respected academics. The discussions covered wide-ranging topics, and with the variety of people on the panels, there was also some amount of difference in opinion. 8 issues came to my mind as key themes for the global industry, as I was preparing my closing speech, and I thought that those who were not present at…
As brands and retailers expand their operations nationally, they begin to look at consolidating their back-room operations. Typically finance is already centralised, but other operations such as store opening project management, logistics etc. are also centralised for smoother and more efficient operation. And then comes a big day when someone senior decides that the company should have a single toll-free or local dial number that customers from around the country can call. Of course, India is already acknowledged as the call-centre of the world, so this should be easy. Right? Wrong. Call centres that are operating internationally from India have…
Today is supposed to be celebrated as "Consumer's Day". I find that ironical, given a personal experience of poor service that occured yesterday whose effect is still lingering and will linger for another 2 weeks (with profuse apologies from 3 different people on the retailer's side, for the delay, bad quality etc etc). There is the saying: "Customer is King". But it does seem that the days of kings are past. Mahatma Gandhi went a step further and declared the customer to be God. But there may be problem with that as well - after all, how many people actually…
Geopolitical friction has again sparked renewed concerns over inflation and rising input costs for FMCG companies as @itmeansjustice @whysnavi write. @devangshu commented.
