management

February 1 2023

Growth Hacks for the middle eastern supermarkets.

The supermarket business is one of the most complex businesses wherein the margins are wafer-thin, but the competition is throat-cutting with rising operational costs.

Consumers are the core of any business and without customers, you cannot have any business, irrespective of having a breakthrough product.

To learn about the business model of farm-to-fork brands, click here.

So, how does grocery retailer/supermarkets survive?

We need to observe and learn things from our surroundings, the changing in consumer buying habits, consumers’ basket/trolley size, and whether today the customers are spending more or less than previously.

All these observations need to be plotted onto the dashboard for making data-driven decisions.

Overcome the mindset of the “Easy way out”

Most middle eastern grocery retailers have this mindset.

They depend upon the brand’s “listing fees” or “shelf hiring fees” to build up their P&L and post 6 months to a year, they discontinue the brands and replace them with another brand by again charging “Listing fees”.

This mindset has become “cancerous” for food grocery retailers & supermarkets as they see it as an easy solution to build their financials.

Secondly, the easy way-out mindset is the easy availability of funds or going public i.e. IPO without addressing the internal inefficiencies.

Supermarkets need to learn from the German retailer- Aldi

The retailer first came to the U.S. in the mid-’70s and has since become known as a destination for heavily discounted grocery basics and pantry staples.

This year, the company said it had over a million new U.S. households visiting its stores and a 10.5% jump in foot traffic, resulting in a double-digit sales increase over last year.

Aldi core Strategy:

ALDI’s core strategy is “keeping only a limited amount of high-quality, name-brand products, so customers don’t have many options to confuse them, reducing their selection time.”

Currently, there are currently over 2,200 Aldi locations across 38 states in the US.

Staying agile by digital adoption- Supermarkets

Aldi has also built out its digital presence via an Instacart partnership, which began in 2018 and became available in all stores by 2020. In 2021, Instacart-fulfilled curbside and delivery sales accounted for 2% of Aldi’s revenue.

What is Aldi’s competitive advantage?

With Aldi’s “low prices and premium-quality products”, during times of economic pressures, they can reach out to more households and thus increase their sales.

To learn how to re-energize your retail concept using gamification, click here.

Staying close to their customers, keeping their ears and eyes on shop floors

Most of Aldi’s senior management spend no more than 20% of their work time in their offices & the balance of 80% is spent on the shop floor.

This has resulted in the development of a shopper’s basket containing the necessary food and non-food basket creation.

This basket creation highlights overall savings of 30% to 40% in households’ grocery budget and thus is attracting more households to their stores.

This strategy “curated basket” has helped the private label business for Aldi.

Additionally, 90% of the store is stocked with Aldi private-label brands that cut out the inefficiencies of national brand products.

In summary, they have “hit two birds with one stone” as the saying goes.

Effective Marketing strategy adoption by supermarkets.

Many new shoppers are acquired by Aldi because of their low prices.

But the customers keep coming back because of good quality, the shopping experience is incredibly convenient and their wallets are a whole lot happier.

Summary-

The food retailing business in the middle east region will soon see disruption as there are multiple gaps, and inefficiencies in the supply chains, and the sector will see corrections, acquisitions, and mergers in the coming days.

Any retailer or retail brand Business owner, who needs a helping hand to scale their business or relook their business from an innovative perspective may reach out to me at +971502476483

I have co-founded a retail platform that provides a market entry strategy to beauty brands in the UAE and helps them scale by creating their retail footprints.

If you are a beauty brand or know a beauty brand business owner willing to enter the middle east region, then we can help you to achieve your vision.

We help beauty brands to scale their retail footprints.

To become a part of a growing and vibrant Facebook group for Retail professionals, click here

About the author:

Ritesh Mohan is a passionate retail professional with over 20 years in the Retail sector, handling some of the biggest brands in the beauty, fashion, and fragrances retail & FMCG sector. He has been instrumental in the growth of some of the regional brands as well in the Middle East region. Ritesh specializes in Retail management, Product development, Brand Management, Retail Operations, Sales Management, and Franchising & Business Management. He strongly believes in empowering business owners with his wisdom & experience of around two decades in the industry

May 16 2022

How to become a franchisor?

ritesh mohan 0

Small business to a franchisor

A franchisor is defined as a brand owner who has a proven system of store concepts that can be scaled for economic reasons.

Understanding what it takes to become a franchisor and how franchisors operate and grow is essential.

Having worked with both franchisee and franchisor, I have learned these tricks the hard way.

(At Koj Est, we were both a franchisee and franchisor of brands like Mikyajy & Nayomi-private label brands)

This article brings forth a few tricks that a business needs to take prior to becoming a franchisor (i.e. appointing a franchisee to run the same business in new territory).

Deciding whether your business can be franchised.

As a business owner, you need to realize that not everything can be franchised.

You have a great concept that you can teach and that’s simple to execute.

There must be an advantage to franchising for you & your franchisees.

The concept must make enough money both for you and your franchisees.

Check if your shop concept can make money, how many stores under your management are making money currently. This forms basis for the like for like analysis.
What is your merchandise holding costs?
Your merchandising stock turn ratio- is it 3 months, 6months or a year.
Your breakeven period based on location segmentations.
How long have you been in a business?
Do you have a franchise manual to replicate the processes, design templates, merchandising processes, replenishment processes for your franchisees?

