Rajiv Lal talks to Mint about the challenges Indian retailers face, issues of profitability and impact of FDI on kirana stores.
April 17, 2012, was a special day for SANY Group and for its founder Liang Wen'gen. Headquartered in Changsha, SANY Group had transformed itself in two decades from a small welding material factory in 1989 to a leading global construction equipment manufacturer with 5 industrial parks in China; 5 R&D and manufacturing bases in America, Germany, India, Brazil, and Indonesia; and 21 sales companies worldwide. SANY Heavy Industry Co., Ltd. (SANY), SANY Group's major subsidiary, engaged in the construction equipment business and was number six on International Construction's 2012 Yellow Table, a ranking of the world's largest construction equipment manufacturers.
Rajiv Lal, is the Stanley Roth, Sr. Professor of Retailing at Harvard Business School. He is currently teaching an elective MBA course on the Business of Smart Connected Products/IOT. He has been responsible for the retailing curriculum and has served as the course head for Marketing, required study in the first year of the MBA program. Professor Lal also teaches in several Executive Education programs, has previously served as the Faculty Chair for the General Management Program, and the program on Building and Leading a Customer Centric Organization.
Lal was a Professor at the Graduate School of Business at Stanford University beginning in 1982. He was the Thomas Henry Carroll Ford Foundation Visiting Professor at Harvard Business School from 1997-98. He was the Visiting Professor of Marketing at INSEAD, France in 1986, 1988, 1992, and 1993. He did his undergraduate work in Mechanical Engineering at the Indian Institute of Technology at Kanpur, India and received his Ph.D. in Industrial Administration from Carnegie-Mellon University.
Lal's current research concerns the opportunities and challenges in building a Business around Smart Connected products/IOT. His book "Retail Revolution: Will Your Store Survive" is based on many years of extensive research in the field of Retailing focusing on the viability of brick and mortar stores as they face the onslaught of on-line competition. In addition, he has studied how to build and sustain customer-centric retail organizations. His past work has explored successful retail strategies for global expansion. He has written extensively on the impact of using the Internet as a channel of distribution on a retailer's pricing, merchandising, and branding strategy. His earlier work in retailing studies the impact of competition between different retail formats, such as EDLP and Hi-Lo grocers. He has also studied the consequences of grocery retailers’ increasing use of store brands on store loyalty and its implications for packaged goods manufacturers.
Lal's earlier research focused on pricing, trade promotions, and salesforce compensation plans. The work on salesforce compensation plans originated with his dissertation research, which won the award for the best paper published in Marketing Science and Management Science in 1985. A subsequent article, also developed from his thesis, received an honorable mention for the same award in 1986. He has also studied compensation plans used by German salesforces.
His work in the area of pricing and promotions has been equally well recognized. Two of his articles were among the finalists for the John D. C. Little award for the best paper published in Management Science and Marketing Science in 1990. One of these articles, co-authored with Jagmohan Raju and V. Srinivasan on the impact of brand loyalty on price promotions, has been awarded the Frank Bass award for the best dissertation paper.
Lal’s recent work includes Retail Revolution: Will Your Brick-and-Mortar Store Survive?, “Retail Doesn’t Cross Borders: Here’s Why and What to do About it” in Harvard Business Review, “Retailing Revolution: Category Killers on the Brink” in HBS Working Knowledge, and Marketing Management: Text and Cases. He has published more than twenty-five articles in academic journals and more than 80 cases and other teaching materials. He has applied his academic frameworks and industry knowledge in much of his research and many of his consulting projects.
Lal has worked on a variety of such projects with a wide range of companies, including Citigroup, Citizens Bank, American Family Insurance, Standard Life Plc, Omnitel Italia, Credit Suisse, Stop & Shop, Ito-Yokado, Best Buy, Stride Rite Corporation, Oliver Wyman and Company, Fleming Companies, Nordstrom, Microsoft, Kellogg, Sara Lee D/E, Novartis Pharmaceuticals, Callaway Golf Company, Staples, and other well-known companies on strategy development and execution.
Lal serves as a member of the Board for Leader Bank and Global Cures. In addition to these board positions, Lal has served as an Area Editor for Marketing Science and Co-editor of Quantitative Marketing and Economics.
Rajiv Lal talks to Mint about the challenges Indian retailers face, issues of profitability and impact of FDI on kirana stores.
April 17, 2012, was a special day for SANY Group and for its founder Liang Wen'gen. Headquartered in Changsha, SANY Group had transformed itself in two decades from a small welding material factory in 1989 to a leading global construction equipment manufacturer with 5 industrial parks in China; 5 R&D and manufacturing bases in America, Germany, India, Brazil, and Indonesia; and 21 sales companies worldwide. SANY Heavy Industry Co., Ltd. (SANY), SANY Group's major subsidiary, engaged in the construction equipment business and was number six on International Construction's 2012 Yellow Table, a ranking of the world's largest construction equipment manufacturers.
Another recent trend has been the increasing reliance on store brands by retailers such as Shaw's supermarkets and Safeway. While for many years store brands were viewed as 'cheap and nasty,' catering to the needs of price sensitive consumers, Lal's research shows how they can be used to enhance store loyalty and profitability.
Establishing a strategic advantage in India's highly competitive marketplace requires a systemic shift in focus—away from selling products and toward meeting the needs of customers. But how many companies are prepared to carry out such fundamental change? By transforming your organization's marketing strategy, programs, and channels, your company can capitalize on new market conditions while delivering strong financial performance.