Foreign direct investment in multi-brand retail is yet to get the government?s nod, but large-format retailers in the country are scouting for expatriate leadership, to strengthen base and run operations on a par with global standards.
Mark Ashman was recently inducted into K Raheja group-promoted Hypercity Retail, headed by BS Nagesh. Last year, Mukesh Ambani-promoted Reliance Retail saw the entry of Gwyn Sundhagul as CEO for the value formats. Bharti-Walmart, a few months ago, hired Andrew Levermore, former head of Hypercity Retail, as COO of its wholesale cash-carry business.
Prior to his appointment at Hypercity, Ashman worked as CEO at Marks & Spencer India, a joint venture with Reliance Retail. He brings with him vast retail experience ranging from retail operations, sales & marketing, merchandising and corporate commun cations.
BS Nagesh, vice-chairman, Hypercity Retail, says: ?Modern retail in India is just five years? old. So, what we are going to do in the next 10 years, the rest of the world has already done 25 years ago. Moreover, all of us are trying to bring in depth into the business and scale it up to world-class levels. Hence, Mark fits well with our strategy. He was the one to relaunch Marks & Spencers in India with Reliance Retail and is closely connected to the Indian consumer.?
MNCs operating Indian subsidiaries have usually been the ones to bring expatriate in on rotation.
Shiv Aggarwal, CEO, ABC Consultants, a premier executive search and selection firm, said, ?There are two sides to expats coming into this sector. For a job seeker, retail markets in the West have saturated. Hence, it is difficult to get a high-impact role there. Indian retail market, being at a nascent stage, looks good on the portfolio for an expat. From a client?s point of view, since organised retail is a fairly new business there is lack of skills. Hence, what would be good is to hire somebody who can match up to the world-class levels.?
Sundhagul of Reliance Retail brings with him 25 years of experience in retailing, with his last assignment at Tesco Lotus , Thailand , where he led the scaling up of the retail business to a Rs 23,000-crore enterprise.
One of the initiatives taken by him was to implement a ?jigsaw plan?, whereby, the retail business would have the right location, format, offering, and the right infrastructure which also included the right supply chain, training and the right communication.
Aggarwal says there is lack of depth in experience in Indian retail sector. For some years, the sector might see expats coming in but once the industry matures we are going to see local players taking over.
Companies also need to be careful they do not bunch a lot of expats in their operations which might be harmful for the health of the company. He added, ?For Reliance, Gwyn is a good catch, as long as it is a one-off.?