If you have answered these questions in the affirmative “Yes” then you are ready to proceed to the next steps.

To learn how to build robust franchise systems, click here

Why will anyone want your franchise?

This is the most critical question that as a business owner you need to answer.

What is an ideal franchisee partner look like for your kind of business?
Who is going to be attracted to your franchise opportunity?

Normally, the cost of acquiring a franchisee is very high and may take a long time to find the right partner and do due diligence on them.

A successful proven system forms the basis of why your franchisee will pay you for replicating your system in his territory.

As a franchisor, you may offer support in terms of initial setup training, sales training, L&D eLearning courses;

To learn more about franchising, click here

How much to charge for your franchise?

There are multiple models like initial franchise fees, royalties on sales, marketing, and training fees.

Few franchisors charge a margin on the products sold to franchisees and few lease the equipment or property that they have.

All these fees are deducted from the franchisee’s bottom line and hence answering the below questions becomes critical to ensure the robustness of your franchising program.

Will your franchisee still be profitable?
Will your franchisee still receive acceptable return on investment?
What would be your franchisee’s initial upfront investment?
Does your prospective franchisee support a sizeable portion of required investment? How is his banking creditability?

The best way is to work out a forecasted P&L statement for your franchisee and show them the Return of Investments over a period.

Franchisors need to budget for New Franchises

In the first years of operating a franchise, the costs of supporting franchisees typically exceed revenue from royalties and fees.

New franchises will face the challenge of building enough capital to cover the infrastructure needed to support their franchisees.

This includes support for marketing, accounting, and operation.

This is where most franchising programs fail as the franchisors run out of the patience and budget that they need to sustain the franchise program.

Franchisors should be aware of these costs and know how many franchisee units can afford to operate at a loss or break even. They should be cautious of expansion and should consolidate franchisees if necessary.

If, you are developing your franchise program & need a retail expert to execute your franchising goals for instance.

Feel free to reach out to me at riteshmohan@yahoo.com or call me at +971502476483.

About the author:

June 19 2021

Did covid19 impact consumer’s preferences & behaviors?

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Consumers preferences & behaviors are evolving

Consumers’ preferences and buying behaviors keep evolving and the current pandemic had a big role in accelerating this change across the sector whether it is travel, non-food retail, leisure, movies & F&B, etc.

All sectors have been impacted and there is no sector that is insulated from the aftermath of covid19.

The COVID-19 pandemic has changed how we work, travel, communicate, shop, and more;

But are these habits going to stay with us for long?

My article is an attempt to understand this change wherein I have used various polls (across social media), one-to-one discussions with experts, and have consolidated in this article to find the key insights that retailers could use in their businesses.

Learn about restaurants post covid19, click here.

Consumers’ preferences – Masks & social distancing

One of the major impacts that covid19 has to do all the businesses, is that it has accelerated the adoption of digital initiatives amongst most of the businesses.

Food and household categories have seen an average of over 30 percent growth in online customer base across countries. (study by Mckinsey)

The e-commerce sector has responded rapidly to the challenge of creating positive experiences in response to the pandemic.

Companies have pumped in investments in logistics and supply chains and widened their product ranges to cope up with the emerging trend towards ecommerce.

consumers' preferences & buying behaviors during covid19

The emergence of new sectors

Never before, we saw telemedicine being used so frequently.

Thanks to Pandemic, the new field emerged of telemedicine consultations with hospitals adopting tech products to connect to their patients who were under lockdown.

The emergence of health care prescription analytics.

Since the consultation was done on digital platforms, the customer data and past history were tracked to give a more holistic diagnosis to the patient.

The power of data analysis can now be used by pharmaceutical companies to understand the consumption patterns as well as how often their brand of medicine is being prescribed by the doctors.

How are consumer preferences & behavior changing?

It is a known fact that to develop a new habit, one has to repeat it over 21 days and continue it over 3 months till it becomes a part of an individual’s lifestyle.

Five key trends in the behavioral changes emerging post covid19

Increased digital adoption: people shifting to digital platforms for day-to-day needs.

Loss of freedom in terms of Mobility & WFM: less use of public transport, more remote working, etc. Work from Home is the new Norm.

Google has announced adopting to WFM for all their employees.

Homes became workplaces which added to stress levels as individuals don’t know when to switch OFF work and switch ON their personal lives.

Change in buying behavior: move to value-based purchasing and online shopping.
Various sectors in the exhibit showed a double-digit decline as people moved away from fashion apparel to wellness products. Digital gadgets sales showed an increase since adoption of e-schooling.

Increased awareness of health: wearing masks, increased hygiene, healthy eating etc.

Interpersonal relationships: increased divorces across the world, increased pet adoption etc.

Read about farm to fork business model, click here

Consumers’ Preferences – World became more HUMANE

The entire globe came together as one to fight the current pandemic -which is never seen before thing.

Irrespective of their statuses, all the countries whether developed, developing, or under-developed came together to help each other by providing vaccines, medicines, equipment, etc.

Consumers’ preferences –Staying true to your purpose

In the short and medium-term, the buying behavior is going to shift towards purpose-driven brands.

Brands that have kept trust and credibility during the Coronavirus crisis are likely to benefit in a big way.

