Rethink Retail with Jamshed K Daboo, Ex-MD/CEO of Star Bazaar and a long time leader at Tata Group

We at Perpule recently started “Rethink Retail” a series of fireside chats with experts of the retail where we are talking to the industry leaders about COVID, it’s impact, and about everything else you need to know about the Industry.

On our second episode of Rethink Retail, we have with us Mr. Jamshed K Daboo. Jamshed K Daboo is an Independent Advisor — Consumer, Retail, Hospitality, and a Director on the Board of Trent Hypermarket Pvt. Ltd. Till recently he was the Managing Director of Trent Hypermarket Pvt. Ltd — A Tata and Tesco enterprise ( Star Bazaar). Mr. Daboo has close to 34 years of experience in the Tata Group having spent a decade each with Titan and the Taj Group. His passion for excellence and understanding the Indian audience is helping Food Retail to cope with the pandemic.

Let’s dive into what was Jamshed K Daboo had to say about how COVID and experiences so far.

Abhinav: How has COVID 19 pandemic been for you, since you stepped down from your position at Star Bazaar during the peak of this pandemic

Jamshed: Honestly I didn’t plan my stepping down during the pandemic. This was on my mind for almost a year. Now that I have gained experience across several fields, I am looking forward to leveraging that into other avenues. Right now I am looking forward to working with small businesses, startups and family businesses or offices and helping them scale up with the help of my diversified experience.

Abhinav: How or what will be the ‘New Normal’ for businesses going forward, especially food retailers which also includes Star Quick?

Jamshed: Certainly there will be a new way of shopping for people and that new way will be driven by various plays that have happened during these COVID times.

First, there is the shift towards e-commerce. But what has happened during the past few months is that the trust of people in ordering food and groceries online has declined. Due to increased burden, businesses that don’t run hyperlocal services were not able to deliver items fresh or on time. Customers can wait a day more for their essential items, but they want to have them delivered fresh, just as the same quality they will get in a store. Those services which have delivered fresh items during this period have gained the trust and reliability of their customers and I think Starquick has done a great job in this regard.

Customers also want to have their shopping experience taken care of by the store itself. They want a combination of services, like ordering items online and then picking it up from the store or picking items from the store and then, having it delivered to their home. This is where I think Perpule comes in. Customers are going to look at OmniChoice. It means consumers are not worried about how businesses deliver the products last mile, they just want a variety of options at their threshold.

That’s how I think it will be in food retails, but may not be for other retail sectors.

Abhinav: How do you think the Indian ecommerce market will shape up, from 4–5 years from now.

Jamshed: The E-commerce industry will grow 3x from now in the coming years. But it also depends on how the players in the market make use of this opportunity. When projections are done for the future growth potential, it reflects the demand potential, but a lot of it also depends on how much the companies are willing to provide to their customers, mostly in the form of OmniChannel retail.

Abhinav: You have in top management positions across different sectors of business, so how do you pick off the new markets and industries so fast?

Jamshed: My whole outlook through this journey has been that, while business models might change, customers, people, processes and partnerships are intrinsic to each one of them. Then there is the technical aspect, which I think your team can handle that. When I shifted to the hospitality business, I didn’t need to learn hoteleering. I needed to learn how customers react to it. I like to spend time on the ground level and then I look forward to connecting the dots when working at a higher level. I have been in the B2C business, so this approach works there. In a B2C business, this might not be ideal.

Abhinav: Since you have worked with the TATA Group for a long time, and they have a reputation of having a great culture, the principles they have. So does this become a deterrent when you try to run a business independently?

Jamshed: When you step into the TATA Group, you know how this business will operate and on what principles. As a business, we tend to have a softer side, which I don’t think is a problem for us. It’s up to the leader on how he takes this challenge, in a positive or a negative way. We always believe in doing business the ethical way and it’s in our DNA. Just like a human being can not say there is a problem in my DNA, in a similar fashion we have this way of doing business in our DNA and we build our strengths on that.

Fortunately, I never found any kind of hierarchy in any of the companies I worked with, and when on a junior level, it helped me gain insights with the upper management, which I benefited from later in my career.

Abhinav: Many startups are shutting down due to the pandemic, so what would you like to suggest to them?

Jamshed: My advice would be that, if you have an idea and you are not able to get business out of it because of the current status of the economy and the market, then don’t just drop the idea. Fine-tune it during this period by cutting off the muscle and preserving the fat. These market conditions are not here to stay forever. Situations will change, you just have to be focused on your product or idea. Also, there’s a lot of opportunities thrown in the market due to the pandemic and it’s all up for grabs. You just need to cash in on that.

Abhinav: Why do you think Indian startups need to raise a lot of capital to start a business and do you think this will change?

Jamshed: In the short term, this way of raising capital is okay, but in the long, this might not work. For investors, the focus should be more on making more and more businesses successful rather than just getting the maximum share of profit from just 2–3 businesses out of 10.

Abhinav: What does the Aatmnirbhar Bharat mean to you?

Jamshed: Aatma Nirbhar Bharat meant that we should be more self-reliant, but some people think we should completely stop importing. It means we should call the shots when it comes to our economy, but it doesn't mean we should close down our borders. From the government’s side, we need more reforms to leverage this situation.

Abhinav: This whole campaign is mainly focused on SMEs and providing them the required boost. How do you see this growing in say 4–5 years?

Jamshed: Small just represents the size of the business. Small businesses should be run as professionally as large businesses. During my interaction with small businesses, they always say that they need to be supported because they are small in size, but I think if they are not very strong in doing business, then any kind of support will not help them grow. I think there will be a change in this philosophy and it will be a positive one.

Abhinav: Any major turning point in your life, where you did something and everything was back to normal?

Jamshed: The various turning points in my life were in my professional career when I decided to shift from one industry to another.

Abhinav: What is your overall style of leadership?

Jamshed: I believe in a hierarchy freestyle of leadership and I think managing the levels of hierarchy and satisfying egos in the corporate structure of the organization is not something we should focus on. Believing in young leaders is what I always do because sometimes the experience can pull you down and young leaders do not carry that burden of experience.

Stay tuned for our next episode. On our next episode of Rethink Retail, we will have with us Mr. Ramesh Menon, CBO of HT Media & Ex-CEO of Future Group, HyperCITY & Airtel. He has over 25 years of cross-cultural, general management, experience in multinationals across India, the Middle East, and Africa. He also boasts of extensive and diverse experience in the areas of FMCG, retail and manufacturing, and telecom. Menon was responsible for leading HyperCity’s growth strategy, the path to profitability, store operations, and more.

Register here - https://perpule.com/rethinkretail