The fourth edition of the ET Retail Awards 2014 was held in Mumbai on March 21, 2014. It is an annual awards programme, designed to celebrate best practices in the retail sector, which is under the umbrella of The Economic Times and the Retailers Association of India, and is an initiative of the Times Grey Cell. This year, the awards were hosted by the ICICI Bank Credit and Debit Cards. The Retailers Association of India was the Knowledge Partner, ET NOW was the Television Partner and PwC (PriceWaterhouse Coopers) was responsible for providing the Knowledge Support.
The awards ceremony began with the power packed performance by a group of four youngsters who were playing different percussion instruments and their performance drew out a huge round of applause and set the right tone for the awards.
Sameer Sainani, Director, The Times of India Group, in his welcome address, said, “Sam Walton, founder of Walmart, once said that there is only one boss, the customer, and he can fire everybody in the company, from the chairman, to the bottom, simply by spending his money somewhere else. Such is retail and the customer, which is ever evolving, day-in-day-out. Retail in India, is changing every moment by moving across platforms and moving across formats.”
The guest of honour was BS Nagesh, Chairman, RAI, Founder, TRRAIN, & Vice-Chairman, Shoppers Stop. He was the first Asian to be inducted in the World Retail Hall of Fame, 2008.
Rachna Nath, India retail and consumer leader, PwC India, in her presentation, shed light on the jury rounds, the screening process and the evaluation that took place before the awards. “One of the primary aspects that were discussed before the journey began was the essential need to make these awards relevant by showcasing case studies that can prove to be helpful to the industry in the long run,” she expressed.
A whopping 225 nominations were received this year, across all categories. Largely, there were advertisements in the newspaper which called in for nominations. The screening process largely had five steps of scrutiny, starting with the call for entries and data collection which was then followed by the first jury round where the companies were shortlisted, and then finally leading to the second jury round for deciding on the winners.
Essentially, four broad evaluation parameters were set on which the companies were judged. They were – business case, innovation, potential – replication and sustainability, and impact.
So, the ET Retail Awards 2014, unraveled the retail future of India that we, as consumers, players and future buyers, are going to witness in the years to come.
]]>