Post the crisis, people might become less prone to experimenting with “flashy” or “edgy” brands, as well as with brands that are generic and touted as “value-for-money”.

The focus will shift sharply towards brands that have been able to win consumer trust in this time of crisis.

This gives brands a big opportunity to pump up their CSR initiatives to win the trust of their customers.

For instance, Personally, I loved the initiatives by Air India (India’s national carrier) wherein they flew millions of Indians stuck during lockdown to their respective cities and countries under the scheme of Vande Bharat.

As a traveler, I shall never forget Air India’s contribution towards its citizen and in the future personally, I shall not change my airline as they have now earned a space in my heart.

I always recommend to my readers, “Its Heart that matters and not Mind”

(Makes me recall an advertising slogan in Hindi “Dil ka Rishta- strive to win hearts”)

Read about new rules of quarantined economics, click here

In the middle east, PWC surveyed 501 consumers in Abu Dhabi, Cairo, Dubai, Jeddah, and Riyadh as part of a wider PwC global survey of the impact of COVID-19 on consumers.

an analysis of the effect of covid-19 pandemic on the consumer behaviour

Overall, 62% of Middle East survey respondents said they had experienced a decrease in household income due to redundancy or reduction in hours – the highest proportion of any territory surveyed.

An additional 15% had lost out on earnings as a result of caring for others or illness, meaning 77% in total reported a fall in household income, compared with an all-territory average of 48%.

The findings reflect in the pictures shown below.

change in consumer behaviour due to covid

How long are these consumers’ preferences going to stay?

This question is in the minds of every marketeer, the answer is only time will tell but we need to prepare our brand and businesses to adapt to these changes in preferences.

Few Tips:

Build your business model around customer convenience. Irrespective of online or offline retail… (for me it is just the manifestation of serving customers).
Create the new customer journey starting from online to offline(in-store) and stay true to your Brand Promise across touchpoints.
Every touchpoint counts & matters; whether it is social media, your Influencer campaign, your CRMs, or any marketing initiatives.
Good time for organic and wellness brands to tap the emerging markets as customers are just ready for early adoption.

Read about 7 retail trends in 2022, click here

Conclusion

The pandemic isn’t over yet. But there’s light at the end of the tunnel.

The so-called ‘new normal’ will bring many changes, including new consumer preferences,

new purchasing habits, and new opportunities for retailers to promote themselves and attract shoppers.

References: Mckinsey study, PWC survey, think with google case papers.

About the Author:

Ritesh Mohan is a passionate retail professional with over 22 years in the Retail sector, handling some of the biggest brands in the beauty, fashion, and fragrances retail & FMCG sector.

He has been instrumental in the growth of some of the regional brands as well in the Middle East region.

Ritesh specializes in Retail management, Product development, and Brand Management, Retail Operations, Sales Management, and Franchising & Business Management.

He strongly believes in empowering business owners with his wisdom & experience of around two decades in the industry.

Ritesh can also be followed on Instagram as @mohanritesh & on Youtube as @riteshmohan

Buy a “ Simplifying retail” book for powering your retail careers & retail stores.

Amazon. ae : Link of the book: https://amzn.to/361bNHy

April 26 2020

Lipstick – An Economic indicator

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Lipstick – an economic indicator?

Lipstick, a cosmetic product, giving economists worldwide an indication of the health of the economy.

Last week, one of my friends had posted about Lipstick as an economic indicator which in fact refreshed my memories of handling two brands in cosmetics and kid’s toy segment in 2007-08.

I am going to share my experiences and perspectives which can be used by retailers to surf the turbulent times.

What is Lipstick effect meaning in economics?

As per Wikipedia, The lipstick effect is the theory that when facing economic crisis consumers will be more willing to buy less costly luxury goods.

Instead of buying expensive fur coats, for example, people will buy expensive lipstick.

I shall explain it giving a layman example-

What is the rationale behind the lipstick effect?

The underlying implication is that consumers will buy luxury goods even if there is a crisis. When consumer confidence in the economy is low, people will buy goods that fulfill luxury indulgences without breaking the bank. Outside the cosmetics market, consumers could buy expensive beer or pick an Audi over a Ferrari.

How lipstick became an economic indicator?

After 9/11 deflated the economy, Estee Lauder Company, noticed that they were selling more lipstick than usual.

Economists worldwide started studying the phenomenon and used Lipstick as an economic indicator during tough economic times.

They found a correlation between the economy and lipstick sales.

When the economy is shaky, the sales of lipstick increases, as women boost their mood with inexpensive lipstick purchases instead of buying high priced ticket items.

Beauty brands remained true believers in the theory, even though in the last few years the lipstick market has fallen but it has been balanced by the growth in the sales of lipstick gloss.

According to London-based Research Company Euro monitor, global lip products (which account for lipstick, lip gloss, and liner) are projected to jump 18 percent between now and 2022 – even with global growth expected to taper off.

How current Pandemic Covid19 is different from the 2007-08 economic turmoil?

Personally speaking, I foresee a jump in sales of mid-priced, quality cosmetics goods but it will come with big cost baggage.

Current covid19 has highlighted the importance of keeping personal hygiene which was not there in 2007-08.

In 2007-08 the turmoil was not a health pandemic as we are currently facing.

