MY FIRST BILLION IN TURNOVER KISHORE BIYANI CEO, Future Group
“I pulled this off because I did not go to a B-school.” Kishore Biyani has changed the face of modern retail in India by introducing consumers to hypermarkets and destination malls. When he debuted in Kolkata in 1997 with his retail store, Pantaloons, many laughed at the 36-year-old entrepreneur with a contrarian view. Today, Biyani is the one laughing, as his Future Group rakes in billions in revenue and holds sway over 3 million square feet of retail space. If there is a piece of advice this commerce graduate readily hands out to entrepreneurs and B-school students, it’s the need to understand the nuts and bolts of one’s industry and have the conviction to go ahead. AS TOLD TO DHIMAN CHATTOPADHYAY | CARICATURE BY JOFFY JOSE I SOMETIMES feel we were operating like a runaway train back in the mid-nineties. We never planned much, nor did we lay down any structured growth process. We just went along with our gut feeling and confidence to try new things, and start new businesses. We dared and we believed in
ourselves. I feel that analysing things and looking at the entire process in a structured, theoretical manner is not my forte. In a way, I probably pulled this off because I did not go to a business school. I remember the first time we really sat
down and prepared a business plan was sometime in the late nineties. Our projections indicated that we would touch the 1,000-crore figure in revenue in three to four years. We hit that target much before the deadline. So much for business plan forecasts! FEBRUARY 2011
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