Revitalizing Family Retail Business

Traditionally, our family thrived on a united approach, leveraging diverse skills within our extended family [refer to the full story for a deeper understanding of this dynamic]. As the next generation joined, the excitement of learning the ropes was undeniable [refer to the full story for this initial phase]. However, a focus on preserving what worked well sometimes overshadowed embracing fresh ideas.

Recognizing the shifting market, we needed a strategic shift [refer to the full story for details on this turning point]. Interestingly, dividing the family assets amongst my father and his brothers unlocked exponential growth compared to our previous combined efforts [refer to the full story for a more detailed analysis of this decision].

This sparked my personal 20-year transformation journey as a second-generation family member, which you can delve deeper into for a more comprehensive picture. In essence, I spearheaded retail transformation, built heritage brands, diversified into B2B production and exports, and expanded our tailoring units. This journey highlights the importance of embracing change and forging your own path within a family business [refer to the full story for specifics of your accomplishments].

My experience demonstrates that continuous learning is crucial. My education at Polimoda exemplifies this commitment to growth [refer to the full story for the impact of this specific learning experience]. This unwavering focus on transformation continues to fuel my endeavors.

The Full Story ...

Family business is the prevalent form of business structure in the Indian Subcontinent especially, where usually a small or large and extended family, can all be part of one business.

This was born out of the culture where extended families used to even live together (upto 40-50 in a large household was not out of the ordinary). The family business system worked very well since it allowed various strengths to come together which offset the challenges of some others in the family. Overall leading to successfully growing the business atleast from the ground up to a sustainable and thriving business enterprise.

The tradition usually follows where the next generation of young blood in the family are brought in to understand the ropes of the business. The atmosphere at these stages is usually one of excitement as the young family members get their first glimpse of the business world and it's workings through the team who has often been with the management for a long duration (perhaps, even a lifetime)

Apart from the excitement, there's also immediate real-world exposure of how so many members get together in the business, take up specific or managerial roles to ensure the business tradition passes on.

Sustenance and Status-quo is usually emphasized instead of new ventures as the previous generation management seem to show a gap of embracing the new and progressive - simply because whatever they did has been working for them for this long (or so it seems, until performance metrics and business volume direction is closely looked at apart from other parameters)

We found ourselves in a similar drift as a family business that ran successful retail stores across the city - but also started feeling the pinch of the market direction slightly, and this was already happening in the pre-covid world. The solution was simple - we needed to craft new business models while retaining the core of our Textile and Garment making strengths.

The journey however took it's own course, which led to the separation of business assets amongst family (A total of 4 brothers, family peers and their children were involved in the business at this point) - this seemed to be a masterstroke by the brothers, as since then, when each brother took up separate retail stores as their responsibility and grew from there, the collective growth was exponential compared to when the business was together

This led me to work on various transformations over a 20 year cycle which took me from Retail Transformation, Branding transformation from local shop to heritage textile and fashion stores, creating new verticals of business from B2B Fashion Textile production, distribution and exports to top retailers in India, and fashion markets in the UAE, UK and Europe particularly, going on to expanding the tailoring factories and craft production that we were well known for, launching multiple brands that catered to varied market demograhics india and internationally and the journey continues with other businesses that i engage with in the same way

I view this as 'natural progression' and this answers the burning topic that the next generation of business family usually has, which is how they would involve, and how would they choose to make their mark. Did it have to be in the same footsteps their predecessors took to get here? Certainly not. As it points to the old adage, where repeating the same steps gives you the same results, and clearly, a growing generation of entrepreneurs whether starting up, or walled up mid-journey figured that things needed to change in various ways, just to keep Retail Businesses relevant in the today.

It has been an incredibly rewarding journey that gave me hands-on experience on all facets of various Retail Businesses, which were complemented by my fashion education over the years which took me to Polimoda Design School in Italy in 2016 (years after i graduated!) which was ground breaking moment for me as far as viewing the intersection of Business, Design and Strategy meeting in an explosive way. The spark that was born out of these exposures continues to burn bright even today