Cosmetics companies need to produce more personalized mini tester units for each shade, to be dispensed or sampled at their point of sales. Currently, one tester is provided for customer usage and trials.

This means companies need to shell out more dollars in producing mini personalized tester units for their customers, in line with health and safety guidelines.

As per a recent study of Mckinsey,

Economic impact.

Large-scale quarantines, travel restrictions, and social-distancing measures drive a sharp fall in consumer and business spending until the end of Q2, producing a recession.

Consumers stay home, businesses lose revenue and lay off workers, and unemployment levels to rise sharply.

Business investment contracts, and corporate bankruptcies to soar, putting significant pressure on the banking and financial system.

Learn more about quarantined economics, read here.

Category spending

Globally, consumers are still spending (and sometimes spending more) on basics such as food, household supplies, and personal care items, as well as on home entertainment.

From my personal experience of facing the 2008 recession, one category, we did not see a decline in 2007-8 and that was in the children’s goods category like toys, kidswear, apparel for new-borns, etc.

In fact, the Kids category had remained recession-proof.

By rotating merchandise and by rearranging the floor plans regularly, we had maintained the freshness/newness in the store and were able to maintain our like for like sales in 2007-08.

It will be exciting to see how the Kids category will perform in the current scenario.

One category that has emerged as a winner is entertainment, as more & more people are glued to their TV screens and consuming more media and content than ever before.

An interesting insight was shared by Retailme publication, where one of the regional e-commerce sites has seen an upsurge in their sales for food processors, as more & more people are forced to cook at home, hence the need for cooking equipment’s is higher during covid19.

Another trend in fashion will emerge i.e. Recommerce, wherein retailers will buy-back their sold fashion garment from their customers who want to try out new trends without causing a hole in their pockets.

The buy-back merchandise would then be refurbished and resold as “Pre-loved garments”, keeping the sustainability fashion in mind.

Learn more about Recommerce, click here.

The current economic scenario will push fashion retailers for a discounting model as their main priority will be to convert the old collections or merchandise into cash.

(Proving the basic principle i.e. Cash is the King in the cash flow terminology).

How do you manage cash flow in retail?

“Cash flow” refers to the timing of the amount of money flowing into and out of a business i.e.— when cash is coming in and out.

While you may have USD 10,000 in profits for the month on paper;

if those funds aren’t available right away, you won’t be able to meet daily operating expenses.

Bigger Valuations and Market capitalization will not matter.

One of the impacts of covid-19 is on how we look at our books of accounts. Most of the retail CEOs tend to look only at the P&L statement or Income statement and they feel satisfied when they see the amount in the Net profit section…

I call it, Accounting Myopia. (Term coined by me in sync with marketing myopia)

The actual health is reflected on the balance sheet.

CASH ON HAND is the most important parameter.

How will you keep control of your cash flow in tough economic times?

Optimize Your Inventory Management Processes

The bread and butter of your retail business is your inventory.

In the US, a study was done, which found that a normal hypermarket carries 25000 to 30000 SKU’s in their big-box concepts, claiming to offer varieties to customers in each category. However, customers bought only 2000 -3000 SKUs.

Hence we see aggressive promotions, markdowns, etc in order to sell other SKUs.

Always remember, every promotion costs money, the question is how much you are willing to spend, for the money you earn.

Utilize this pandemic to rationalize your merchandise mix, carry merchandise that is selling.

Push orders or delay delivery timelines for seasonal collections in order to optimize your cash flow.

Time to restructure all your debt requirements.

Meet your bankers and get an extension towards repayment periods.

Optimize all your lease agreements with the mall owners.

Renegotiate the leases if required and get rental free periods or any kind of support from the malls as it is the question of survival for all the businesses.

Optimize your cash receivables by putting stringent processes and follow-ups.

(applicable to retail businesses who deals on credit with their channel partners)

Put your expansion plans and new launches in the freezer.

focus on quarterly planning and put all new launches and events on hold to save your cash flow.

I hope my article will help my fellow retailers and fraternity to fight the current economic uncertain times.

About the author:

Ritesh Mohan is a passionate retail professional with over 22 years in the Retail sector and is an independent commentator on the retail sector. He is a prolific writer and runs retailritesh.com wherein he expresses his views with his audience and educates them on the strategic insights.

April 7 2020

7 Learnings from the book: “Never apply for a job again” by author Darrell Gurney.

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Never apply for a job again !!!

The book by author Darrell Gurney, ‘ Never apply for a job again’, talks about a methodology called Stealth Networking.

Stealth networking techniques are of great importance when it comes to job search.

In times of Covid19 and economic recession fears on the rise, the book provides good insights on how we as professionals can navigate our careers in rough economic seas.

Professionals who invest in themselves by learning how to stealth network like a pro will be rewarded with a long term, sustainable, and a stable career.

Learn about the impact of covid19 on the economy, click here

Rule 1 for Job search-Build relationship equity with your connections, coworkers.

Always give even before you ask for any help or support.

The law of attraction has its wonderful ways of returning your good deeds by enabling all your wishes.

So get out and start networking and connecting with the people.

Listen to the complete podcast here & learn the 7 techniques from the book summarised for you.

I hope you will like the podcast episode wherein I have summarised my learnings from the book “Never apply for a job again”.

