Born into a small trading family, India's retail czar, Kishore Biyani, replaced conventional wisdom with "guts and instincts" to create Future Group, a $6 billion company.

Kishore Biyani founded Pantaloons in 1997, followed by a number of retail formats including Big Bazaar, Central, Food Bazaar, Brand Factory and Home Town. The group’s flasghip company, Pantaloon Retail along with its subsidiaries now cater to almost the entire consumption basket of a wide cross-section of Indian consumers. In 12 months, the group’s retail formats attarcted over 200 million customers. Headquartered in Mumbai, Future Group operates through 9 million square feet of retail space, in over 120 cities and rural centres across India and employs over 25,000 people.

History

Childhood and Teenage Years

As a child he was average in studies. He loved playing cricket and watching movies. He was always a rebel in his family questioning every social and religious norm. At college he rarely attended classes. He never enjoyed working in his family business.

First Entrepreneurial Venture

He organized a successful dandia night in his locality. This is where he showed his first sparkle of entrepreneurial talent. He started his entrepreneurial career by selling stone wash fabric. He managed to sell lakhs of worth of fabric. This is were he made his first profit.

Rise of Maverick

He first launched brand of fabric named wbb (white, blue and brown). The brand enjoyed a short success. He then launched Pantaloon - a retail venture dealing in mens wear. First franchise of pantaloon opened in goa in 1991 by the name of Pantaloon Shoppe. At its height there were 72 franchises across countries. First pantaloon retail outlet opened in Gariahat, Kolkata in 1997. It stocked apparel for men and women, stationery, sports goods, gifts toysand household items. Although he wasn't the pioneer in organized retail but his vision, creativity and entrepreneurial talent steered him through his competitors.

Analysis

Kishore Biyani sets goals. He motivates his employees, led in proper way, gave them rewards and at last they achieve their goals successfully.

His leadership style can be related to charismatic leadership style because he has well command on his employees and to manipulate everything. For example He said in his annual meeting with its all employees that “If you work for the organisation by heart, I am not your boss, we are friends” . He is work oriented and employee oriented which make him successful leader.

He has transactional leadership quality. For example he understand the employees needs and wishes and provided them almost everything what they wanted. 94% of employees are insurance holder. They have share of company. They are getting part in profit which motivates employees to achieve the goals.

Exemplary Thoughts of Mr. Biyani

Autobiography

While, most successful people write their biographies post their retirement, Kishore Biyani has gone ahead with writing his biography, “It Happened in India,” if one could say so, at the beginning of his retailing career. As expected, the book even before being widely available has become a success story in its own right. According to media reports, while 10,000 copies (largest ever for an Indian book) of the book have already been sold on the day of its launch, the publishers are also confident of selling the initial lot of 30,000 books in a few days. In another first in the history of publishing in India, this is the first indigenous book which has had a print run of 200,000 copies.