Book Review: It Happened In India - The story of Pantaloons, Big Bazaar, Central and the great Indian consumer

Think of Indian malls and the first mental image to come to mind is frenzy. Of frenzied buying and frenetic consumption by hordes of masses that just don’t seem to be satiated. Think a little more and you’ll see images of things flying from the shelves; you’ll even start to hear the mad whirr of credit card machines working overtime. Yet, funnily enough, it wasn’t quite so crazy even in the late nineties. What has changed is India. The booming economy has ushered in an era of confidence and of course unprecedented consumption.

On first glance, “It Happened in India”, by Kishore Biyani, Managing Director, Future Group, seems to be nothing but an amalgamation of milestones of this self confessed “maverick” entrepreneur – On how he rose from selling stone washed fabrics to being the czar of Indian retail. But this book is not about rags-to-riches, it is about vision. This book is about a man who had the gall to envision a confident India and his foresight in ensuring that when this India consumed, it consumed from him.

The book fittingly begins with Biyani’s recollection of the first ever Sabse Sasta Din or Maha Savings Day at Big Bazaar on 26th January 2006. The deals were apparently so good that not only did it attract the masses in droves, but also riot police had to be called in various cities to control the chaos. What is revealing about this chapter is Biyani’s assessment of this response:

“But more than the quantum of sales, what seemed significant to me was that this incident marked the arrival of a new set of customers into the modern retail stores in India”.

Biyani, goes on to categorize the Indian consuming into India one and India two segments. India one constituted the upper and lower middle class, while India two constituted the serving class – the drivers, household helps etc, a class that was vary of modern retail stores and perceived them as “expensive and exclusive”. In Biyani’s own words,

“What was exceptional about 26th January 2006 at Big Bazaar was that for the first time it had attracted India Two and that too in very large numbers.”

There in lies the vision - The vision of not being exclusivist but catering instead to the masses with dirt cheap prices as a result of which their inhibitions are overcome.

A major aspect of the book is that the narrative is not solely of Biyani’s. The narrative is peppered by anecdotal incidents of people who have been closely associated with Biyani in his journey to the top. These include former colleagues, family members, friends and academicians. Although the constant shift in the narrative takes some getting used to, these anecdotes provide a wholesome picture of the man that is Biyani.

The book traces Biyani’s early years as a rebellious youngster growing up in Mumbai’s Malabar Hills. Biyani’s rebellion manifests itself in not only opposing the family’s social customs but in also the way it did business. Frustrated by the inward thinking of his family’s business and its penchant for maintaining the status quo, Biyani sets off on his own entrepreneurial journey by selling stone washed fabrics. After attaining moderate success selling fabric, Biyani decided to go one step ahead and set up a shop that sold ready made trousers called patloon, the Urdu word for trousers. This became the precursor to what would lead to Pantaloon Shoppes and ultimately to Pantaloon Retail

Apart from Biyani’s own meteoric journey, the book is also an interesting factoid of Indian retail in its early years. Apparently Mumbai’s first shopping mall only allowed visitors who had a credit card or a mobile phone! Another interesting fact was that the inspiration for Big Bazaar was not a foreign mall but instead was a 25 year old family owned retail chain called Sarvana, located in Chennai. Biyani’s team would meticulously study the Sarvana store for days and months before arriving at the format for Big Bazaar. Rajan Malhotra, Head Big Bazaar, has this to say about that:

“People may say that we are inspired by the Wal-Marts of the world, but it was at Sarvana that Big Bazaar was born. Everyone who joined the company during those days had to visit Chennai, seek homage at Sarvana and then start working”

What comes out through this book, from every page literally, is Biyani’s obsession with the Indian consumer. Biyani admits to manically studying consumers wherever he goes. Having conquered the Indian retail market, his sights are on to bigger things – That of conquering the entire consumption space. From selling insurance to dabbling in financial services, health & fitness and even stationery – Biyani seems to be after everything that the consumer spends her money on. Infact Biyani has even produced two Bollywood movies in order to extend the Pantaloon brand.

Although the triumphs and successes are well articulated, sadly the failures are not. This is a serious drawback and makes the book seem (sometimes) like one big ode to Biyani’s vision and charisma. But that’s minor nitpicking. This book should be read by all would be entrepreneurs and all those interested in the Indian Retail phenomenon. True to Biyani’s bias towards thrift, this book is economically priced at Rs. 99, making this a really good deal. Value for money indeed!