About the author:

Ritesh Mohan is a passionate retail professional with over 22 years in the Retail sector, handling some of the biggest brands in beauty, fashion and fragrances retail & FMCG sector. He has been instrumental in the growth of some of the regional brands as well in the Middle East region. Ritesh specializes in Retail management, Product development, and Brand Management, Retail Operations, Sales Management and Franchising & Business Management. He believes in empowering business owners with his wisdom & experience of around two decades in the industry.

January 2 2020

Want to make year 2020, the most remarkable year of your life? 5 steps for Goal settings

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5 steps for goal settings will set you up for success.

Goal setting is of key essence when it comes to being successful and writing your own destiny. I am going to share 5 steps for goal settings with all my readers.

I had tried it on myself for the last couple of years and believe me, it worked wonders for me both in my professional and personal life.

As we embark on embracing a new year, which offers us new hope, new energies, new visions and new goals to achieve.

My article would provide some tips for my readers to write their own goals.

What do the statistics say about Goal settings?

A Harvard Business study revealed amazing statistics relating to goal setting and success.

The study went on to find that the 14% who have goals are 10 times more successful than those without goals. The 3% with written goals are 3 times more successful than 14% with unwritten goals.

83% of the population does not have goals
14% have a plan in mind but are unwritten goals
3% have goals written down

So if you are an entrepreneur or even a student, you have a greenfield to outperform your competition by setting goals for your organization or for yourself.

5 steps for goal settings:

I had attended a day workshop with leading behavioral and change management guru in Dubai and learned about this technique called SMART.

A SMART goal is one that’s:

S – Specific: In other words, it’s not vague.

M – Measurable: It’s detailed so you’re able to track your progress.

A – Achievable: It’s attainable and realistic.

R – Relevant: It relates to your values and the area of your life that needs improvement.

T – Time-Bound: It has a concrete deadline so you’re motivated to achieve it.

A sales manager can use this technique to set the sales targets for his team, his region, etc. He can break the targets into months keeping the seasonality of the product and historical sales trend in mind and allocate the sales numbers each month.

Later monthly sales numbers could be divided into weekly or fortnightly targets.

Any deviation, if observed could be corrected by means of tactical campaigns.

Make your goals specific.

When setting goals, they should answer the highly specific questions of who, what, where, when, and why.

For each specific goal you make, you should ask yourself why it is a goal and how it helps your life goals.

To lose weight, you have created the more specific goal “burn 300 kcal daily,” which begins with the short-term goal “burning 100, then 200 & so on.” You would need to answer, which gym would you go, what diet regime to follow etc.

Break the big picture down into smaller and more specific goals.

As explained previously (using sales target example), we need to break a bigger goal into smaller milestones. Achieve those milestones, celebrate your win and then move forward.

Consider areas of your life that you either want to change or that you feel you would like to develop with time. Areas might include career, finances, family, education, or health.

Visualize your goals on a daily basis.

Writing them down is a great practice.

Visualizing your goals happening is even better. With visualization, you use the power of the subconscious mind to engrave your goals.

“If a mind can conceive, the heart can believe it, your body shall achieve it”, this quote is so true when it comes to goals settings and goals visualization.

Learn as to why Men’s Grooming industry is booming, read here.

Goal setting example, Watch a video of actor Jim Carrey, explaining the power of Visualization.

Jim Carrey during his struggling years wrote himself a cheque of 10 million dollars and kept in his pocket. The cheque reminded him that he needs to excel in whatever he is doing.

Lastly but the most important point, in case you miss out on the 5 steps goal settings process or drop out chasing your goals in the middle of the year, then don’t worry.

Take a deep breath, give yourself a pat on your back that you were amongst the top 3% of the population that had written their goals.

This would inspire you again to chase your goals.

To sum up, I would quote Pablo Picasso statement

“Our goals can only be reached through a vehicle of a plan, in which we must fervently believe, and upon which we must vigorously act. There is no other route to success.”

Personally I would like to congratulate & thank each of my readers for following my content regularly and wishing you all “Happy New Year 2020”.

About the Author:

Ritesh Mohan is a passionate retail professional with over 20 years in the Retail sector, handling some of the biggest brands in beauty, fashion and fragrances retail & FMCG sector. He has been instrumental in the growth of some of the regional brands as well in the Middle East region. Ritesh specializes in Retail management, Product development, and Brand Management, Retail Operations, Sales Management and Franchising & Business Management. He strongly believes in empowering business owners with his wisdom & experience of around two decades in the industry.

December 23 2019

How to become an effective manager in 2020? Your Way to Success

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Are you an effective Manager?

The market dynamics are fast-changing, hence today businesses need effective Managers in 2020 to manage an ever-evolving workforce.

Organizations need to respond faster, with fewer resources, to keep up with the ever-changing technology and globalization.

My article is inspired by a book by author Spencer Johnson “The new One minute manager” which I completed reading in straight 7 hours during my recent travels to India from Dubai ( I took layover option which gave me a good reading time as well as cost me less money).

How can you become an effective manager in 2020?

Firstly we need to understand the traditional manager qualities; there are two types of managers

Autocratic:

Hard-nosed, profit-minded, realistic
Don’t feel to change with the times as they believe no reason for a change as they have worked the same way always.

Democratic:

Participative manager, supportive, considerate.

