Reliance Lifestyle's CEO, Bijou Kurien has spent a complete day with 2 students of XLRI GMP and discussed the strategies, his success mantra, and the future of organized retail in India. This is a part of the concept “XLers Date With Excellence” launched by the XLRI GMP students of the 2010-11 batch.
XLRI GMP Students Ankush and Lisa spent a day with Mr Kurien.
It is a great opportunity for the students to learn the business nuances from the CEO of Reliance Lifestyle, a man with 30 years of experience in the retail sector.
Following were some of the highlights of this event:
Mr Kurien shared his insights on the retail industry in India - the organized and unorganized sector, Reliance Retail's growth strategy and the future of Retail in India.
A perfect platform which showcased the blend of academia and corporate - MBA education and its application in the real world.
The students got an opportunity to closely observe the working style of the CEO and his day-to-day work.
Mr Kurien shared his secret of success and given suggestion to the next generation of future leaders.
Here's the complete article
XLRI GMP Students Ankush and Lisa spent a day with Mr Kurien.
It is a great opportunity for the students to learn the business nuances from the CEO of Reliance Lifestyle, a man with 30 years of experience in the retail sector.
Following were some of the highlights of this event:
Mr Kurien shared his insights on the retail industry in India - the organized and unorganized sector, Reliance Retail's growth strategy and the future of Retail in India.
A perfect platform which showcased the blend of academia and corporate - MBA education and its application in the real world.
The students got an opportunity to closely observe the working style of the CEO and his day-to-day work.
Mr Kurien shared his secret of success and given suggestion to the next generation of future leaders.
Here's the complete article
Organized Retailing – the buzz word today! And with so many players, big and small, everyone seems to have a pie in this huge cake – that’s what the CEO of Reliance Lifestyle, Bijou Kurien, says. Ask him about the future of retailing in India and he very optimistically mentions – India will always have fair share of both, the organized and unorganized retailing and the brick and mortar stores are not going to die for a long time in the future.
While these thoughts were crossing our mind, we were also curious to see what do CEO’s generally do in their day-to-day work? We all get inquisitive and as MBAs fresh from college, the excitement is even more to see how CEOs work. And this was our day to actually go and see, learn from the CEO himself. As we entered the cabin of Mr. Bijou Kurien, we received a warm welcome from the CEO which was then shortly followed by the rendezvous.
Being an XL alumnus, he was very enthusiastic while speaking about the old timers of XLRI – the professors, the alums who are holding top positions in other companies and the administration office staff. The nostalgia drove in as he mentioned that that he was a part of the XL-IIMC Sports meet during his time – one of the most happening events at XLRI.
We were indeed very fortunate to spend an entire day with the CEO of Reliance Lifestyle. The day went very smoothly starting from talking to Bijou on various topics like retail and its future in India, Reliance retail’s growth strategy, its philosophy behind the expansion, the jewelry business, sports specially Badminton, to relishing the delicious lunch at “The Great Kebab Factory”. As we climbed the steps for lunch at the Mantri mall at Malleshwaram in Bangalore along with Bijou and his other colleagues, they showed us the 7 stores of Reliance Retail – aptly reflecting the heavy expansion strategy of Reliance in the last couple of years!
MBA education actually made a lot of sense for us when we sat for the meeting with the “Property Approval Group” of Reliance Lifestyle along with the CEO. As we gathered, the meeting was held to decide on renting the best location for opening Reliance stores. Retail location analysis and detailed study was done to find out the best place for the Reliance stores to be located. Theories and concepts of Retail and Category management made a lot more meaning as we saw its use in the Reliance Lifestyle business. Education makes more sense when we see its application in real life and nothing better than the day with the CEO of Reliance Lifestyle business could have given us. We could experience the perfect blend of academia and corporate as time passed.
The second half of the day after lunch was spent mostly accompanying Bijou in his meetings on the jewelry business. We could sense Bijou’s knowledge of the industry and his style of working as the day progressed. His knowledge about the retail sector and his insights during the meetings were very impressive.
What makes a great leader? As the day was drawn to close we got the answer to our question. It is the simplicity and the honesty towards your work that differentiates successful leaders from others. Here, on this day, we had met a man with 30 years of experience in the industry still very much enthusiastic about work, fresh with a huge pool of knowledge in him and an asset that is priceless and hard to find these days – simplicity!!. Once again, old truth started flashing in our minds as we were about to leave Bijou’s office – the most valued possession lies in the sincerity with which one works and holds on to his/her fundamentals - rest everything falls in line.
Lisa Mohapatra & Ankush Gupta
Students of GMP 2010-2011XLRI, Jamshedpur
