Absorb soft skills and build scales

Mr Sumantra Banerjee, CEO & President, Retail & Power, CESC Ltd, shares his experiences in an interview with Retailer

Retailer: What is your professional background?

Sumantra Banerjee (SB): After getting B.Tech from IIT, Kharagpur, I went to the US and did my MS and, then, MBA. I worked in the US with Monsanto and, after 10 years, I returned to India. I have been handling Profit Centre responsibility in diverse industries for the last 19 years. I have worked for several industries - from IT (Zensar) to Entertainment (Saregama), and from Power (CESC) to Retail (Spencer’s, Music World).

Retailer: What inspired you to be in the retail industry?

SB: Retail in India is a sunrise industry, an un-chartered territory. It provides to professionals a highly stimulating environment to work in from strategic and operational perspectives.

Retailer:  What have you contributed to the industry?

SB: Contributions are usually made by teams and not by individuals. As a part of Spencer’s, I am proud to say that we have pioneered organised retail in India some 10 years ago. Spencer’s opened the first hypermarket in the country and pioneered organised retail of music products through a pan India network with its Music World brand. Started in the south, Spencer’s retail has now expanded itself to a 250 outlets strong pan India chain. RPG Cellucom, Books & Beyond and Music World are also expanding at a rapid pace.

Retailer: What, in particular, do you appreciate in the profession?   

SB: The reward of being in retail is that you work with people. The challenge is to create an organisation that is obsessively customer centric and ‘templatise’ the store so that, no matter which Spencer’s store a customer goes to anywhere in India, the experience is the same.

Retailer: How do you assess growth and success of the group?

SB: Worth approximately Rs 13,000 crore, RPG Group is one of the leading groups in India and operates in all the following verticals: power, tyre and raw materials, retail, technology and entertainment.

Retailer: As a CEO and President, RPG Retail, what is your role?

SB: I am presently the CEO of two sectors – retail and power.  Power sector covers generation, distribution and coal mining. Massive investment and growth is going on in this sector. Equally aggressive growth is going on in food intensive retailing through a cluster approach (Hypers, Supers, Dailies & Expresses) and also in specialty verticals (like books, music and cell phones). My role is to conceive a profitable business model, build a strong organisation and drive growth of the company. Launching new initiatives in retail is also a part of my responsibility.

Retailer: During the past few years, what are the changes you observed in Indian retail industry?

SB: Right now, there is a big rush as everyone is getting into retail and a shaking out is not ruled out. Retail involves considerable soft skills and those who absorb these and build scale will succeed. In recent times, the media has talked much about ‘organised vs unorganised’ retail and the need to find a way out for their peaceful coexistence.

Retailer: What is your advice to aspirants?

SB: People aspiring to get into retail must come with their eyes and ears open. Hard work, long hours and enormous amount of detail are among the main characteristics of retail job. If they are okay with these, jobs in retail can be very satisfying.

Retailer: Where would you like to see yourself five years hence?

SB: I am already at the helm of affairs today. My satisfaction will come if I see, after five years, RPG Retail not only doing well but also being the most preferred destination for customers.