What makes the retail industry unique is that the people who sell are as important to the businesses as the products, says Mr Atanu Chakraborty, National Head, Business Learning, Spencer's Retail Ltd.

A step at a time is the only way to learn the ropes in this industry, making experience more valuable than theory, he says.

He was speaking on ‘Training and Development in Retail — Its Development and Process' at the Business Line Club lecture at the Department of Management Studies, Rajalakshmi Engineering College.

Global organised retail is a $9-billion industry that is not only one of the largest revenue generators but also one of the largest employers. Though only 6 per cent of Indian retail is organised, it is expected to achieve $804.06 billion in sales by 2015 from $411.28 billion in 2011, Mr Chakraborty says.

Retail currently employs 8 per cent of the country's workforce but that number will grow phenomenally as the industry becomes organised, he says.

Attrition is high in the retail sector as jobs in this industry are physically demanding and as there are a lot more opportunities today, especially in information technology, he says. Training thus becomes as crucial as trying to retain people, he argues.

He says Spencer's being one of the most evolved players in India, its training methods have become a benchmark for the industry.

Mr Chakraborty, who oversees training at the company, says their strategy involves facilitating learning across the organisation through team-based work, by cultivating standards and by building, expanding and managing knowledge gradually at organisational and individual levels.

The company analyses who needs what kind of training, plans specifics of a training module, evaluates economics of training and defines the processes of training before deciding on its content. Understanding constraints of the methods adopted and implementing timelines serve as internal checks for the processes.

He says the supply chain in the country is afflicted by problems of infrastructure and vendor discipline and inability of local distributors to meet the scale of volumes demanded by organised players.

“But we are far better off compared to a decade ago, and we're getting there,” he adds. Though the quality of front-end services has gone down lately, he believes that is a temporary phase.

Mr S. Sankar, Dean of the department, and Mr T.C. Thomas, Head, presided over the lecture. Ms Rajalakshmi, a second-year student, proposed a vote of thanks.

vipul.v@thehindu.co.in

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