The Next Big Thing:Hospitality & Organized Retailing

2268869422_9b4161fdbcEvery industry has its peak period! We all heard of the IT Boom, The Real Estate Boom and now it’s time for Retail & Hospitality sectors! I need not boast too much about it since everyone heard about the Big Fat Budget that has been set aside to make things real. If you haven’t I would like to have a dig at some facts here.

Let me start with the ‘Big Fish’,the mighty ‘W’: Wal-Mart will be setting malls in India in association with Sunil Mittal’s Bharti Group. Other international big players like Carrefour, Tesco and Auchan have also shown interest in this industry. Indian retail industry is expected to grow at a compounded growth rate of 11% and will be a $450 billion industry by 2010. DLF will be spending Rs. 1600 crore on developing malls over the next four years.

Reliance Retail is planning to splurge Rs 2500 crore for opening different formats  and the Kishore Biyani-bharti-walmartowned Future Group, India’s largest retailer group, will be investing Rs 3600 crore in 100 stores in 30 cities, increasing its retail space from 3.5 million square feet to 30 million sq feet by 2010. Future Group also plans to have 100 Big Bazaars up and running even before Wal-mart arrives in India. Nice welcome that will be for the American giant

Now all those money, ever thought about the potential of this sector ?In a sharp contrast to the retail sector in developed economies, retailing in India – though large in terms of size – is highly fragmented and unorganized. With close to 12 million retail outlets the country has one of the highest retail densities worldwide. For this very reason the potential is too huge.

And how this happened all of a sudden would be the next question that might pop up in our mind! Well Indian middle class now is too ‘demanding’-That’s where it all happened. We all wish to have more choices, best quality and importantly more than just ‘buying’, we want the shopping experience to be entertaining!

Given the size and the purchasing power of the Indian consumer, the road ahead can only get smoother and it is only a matter of time before the domestic retail industry is on par with its western counterparts.

Recession or steep market conditions the Retail & Hospitality sectors by far deals with the basic necessities and hence seldom get affected by such factors. But anyway the good news is that: “Picture abi shuru hi ho raha hai” or simply its all just beginning !

Originally posted 2009-12-07 20:50:44. Republished by Blog Post Promoter

Gokulam Park Inn:Hospitality Refined…

logoMy work involves meeting a lot of people and sharing my concept of how hospitality and retail business is evolving itself as we move forward. I have a very steadily rising client list and that means a lot of stories to share;good and bad.I would like to just share experiences about one my best client relationship i share,the team at Gokulam Park Inn,kaloor.

Being a Sarovar Portico has its tag may be,but what i truly adore is how the staff,each on of them has hotelunderstood the word meaning of Hospitality to its very core. From the GM to staff at the lowest level the way they treat you is really something we don’t find everywhere.Noe you might be thinking that all-star rated hotels have good guest relationships.yes,i agree but then being in hospitality business is not just about how you treat your guest alone,its more than that. Very a less people understand that;its like what our great Mahatma Gandhi had quoted that the real character of a person can be judged only by the way they behave to their subordinates or people below them in terms of class. Now i am not sure if that’s the exact quote but then we are all humans and we all value respect from people wherever we go.

May be you’re the guest,may be you are not,may be you came to do business,may be you came for an inquiry at the end of the day,hospitality is a business where you are supposed to treat everyone equals. From my very experience i have seen how people treat when it comes to a stand where we are not their guest. And believe me i have seen the worst scenarios too.

The bottom line is,in real terms Gokulam Park Inn and its team truly stands apart when it comes to beingcordial, professional in all regards.In my experience so far with lot of hospitality clients i have i would rate this as the best so far ! A big Kudos to the GM & the entire team !And of course Sarovar hotels & resorts.

Originally posted 2009-12-25 19:26:26. Republished by Blog Post Promoter

Calicut Talkies Vol#1

Calicut is always been the place with best Retail Market in #kerala. I had the Privilege of being there for work related to @smiley_card. We had a very exciting start of both sales & marketing activities.The city is very calm & subtle,it has everything of a city life minus the hash-bash in a normal city.It has more malls than any other city in #kerala and a very strong commercial arena supporting the city

The malls are filled,something usual I guess;they say this part of the state is like being in Dubai/Gulf and to a certain extent i would agree.Though its a city in all its charm,people in general appear to be simple or less noisy.The place is famous for its biriyani,sweets and with ‘Ramzan’ time closing by,the city is just in the mood.Certain thing I found interesting was ‘WI-FI’ Bus bays & ‘WI-FI’ family restaurants in the cit,its like the TREND is IN. But what i found strange is the fact that there are very less number of 3-star or above rated hotels in calicut. There hardly 8 or 10 hotels,most not up to one of a CITY norms,most lack an understanding that they are in the Hospitality Industry. This I am saying cos of most of my clients are from this industry. I stayed at Hyson Heritage,one of the best the city offers. I saw their reception decorated with the award declarations they have received. And I decided to meet the General Manager,whom i finally met and spoke business. And next day onwards this guy is not picking my phone calls,I mean which part of Hospitality is that ? The minimum courtesy lies in speaking professionally,at my start-up Smiley Privileges we list the best of a city’s hotels and we mostly don’t charge anything for our services. And I have met the big guns in the business and they deal so nice that you kind of have a respect for the person and the brand they handle. The problem here was that having very little hotels,these guys are like their way to it.Anyway except for this experience,people I met there very cordial & professional in approach.

Originally posted 2010-09-02 23:46:26. Republished by Blog Post Promoter

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