GDGU ICON 2014

Changing Face of Modern Retail: New Economic Order

April 25-26, 2014 (2 Day International Conference)

Retail Industry is one of the most prominent meas of product dissemination to the end users. This
industry is constantly evolving, with the retail chains working with all might to keep up with the
rate of evolution. The main aim to of the retail chains presently is to evolve with the industry and
sustain themselves.
With the international Conference on Management, 2014 (ICON-2014), held on 25th-26th April,
2014, School of Management GD Goenka University Aimed to provide a Platform for
Distillation of various thought Processes by bringing together business leaders, professionals,
academicians, scholars and policy makers to put forth their views on future prospects of the
industry and strategies which retailers can adopt for better sustenance, growth and most
importantly to connect with the customers in a better way.
The conference had an overwhelming response and many fruitful discussions were undertaken, a
note of all the proceedings is as follows:

DAY I
Mr Andrine Mendez(Chief Strategy Officer, The Links India ), in his keynote speech gave an
insight upon the business methodologies adopted by the present retailers in which apart from the
upstream activities a major role is played by downstream activities in which the consumer plays
the major role. Highlighting upon the major modern trends in retail industry like Technology,
Rise of in house brands/ Products, Rise of the Yummy (young men of the present age who have
time and resources with them to spend), Flow of Venture funds, Alternate payment channels and
to move from Beyond customer royalty to personalized customer experience.
During the inaugural session the official release of the book of proceedings was also done
Mr. Venkat Ram (MD, BSI), chairperson of the Plenary session I highlighting upon the
fundamental issues of retail noted that the success in retail industry depends upon efficiency of
retail outlets in terms of scale and speed and the retail industry should focus upon the long term
customer retention and ethical supply chain policies. Prof. Badal Mukherji (Prof. Emeritus,
JNU), recalled himself trying to find out, what was happening at the newly setting up malls and
all observing the extraordinary bankruptcy going on with the only profit being that by real estate.
Prof. Rajnandan Patnaik (Professor Strategy, IMT Nagpur), explained the present picture of
Indian retail and also explained the importance of government policies on the retail business

These sessions were followed by the Concurrent Sessions
The first session was Themed E-Tailing, Technological advancements and changing face of the
Modern Retail where many new technological advancements and their impact or expected
impact on retail was discussed. Also what was discussed was the consumer behavior associated
with the advancements and what should retailers have in mind before venturing into e commerce.
The second session was themed New Economic Order and strategic shifts in modern retail. here,
the impact of the new liberal economic policies on the retail was discussed. Following this the
new era of consumer awareness and how it has changed retail was brought to light. The
importance of infrastructure was discussed and means for proper setup of the same were given.
With this we came upon what influences organized retail and the difficulties faced by a firm in
this sector. This led to a comparison of the Indian and Malaysian retail sector.

The next session was themed, Market dynamics and changing consumer behavior in modern
retail. Here, discussion focused on the importance of customer satisfaction and how does that
itself lead to marketing. This improvement in customer experience was explained by all the
presenters differently such as having cult follower groups or simply by having a store managed
by good representatives. An honest product also markets itself. The discussion moved on to
parameters judging customer experience in on-line retail and the importance of social media in
the marketing sphere.


DAY II
Mr. Anand Bahl (Ministry of Economic Affairs), gave a keynote speech on Role of Public
Policy in augmenting retail. The very pertinent point made here by sir was that these view
points by layman or most of the present debates in the country on FDI in retail are not based on
evidence and analysis. This image about the negative effects of FDI in retail has mainly been
created by the lobby of the middleman. The global evidence suggests that the prices drop. He
also discussed the growing important and influence of lobby groups like CII, FICCE and
ASOCHAM and think tanks like NCAER while formulating the new policy. .

Mr. Pankaj Rai (CEO and RD at Quality Austria Central Asia Pvt. Ltd.), started the second
plenary session with the data of India. He highlighted that India is contributing 40% GDP on
retail whereas only 8% is being used in organized retail so the major focus which lies in front of
India is to invest judiciously in organized retail. Highlighting upon the key challenges in the
area of retail he gave certain strategies that retail firms can follow. Mr. Deepak Khanna further
discussed the Median house hold income to get a clear picture of income earned by a family.
Further he analyzed median Income. Towards the end, he introduced the customer life cycle
concept and how reverse logistics comes into play.
Following this there were track sessions where we discussed how the mindset of the customer
affects retail, how will downward vertical extension affect a luxury brand and Mystery shopping
as a concept. Following this we had a talk on the irctchospitality and e ticketing system and
realized how much of a success affective utilization of government infrastructure can be.

The Valedictory session was chaired by Mr. Vidhur Vyas (EVP, PepsiCo), who discussed about
the strategy of Winning in Retail and Emerging Trends in Retail Industry He focused upon the
major three consumer needs- Shop whenever they want to, Shop at Convenience and Price and
suggested three pillars which can be of prime importance in the success of retail sector- Cultural
connection, Business Model (cash flow effect) and the Two India Effect (global and the bottom
of pyramid India).
With reference to the emerging retail trends in India, he emphasized that the e-retailing has
changed things tremendously in India and e-shopping further has a chance of being competitive
with the conventional modes of retail.
The huge response and the insight all the members in attendance have on the modern Retail is
evidence of the tremendous success of the conference. The success of the conference is all due to
the hard work of the patrons of ICON-2014, Mr. Nipun Goenka (MD, GD Goenka Group), Prof.
(Dr.) Raj Singh (VC, GDGU), Prof. (Dr.) P K Goel (Dean, SOM, GDGU), the Conference
Convenor, Prof. (Dr.) Samar Sarabhai, the Conference Coordinators, Mr Rajneesh Kler, Ms
Nidhi Banerjee and all the Teachers and students involved.