I'm on a roll!!! Here's my third straight review!!You know, even i'm amazed that i'm enjoying reading biographies! And i'm also sorry that i've avoided reading them for all these years! I guess it'll take quite some time to get to date reading that genre of books! After 2 international biographies, i came across this one at Big Bazaar (Obvoiously!), priced at 99/-!
And undoubtedly, it was worth much more! Kishore Biyani, who's the author of this book (in association with Dipayan Baishya) is the founder of Mega brands like Pantaloon, Big Bazaar, Central, Food Bazaar, Home Town, John Miller and now owns, among many more, Indian Terrain, aLL, Scullers, Planet Sports, Marks and Spencers in India, and many many more!!!! (I bet you did'nt know all this)
In fact, his Future Group (which sponsored the recent Cricket series) is now among the largest conglomerates in India with a wide range of interests ranging from Retail, Finance, Real Estate, Media, Brands, Space and Logistics!!
Now, all of this started off when a youngster went against the wishes of his family, who were in traditional business and ventured out on a leg to test the yet untested Indian retail scenario! And the rest as they say, is History!!!
Now, as KB says it in the first page itself, he is by no means a completed success story. However, his intention of writing this book, he says, is to take people thru a happening story rather than write a book after he's at the close of his accomplishments and that i think is a brave thing to do!!
The book is very exciting as the complete story was seen first hand by us! Yup! The share price of Pantaloons was 1.50/- in 1999!! Today, it is a multi-billion group! Just in 7 yrs, KB created so many brands! and he says he's not happy with the pace of growth!!!
This book is a true inspirational story for all Young Indians, especially the entrepreneurs.
The book is paced like a Novel and is the entertainment value is very high!
The best part about it is when KB's talking about lets say creating Central, there's an article by the CEO of Central! When he's talking about taking a new mall on rent, there's a page by the mall owner! All of these lend a lot of credibility to the story.
But as his consultant says, it is too soon to call him a success story. I guess that's with reference to time - as it's taken him only 7 yrs to create all these brands. But after reading the book, i feel KB's not only done work which normally people do in a lifetime, but has also paved the way to the entire Indian retail scenario.
Next time, i'm shopping at Big Bazaar.
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