Today’s volatile economic environment needs a balanced approach i.e. result-oriented cum people’s person. (result cum human-focused).

Want to learn about Leadership skills, click here.

The old command & control management style has transformed into a collaborative approach.

Managers in 2020 would need to become facilitators for their teammates rather than being a participative manager. Empowering the team members to make their own decisions and only guiding them when needed.

By drawing the talents of everyone in the team, the organization can become more productive.

Learnings:

The best way to achieve successful results is with People.

Effective Manager needs to set goals in 2020:

Planning should include setting goals with your team members and ensure that each of your team members is aware of what is expected from him/her and how he/she would be appraised.

Have each member write out their goals with the timelines (in case of project management). Ask them to review it daily & check if their daily activities are aligned with their set goals.

Micro-Management is no longer relevant.

Effective managers in 2020 would need to spend time initially with their team members in setting their goals with them and then empower them to go ahead and execute the project. Point to be ensured that periodic feedback to be provided to teams so that corrective actions could be taken as & when required.

Believe in acknowledging and praising the good work of the teammates.

Traditionally, managers are trained to find out the wrongs or errors in the team’s work but in the new age 2020, managers need to catch the good work done by their subordinates and immediately acknowledge the same to all so that others also get inspired to deliver good results.

“Help people reach their full potential. Catch them doing something right.”

learn how to become a game-changer in your business sector, click here.

Redirects or Reprimands:

An effective manager, as soon as he notices a deviation from the team’s performance or the goals, he must immediately take a correction course.

He should specify what went wrong and assure his teammate that he expects better performance and support him/her in delivering good work.

“Teach your team to laugh at themselves for making a mistake and get over it by doing better work”.

Learning:

Feedback is the breakfast of Champions.

It is the feedback that keeps the organization and team going.

“Tell people what they did wrong; tell them how you feel about it and remind them they are better than that.”

I hope my article which summarizes my learnings from the book “The new one minute manager” by Spencer Johnson would help my readers in managing their teams more effectively in 2020.

I would end the article by quoting a saying by Confucious,

“The essence of knowledge is, having it, to use it”.

Watch out this video by Simon Sinek on effective leadership.

About the author:

Ritesh Mohan is a passionate retail professional with over 20 years in the Retail sector, handling some of the biggest brands in beauty, fashion and fragrances retail & FMCG sector. Ritesh has been instrumental in the growth of some of the regional brands as well in the Middle East region. He specializes in Retail management, Product development, and Brand Management, Retail Operations, Sales Management and Franchising & Business Management. He strongly believes in empowering business owners with his wisdom & experience of around two decades in the industry.

November 2 2019

Are You a Game-Changer? It’s Easy If You Do It Smart.

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Are you creating Disruptions in your Business or industry?

What is common between an alarm clock and a traditional camera film?

Any guesses…

“Both got disrupted & became extinct or outdated”

I recall my student days, wherein the sound of the metal alarm clock used to wake up not only me but my neighbors as well.

The Loud sound was so strong that one could not avoid missing it and instead woke up to it.

Today, most of us use “alarm” functionality on our mobile phones.

Technology is the biggest disruptor.

Yes, disruption can happen fast, but it need not take you by surprise.

Learn to manage Disruptions

a) Keep an eye on technology—not only within your industry but outside as well.

There is a high probability for the technology that will revolutionize your industry in the future is already doing so in a completely unrelated industry today.

b) Manage your business like a chess player

Watch every move of your competition.

If you can, anticipate competitors’ plans and think five moves ahead, you would be in a better position to lead the competition.

Myth- Creating Disruptions are capital intensive.

Disruptive marketing doesn’t have to break the bank to be effective.

Just change the way of getting things done – even a little.

Learn How Accounting practices are being disrupted, by clicking here.

Case study: Airwick air fresheners.

Air fresheners. You don’t give much thought to buying them. You buy something that smells good, right?

But what if you could do more than that?

What if you could create an entire mood by the scent that best describes your décor?

Airwick created such a quiz-style design with its Scent Decorator

Disruptive marketing often tells a story in a way that consumers can understand.

By clicking a few images, you get a better idea of the feeling you want to create in your room, along with recommended air fresheners to complement it.

By creating disruptions, you shake things up by changing customer perceptions about not just the company – but the industry as a whole.

scent decorator video see here

Air Wick Scent Decorator

Now comes the truth of human psychology.

Because you have changed customer’s perception entirely, they start relating new, better and more positive feelings with the brand.

Hence I always tell my readers, “Don’t Sell, Tell Stories instead”.

Check the video here.

Disruptive brands are not afraid to be daring and break the status quo.

Case study: Policybazaar.com & scrapGo.com

Let me rewind to the old traditional way of buying insurance policies wherein a middle-aged man/women, mostly referred by our close relatives, used to sell us the insurance policies.

Now fast forward to 2019, we have aggregators like Policybazaar.com, souqamal.com (in the Middle East region) wherein the customers can compare prices, features and returns of various policies and buy them online.

But have you heard something similar in Metal scrap business?

When I first heard about ScrapGo.com, I smiled because of their use of disruption in such an unexciting market—scrap metal.

I thought if this industry could see disruptions, so does any industry.

Buyers, sellers, and brokers populate the scrap metal industry. In exchange for putting buyers and sellers together, brokers take a percentage of each transaction.

