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Booming economy, favorable demographic patterns, increasing per capita income and urbanization gave rise to a new sector in India: Organized Retail. Opening up of retail sector for FDI can be considered as the prime reason behind the blooming organized retail sector. Sensing this opportunity several companies ventured into this sector, including Reliance, Bharti and Pantaloons.

Despite the Government allowing only 51% of FDI in single format retail segment, global retail giants like Tesco, Wal-Mart and Metro AG are making inroads indirectly through franchise agreements and cash and carry wholesale trading, thus giving some serious competition to domestic retailers. Nevertheless, growth opportunity in this sector can be judged by the fact that only 3% of the total retail sector is organized and 97% of the sector still consists of local mom and pop stores.

Unfortunately, the growth strategy used by all organized retail players of increasing their number of stores backfired when rentals dramatically shot up following the global economic melt down. Profitability is seriously hampered and almost all major retailers are now struggling to maintain their bottom line. Average operating profit margin declined from 9.5% in 2007 to 7.9% in 2008. The worst part is that such a drastic growth in the number of stores was backed by significant leverage which is expected to further hurt these organized retailers' liquidity and profitability levels.

Retailers are correcting their over enthusiastic strategies of the past and focusing on improving their business model. This section will review some of the challenges these organized retailers are facing on both macro as well as local levels.

Aggressive Expansion

Over the last few years Indian retailers most preferred mode of expansion was to increase their number of outlets across metros. Outlets were built wherever real estate was available and not where they were actually required, which led to 'Clustering'. Following credit crunch in 2008, several outlets were cast strapped and had to be closed down simply because they were operating in unfeasible locations.

Poor Supply Chain Management

One of the major challenges for retailers is to reduce shrinkage which includes short-weighing, pilferage and poor product handling. While the average shrinking percentage of inventory in developed countries is 1% to 2% of Cost of Goods Sold, it is estimated to be much higher for Indian retailers, primarily due to the lack of focus on supply chain management. The existing supply chain is not devoid of inherent weakness of India's infrastructure, besides being corrupted along the entire chain. Tracing shrinkage is a Hercules task as almost all the transactions still continue to be based on paper system. This gives rise to the need of third party logistics organizations that can provide services at competitive prices. Third party logistics is a concept still absent from the Indian retailers' value chain.

A large part of shrinkage takes place within the retailer by its employees. Moreover, tracking an employee's track record and background checks is difficult. Retailers are now joining hands to fight this battle by creating a database of employees and share it amongst themselves to avoid shrinkage from within.

Employee training and retention

The most common strategy applied by retailers to keep labor cost at minimum was to employ fresh graduates with no experience in retail sector. They have now realized that in difficult market situations, experienced and talented employees that have sound understanding of ground realities could give retailers a competitive advantage. Despite a downturn, need for skilled manpower still continues to be a major concern across the sector.

Managing working capital

One of the most important factors affecting a retailer's profitability is the way it handles its working capital. Lower footfalls, resulting into lower sales has directly impacted Indian retailers' working capital position. Discounting is now the most common technique used to turn slow moving inventory.

Besides lower footfalls another factor which is hurting retailers' liquidity position is the significant amount of leverage they are carrying which was used earlier for aggressive expansion. Banks are now reluctant to finance retailers given the falling demand and plummeting profitability. Retailers are therefore finding it difficult to finance their working capital requirements.

Diversifying into untapped rural areas

Experts believe that the next phase of growth for organized retail sector will come from rural areas that account for half of the $300 billion domestic retail market. Retailers will have to focus on the previously untapped lower income strata by providing them access to credit facilities. On the back of souring commodity prices and improving productivity, rural economy is set to boom in the next decade.

Backward Integration

One way to improve efficiency and profitability is to remove unwanted intermediaries which eat into the already stressed margins. To improve rural economy, Indian Government approved Contract farming and Leasing. According to KPMG, this will bring about technology transfer, increase capital inflow and assure market for crop production, besides eliminating intermediaries. Pepsico and ITC's E-chaupal are already benefiting from contract farming in Northern India.

