Indian Retail Industry on Growth Trajectory post COVID-19, says Dr. Sunil Chopra

Indian Retail Industry on Growth Trajectory post COVID-19, says Dr. Sunil Chopra, Deputy Dean and IBM Distinguished Professor at Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University

 

Dr. Sunil Chopra addresses students on, ‘The Potential Future of Indian Retail’ at the Great Lakes Institute of Management’s ‘Distinguished Thought Leadership Series’

 

 Great Lakes Institute of Management, on Tuesday, hosted the Distinguished Thought Leadership series in which Dr. Sunil Chopra, Deputy Dean and IBM Distinguished Professor of Operations Management and Informations System, Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University, shared his insights with the students.

 

During the interactive session with students of the PGPM 2023 batch, Dr. Chopra elaborated on the probable trajectories of the Indian Retail Market. The session was conducted as part of their “Term Zero”, Distinguished Thought Leadership Series.

 

Term Zero was the outcome of the Institute’s effort to seamlessly transit into the online mode of classes during Covid-19. The fast paced 10-day term serves as an introductory session to students by the professors and industry leaders to get them ready for their MBA program.

 

Students listened to Dr Chopra with rapt attention as he explained about the different channel choices such as Hyperlocal, Big Box Retail and Online channel: how a framework for an omni-channel retail was necessary in designing the most efficient distribution network in India. Different factors such as Product Value, Demand Uncertainty and Information Content should be taken into consideration while coming up with a model.

 

He further elaborated on the successful model of 7-Eleven in Japan as an example of what must be implemented in India to attain the greatest gross profit. To achieve this model, the Professor explained, three commons need to be created - Information commons, Education commons and Distribution commons. Once these are created and implemented effectively, a replica of 7-Eleven can be utilized in the Indian retail market as well that takes advantage of every distribution channel. In this model, hyperlocals should be distributed everywhere, customized to the people of that location and also serve as a pickup location or showroom along with a place where online orders can be placed.

 

Dr. Chopra shed light on the Indian Retail Industry that has already recovered post Covid-19 and is on a growth trajectory of 10% annually, leading to a growth of approximately 2 trillion USD by 2032, as suggested by a report put together by Boston Consulting Group (BCG) in association with Retailers Association of India (RAI). The Indian Retail market has already seen a recovery in consumption and the changing landscape is instigating a multitude of opportunities for Indian Retailers.

 

About Great Lakes Institute of Management: Great Lakes Institute of Management, Chennai founded in 2004 by Padma Shri Awardee Dr. Bala V Balachandran is one of the premier B-schools in India. Great Lakes has, within a short span of 17 years emerged as a top-ranked business school. Great Lakes has 50+ full time faculty and 150+ visiting faculty including over 25+ international faculty from top global schools like Yale, Kellogg, Stanford, and Harvard. Further collaborations with world’s leading institutions like the University of Chicago Booth School of Business, Cornell University, University of Bordeaux, Babson, Skema School of Business, Frankfurt School of Management etc., have helped Great Lakes in globally benchmarking its programs.

 

Great Lakes, Chennai, was accredited by the Association of MBAs (AMBA), UK in 2014 and became the youngest B-school in India to receive this prestigious international accreditation. In 2015, Great Lakes, Chennai also received international SAQS accreditation and in 2017, its two-year PGDM program was accredited by National Board of Accreditation (NBA). For the years 2019 -2021, Great Lakes was ranked No.1 in India by Analytics India for its Analytics program. Great Lakes, Chennai was ranked 4th by Outlook India among top private MBA institutions, 9th by Business India and 15th by Business Today. It was also placed in Super League 2 category by Business Standard in the year 2021.

 

Led by exceptional academic faculty, steered by an outstanding advisory council, and buoyed by international collaborations, Great Lakes has been constantly innovating to stay ahead of the needs of our businesses and community. It is the first B-school in India to offer full time specialization in Analytics and first to introduce AI and Machine Learning specialization.

 

Great Lakes has a 30-acre LEED Platinum rated green campus in Chennai and a second campus in Delhi-NCR. In the year 2019, Great Lakes Gurgaon campus received the prestigious AMBA accreditation and was also ranked among the top 5 emerging business schools by the National HRD Network (NHRDN) for the year 2018-2019. Great Lakes Gurgaon was also ranked 13th by Business World for its one-year program in the year 2019.

 

Great Lakes offers One Year full time MBA (PGPM) for experienced professionals, Two-year MBA (PGDM), Part Time Executive MBA for senior managers, and Weekend Executive MBA Program. Great Lakes alumni currently numbering 9800+, work at world renowned organizations both in India and overseas across 33 countries.