Here comes scrapGo.com, who has disrupted the metal scrap business by bringing both buyers and sellers together across the globe on a single platform, charging a fraction of commission for their deals.

If you check the scrapGo.com page on linkedin.com, it employees only 5-10 employees. If they can disrupt a sector, so does anyone else.

Learn about the booming Men’s Grooming business model here

Digital technologies creating disruptions in the African sub-continent.

Consider retail, there are 60,000 people per formal retail outlet in Africa, compared with just 400 people per store in the United States.

E-commerce start-ups such as Jumia – which already has over 4 million customers in 14 African countries – are turning that gap into an opportunity.

The company is betting that online sales will grow from 1% of total retail sales in Africa today to 15% in 10 years.

Jumia’s listing on the NYSE valued it at over $1 billion, giving it claim to be Africa’s first technology unicorn.

What is Disruption Theory or Disruptions in Business?

The concept is well narrated in a quote by Richard Branson.

“Disruption is all about risk-taking, trusting your intuition, and rejecting the way things are supposed to be. Disruption goes way beyond advertising, it forces you to think about where you want your brand to go and how to get there.” – Richard Branson

About the author:

Ritesh Mohan is a passionate retail professional with over 20 years in the Retail sector, handling some of the biggest brands in beauty, fashion and fragrances retail & FMCG sector. Ritesh has been instrumental in the growth of some of the regional brands as well in the Middle East region. He specializes in Retail management, Product development, and Brand Management, Retail Operations, Sales Management, and Franchising & Business Management. He strongly believes in empowering business owners with his wisdom & experience of around two decades in the industry.

September 15 2019

Ignore weaknesses & focus only on strengths to be successful

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How often do we hear “ convert your weaknesses to strengths”? I am sure you all would have heard it a zillion times.

In a recent study, psychologists and behavioral analysts have challenged this management adage.

A new study revealed that you don’t grow by overcoming your weaknesses but you grow by strengthening your core strengths.

Find out what you do well and do more of it.

In a recent study, researchers gave reading training on the reading techniques to the group of readers (average readers and good readers).

The poor readers, who started at 90 words per minute, made an improvement to an average of 150 words per minute. But the top readers who started at 350 words per minute, multiplied to more than 2000 words per minute.

Result :

Researchers assumed that the poorest readers would make the greatest percentage gains. But in reality, the speediest readers grew the most and profited most from the training.

The paradigm change from weaknesses to strengths.

Companies shall not grow by improving on their weaknesses but they grow by studying their competitors who are successful even in the economic slowdown. By studying these competitors, you may get some tips for improvement.

Practice makes perfect transitioned to Practicing a strength makes it perfect.

In my retail career, I came across a buyer who was perfect in supplier management, placing orders on time and getting very competitive rates for the goods we bought. She was perfect in product sourcing and product conceptualization & negotiations.

Based on her excellent performance, the company promoted her to the position on Sales head, thinking she would utilize her product knowledge in training sales team and also convincing the new customers to buy.

The moment she took charge of the sales team, her performance started deteriorating. She could not manage the sales team nor managed to sustain the earlier sales level.

Do you want to know the reason?

She was excellent in making product presentations and talk about the products but she was hesitant to ask the customer for their sales order or persuade them to purchase. She was not meant for Selling. By practicing a weakness, she was undermining her self-respect.

The company thought that sales techniques are something that anyone could learn and Selling is the easiest task.

Does this case sound familiar to you? It happens in all the companies across all sectors.

The greatest chance for success lies in reminding people or organization of existing strengths and getting them back on track while initiating a management strategy for the weaknesses.

Learning for all management professionals…

“Focus on strengths and manage the weaknesses”.

Weaknesses to Strengths: The Strength Theory.

In 1984, china retained the gold medal for Table Tennis (China has a terrific record in winning medals in table tennis)

One of the sports journalists interviewed the coach and asked him on the team’s success recipe.

“We practice eight hours a day perfecting our strengths” – coach replied.

He further explained, if you develop your strengths to the maximum, the strength becomes so great that it overwhelms the weakness. Our winning players play only “forehand” (a type of playing style), they cannot play backhand. Our competitors know about this weakness but his forehand is so invincible that it cannot be beaten.

This theory can be easily implemented in the corporate world, Instead of thinking in terms of employees’ weaknesses, the focus should be on identifying strengths and developing those strengths while managing the weaknesses.

Implementation in Daily life

We all can practice Strengths theory in our parenting activities at home; It is important that we teach Discipline to our children but that does not mean controlling them or putting undue restrictions on them.

Studies have revealed that children growing up in over strict and disciplined environment turned out to be Introverts i.e. lacking self-confidence and were rebellious.

Rather, Spend time in developing relationships with them and help them grow rather than controlling them. This would inspire them to listen and cooperate with you.

The theory stresses that focus must be on the strengths while weaknesses are to be aggressively managed, not ignored.

Strengths vs Advantages

In one of my recent meetings with a senior retailer in Kuwait, she pointed out that being from Ivy League management school is a huge strength.

“Is it a strength or an advantage? I asked.

Having a degree from Ivy League colleges is only an advantage that can open the door for you but in order to sustain and achieve success, you need to build on your strengths.

You need Persistence, discipline and never give up attitude.