Despite the above mentioned challenges, long term prospects of organized retailers are still very attractive. Important consolidations and partnerships can be expected soon for improving operating and cost efficiency. Focusing on supply chain management and partnering seem to be the need for an hour for organized retailers so as to leverage their expertise and financial muscle.

For more information please refer to http://understandingbasicsoffinance.blogspot.com/

Geetika

How to Develop a Consulting Project Scope

Outsourcing continues to gain popularity as a cost effective solution to enable companies to compete in today’s global economic climate. More and more companies are including specific plans to outsource key business projects as part of their management strategies.

Top consulting firms realize that they have to be equally competitive to meet the exacting demands being placed on consultants to deliver solutions to increase productivity and profitability.

The better consulting companies are able to meet this demand by working with you to ensure the scope of the project is clearly defined. Moreover, they will match the project requirements to qualified consultants who have the right skills and talents to deliver a cost effective solution on time and within budget.

Most business owners understand the benefits that consultants provide but some may find it difficult indentifying where the investment should be made and on which projects the consultant should focus. Scoping the project, therefore, can also prove to be problematic.

The confusion can be minimized by following a few logical steps in the strategic planning process…

The strategic plan tells you

• The direction the company is taking now and in the future.
• The action plans needed to get there.
• The measures to know whether you are on track or not.

Armed with this information identify and define the core competences within your company. You will now be able to develop strategic initiatives to

- Maximize the strengths you have currently.
- Minimize the weaknesses within your company.
- Take advantage of the opportunities to develop your company.
- Deal with the threats you are faced with currently.

Consider using a reputable consulting company to assist you in developing these initiatives. You will find that this is a cost effective way of developing your action plan and identifying the resources and talents you need.

Prioritize the initiatives once they have been defined. You may have time or budget constraints so it is important to recognize which initiative should be scoped first to give you the best return on your investment.

Use the consulting company to scope the project. They have the knowledge and the expertise to make sure all aspects are covered in detail, allowing you to focus on leading and directing your company.

To develop a consultant project scope with some degree of success you will need to

1. Provide a comprehensive requirements document based on your prioritization.
2. Quantify the project’s deliverables.
3. Define the key performance indicators.
4. Define the outcome you expect once the project is completed.
5. Align the deliverables to the expected outcome.
6. Quantify the less than obvious activities and deliverables such as training and development, business process changes, new documentation, customer liaison, consultation with known experts, testing, and so on.

Scope management is one of the most difficult parts of managing a project. Companies have every right to know what they are committed to, but they also have a responsibility to make every effort to provide all the information required to ensure the project scope will meet the strategic direction of the company.

Use a top performing consulting company to assist you with this critical part of the project’s development and you will ensure all aspects of the project’s scope are defined as well as minimizing the risk of project delays, budget overspend or changing deadlines.

About the Author

At ConsultantFORCE.com, companies and organizations can connect with qualified, dedicated consultants from every field and find the right consulting firm through ConsultantFORCE’s unique matching process. Personal account managers work with clients to clarify consulting project requirements and ensure that only consulting firms and/or individuals with the experience and relevant levels of expertise will be considered, providing the best possible options for success.

Please visit ConsultantFORCE.com or call 720-230-9400 for more information.

Can a professional photographer be also a good sniper in the battle field?

I wanted to know your opinion about these question, considering the photographer's life behind the viewfinder and his capabilities with the scope of a rifle. Will the photographer still need training or can he use his skills in photography in focusing on subjects.

Oddly enough you may be right. I have been a professional photographer for many years and tried out clay pigeon shooting for the first time last week. I know that is very different from being a sniper, but I hit the first clay and had a 50% success rate overall which the Instructor said was quite impressive for someone who didn't know one end of a gun from the other!

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