Book Review – It Happened in India by Kishore Biyani

It is the story of Kishore Biyani, the man who created Pantaloons, Big Bazaar,
Bangalore/Hyderabad Central, EZone, and much more – effectively, the one person who
made retailing a roaring success in India and who had envisioned it much before anyone
else dared to even think about it.

True to his style & philosophy, Kishore Biyani has included all the people in the book who
have made this happen. Not just by mentioning their names, but by interviewing more than
hundred people, getting their thoughts in the form of ‘their stories & versions’, in each
chapter of the book. Their narrative is appropriately placed within each chapter & their
thoughts on that particular topic give a insight from the very people who were involved at
that particular stage of the project.

Born in a middle class trading family, Kishore Biyani started his career selling stonewash
fabric to small shops in Mumbai. Years later, with the launch of Pantaloons, Big Bazaar, Food
Bazaar, Central and many more retail formats, he redefined the retailing business in India.
Incidentally, Kishore Biyani’s objective is to capture every rupee in the wallet of every Indian
consumer, wherever they are - an investment banker living in a south Mumbai locality or a
farmer in Sangli. As large business houses enter the retail space, Kishore Biyani is not just
concentrating on retail but aiming to capture the entire Indian consumption space. From
building shopping malls, developing consumer brands to selling insurance, he is getting into
every business where a customer spends her money.

This book, It Happened in India, by Kishore Biyani and Dipayan Baishya provides useful
insights into an Indian entrepreneur.

It Happened in India is an ideal read for Students, Young Professionals, Managers and
Business Leaders, Budding Entrepreneurs and Young Indians.

This book will rekindle an entrepreneurial spark. The book is humorous and has well
explained ideas and thoughts and deep insight into the retail industry. The Highly motivating
It Happened in India, advocates ‘Indianness’.

It Happened in India traces the humble beginnings of the head of the Future Group, Kishore
Biyani and is a compilation of his values, readings, contemplations, reactions and

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experiences in Retail. It also has the reactions of others closely associated in his profession
and the company.

First four sections give introduction to KB’s early days, his family business, challenges faced,
setting up of Pantaloon, struggles undergone etc. To sum up, KB faced similar problems
what Narayan Murthy faced while starting Infosys or Kiran Majumdar Shaw started Biocon
etc. All these people had a vision far ahead of their times and community around them were
not in a position to understand and appreciate their vision. Despite severe problems in
terms of funding, co operation etc, all these entrepreneurs pursued their dreams, worked
day and night on it, and over a period of time have built empires everyone is proud of now.

The next part about big bazaar, I find it very interesting. All facts collected about big bazaar
are available in a separate post here.
Next Section is about KB’s attempt as Bollywood movie maker. He tried to replicate the
success of Kaho Na pyaar hein with the movie “Naa Tum Jaano Na Hum” which failed
drastically. I haven’t bothered to watch that movie till date, but now knowing that KB is the
man behind that, I will watch it whenever possible, just to see how he has used the movie to
promote the Pantaloon stores in it.
The other (and the last one) movie produced by KB is Chura Liya Hain Tumne, which also
proved to be a flop. If you don’t know, it is Kishore Biyani who introduced Rakhi Sawant and
Himesh Reshamiya to the bollywood with this movie … (No further comments!!!)
Other sections of the book provide some vital insights into the retail business. By and large
looks like a self appreciation through out with inputs from so many friends, business
contacts, relatives writing their opinion about KB and KB himself dedicating lots of
paragraphs to explain “why I’m so great”. But then, what he has achieved within a short
span is out there for everyone to see, so he has every right to boast about it.

The most important part in the book was his views on Trust & Relationships, Wh ere he
emphasizes the important of a Win-Win situation between his organization, his business
associates and his customers. He says, if you approach your business with this framework in
mind, then you shall see benefit in all interactions.

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However, this is not as easy as it sounds. To get to that level, every person’s aspirations &
dreams have to be understood & more importantly, addressed appropriately. Therefore, to
build great relationships, sacrifices will have to be made.

He goes on to say that “Most businessmen make the mistake of creating an environment
wherein only then win. They see life only as a competitive arena & not a co-operative one.
Relationships are built on principles, and not on the basis of power & position.”

 I have to admit that I found the first half of the book to be boring. I mean listening to ten
different people eulogizing Kishore Biyani can get really tedious.
The second half gets really interesting – about how KB (that’s Kishore Biyani for the rest of
us) takes pride in doing things in an India-centric manner and creating strategies that are
derived from the Indian mindset, the poignant motto “Rewrite Rules. Retain Values.”, about
how they use the concept of “memetics” to design what kind of products to stock in their
stores, the various retail formats they created after analyzing the traditional bazaars, about
the various people involved and the viewpoints they brought in, and so on. I found it
fascinating that people actually think to such deep levels, and all this to try to understand
what the customer wants, many times even before the customer themselves know it.
One of the most amusing sentences was his Time Pass Theory:
I interpret life very differently and I have this belief that we all come to this world to kill
time. Therefore, we pick up some activity that we like doing and call it our profession. I call
this the Time Pass theory.

Another interesting passage that I liked was where he describes himself as the creator and
destroyer (and re-creator) of all that he builds – he doesn’t believe in preserving because
that’s when the company starts stagnating. So, every few years, KB changes their entire
organization structure to adapt to the current and future environments, and that’s why they
now have a new name “Future Group”:

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