A million-dollar inheritance is an advantage but the ability to build on (and not lose) an inheritance is a strength.

Learn how to build persistence, click here.

Don’t fix if it isn’t broken

Most entrepreneurs when they start, their only focus is on sales, sales, and sales, which is the right thing to do in order to make your business sustainable and scalable.

But the moment, they achieve slight success, they start working on their loopholes and fixing their weaknesses and this is when they start losing the ground of their entrepreneurial venture. Always remember this management mantra.

Processes that have been working for your venture only need to be strengthened so that you grow and scale your business.

But focusing on improving weaknesses will hamper all your efforts.

Learn How Rent The Runway created its empire, click here.

To end this article, I would sum up by saying “Manage your weaknesses and Grow with your strengths”.

Watch this video which resonates with my article completely.

Reference: My learnings are from the book “Soar with your strengths” by Donald Clifton and Paula nelson.

About the author:

Ritesh Mohan is a passionate retail professional with over 20 years in the Retail sector, handling some of the biggest brands in beauty, fashion and fragrances retail & FMCG sector. Ritesh has been instrumental in the growth of some of the regional brands as well in the Middle East region. He specializes in Retail management, Product development, and Brand Management, Retail Operations, Sales Management, and Franchising & Business Management. He strongly believes in empowering business owners with his wisdom & experience of around two decades in the industry.

July 13 2019

Leadership Lessons from the film “Super 30”

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The film “Super 30” is not only a film but a mission of uplifting students from the lowest economic strata.

Uplifting them by fulfilling their dreams for a better life, better education.

To execute this mission requires Leadership. Leadership is a skill that sets the winner apart from the rest.

“What is the difference between a leader and a manager”?

I was recently asked this question and I replied by narrating an example; have you ever taken a taxi ride? You as the guest gives direction to the driver on your destination and how fast you need to reach.

Here Driver is playing the role of a manager.

Based on experience, he works out the shortest route, time, alternate routes in case of traffic, basically, he is using his skills and resources to ensure that you reach your destination on time or even before time.

You are playing the role of a leader in this example since you have figured out the destination/ goal (which is part of your vision) and are clear that you need to be at your destination at a particular time.

And the tasks that you need to do by reaching your destination.

If the situation demands, you do inspire your driver to push the limits by taking alternative routes and trying out different ways to reach your destination. You incentivize the driver once the journey is over and he accomplishes his goal.

The main role of a leader

Provide a vision, goal and inspire his men to believe that the goal is achievable and show them the way by providing team desired resources and making his team realize the importance of goal achievement by aligning them towards a common goal.

Recently, I watched the movie “Super 30” which inspired me to write down my learnings from this movie.

This movie pushed me to think like the main protagonist, Sir Anand Kumar (played by Hrithik Roshan) and I went home with a question in my mind, “What inspires a common man to do great things for his nation?”

My key learnings from the movie “Super 30”.

Persistence

Persistence is the ability to stick with something, your purpose for a long time. It’s the quality of being determined to do or achieve some purpose.

Anand Kumar faced all challenges in pursuing his mission of educating students from the lowest strata of society and his vision of seeing all his students clearing IIT-JEE exams.

IIT- JEE is one of the most stringent competitive exams in the world with a passing percentage of less than 1%.

learn more about Persistence, click here

Listening to Inner voice

Sometimes, without our knowledge, we tend to ignore our inner voice which keeps pushing us in a direction that was destined for us. Management gurus call it “Finding your purpose”.

Once you have identified what you are good at, just focus on that strength and make it invincible.

Believe in Yourself- Super 30

“When the times are tough, it is the tough who gets going”.

Remembers challenges and difficulties are Almighty’s ways of polishing you into the finest diamond. If you believe in something, then pursue it with all your passion and energy to ensure that you succeed.

learn about 7 leadership skills, click here.

Mathematics pushes you to think beyond.

As a teaching pedagogy, Anand Kumar inspires his students to think beyond numbers, relate this craft with sports wherein you master the craft by regular practice and hard work.

In Boxing sport, a good boxer does not learn or practice 100 kinds of punches but he focuses on 1 kind of punch by practicing it 100,000 times. So when the time comes, this one punch will become invincible and would win the game for him.

Never let the success enter your head

“Super 30” is now a mission and a brand recognized by Time magazine, universities like Harvard and MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology)

Till today, “Super 30” classes are being run from the same compound & shelter from where it all started. Apparently, until today, the students are from the lowest strata of economic classifications & free education is being imparted.

Watch the real hero here

Conclusion

The man behind Super 30 is an inspiration for all who believe that talent has no address but it takes the right attitude to find and achieve it.

I dedicate my article to all my teachers, entire teaching fraternity, as the saying goes “Teachers are truly the Nation’s builders”.

Read management lessons from the film Parmanu, read here.

Watch the video synopsis.

About the author:

Ritesh Mohan is a passionate retail professional with over 20 years in the Retail sector, handling some of the biggest brands in beauty, fashion and fragrances retail & FMCG sector. Ritesh has been instrumental in the growth of some of the regional brands as well in the Middle East region. He specializes in Retail management, Product development, and Brand Management, Retail Operations, Sales Management, and Franchising & Business Management. Ritesh strongly believes in empowering business owners with his wisdom & experience of around two decades in the industry.