The Reliance Retail Revolution against WALMART ?

It is understood that Reliance is planning to spend upto Rs 100 Crores
(Approximate 25 Million USD $) just on their top management salaries during the first year of their new Retail venture.

How would the late Mr. Dhirubhai Ambani the original Reliance patriach founder have reacted to this golden opportunity to recreate a large retail industry from scratch ?

Perhaps, he would have approached the millions of India's unorganized retail
traders, offered them equity shares in the new retail business, given them
training in modern retail technologies and made them Reliance's working
business partners on a commission basis in it's retail locations all over
India.

India's unorganized retail entrepreneurs may be uneducated.

But they are not street-stupid, but street-smart.

Who know and sense every pulse and breath of the Indian consumer.

Just as the capital markets small investors revolution was triggered by
Reliance a few decades ago, a golden opportunity to trigger the movement from India's large parts of 'unorganized' retail trade (over 98 % plus) to the
organized one (2 %) lies ahead of it.

If it can seize the opportunity.

That also would perhaps be a street smart uniquely 'Indian' Reliance
revolutionary strategy to beat the foreign majors (like WALMART) who would soon be knocking on India's retail doorsteps in the near future.

Be local, to beat global.

Also, see a Periodic (Random) Snapshot of India's Organized Retail Sector.

Can anyone explain what is happening in the Topsy-Turvy World of Business ?

Even the US has Valleys says the Singapore Education Minister.

Fareed Zakaria, Newsweek Editor quotes in an article dated 9th January 2006 the Singapore Minister of Education Tharman Shanmugaratnam as saying that the world is full of peaks and valleys.

"From where I sit, it's not a flat world," Shanmugaratnam concluded. "It's one of peaks and valleys. The good news for America is that the peaks are getting higher. But the valleys are getting deeper, and many of them are also in the United States."

Remember we had said it here first last year in May 2005 !

So Bihar is not the only place with valleys as I wrote two days ago !

Ringing In New Year 2006 with Thomas Friedman and....Bihar

I went to a friend's place for New Year's Eve where a copy of Thomas Friedman's book on globalization - "The World is Flat" made me reflect on my earlier blog on the same.

Unfortunately, one of the valleys of India is a state called Bihar.

I had started a weblog on Outsourcing - The Viewpoint from India two years ago with an article as to how Bihar (one of India's poorest states) could threaten Mumbai in the Outsourcing game in the future.

Indeed, not only the world was flat. (to use Friedman's words). Within India too, the same flattening phenomenon was happening.

The recent elections in Bihar promised a change for the people there with a new progressive government in place.

This Bihar-flattening-Mumbai phenomenon will increase more, if Bihar can move out of it's depressive pit-of-the-bottom-valley governance and perhaps aspire for being a mountain of good governance in the future.

Alas !

The starting and startling TV news headlines at midnight 2006 in India were about a carnage in rural Bihar where a family of six (including 4 children) were burnt alive.

So, inspite of India having hogged the center of attention in the global economy during 2005, a stark reminder from backward Bihar at the start of New Year 2006.

A lot of work remains undone in helping build brand Bihar.