The Faces That Launched A Thousand Ships...

Everyday is a special day. Every day of the year is almost celebrated nowadays - to commemorate an event or to remember someone. Usually celebrations are done to perpetuate the remembrance of the day at least once a year for things gone by! We celebrate birthdays and memorial days. Perhaps it all began in the Biblical Days when people had to be helped to remember important days in History so that they could continuously cling to God and religious disciplines. Later, the focus on the celebrations and remembrances of days might have moved towards human beings and mundane events!

Our ancestors perhaps never had to celebrate Father’s Day or Mother’s Day to remember their parents. They were so much an integral part of their lives, though they may not have been in touch with them everyday. I have always wondered why the Son’s and Daughter’s Day is not celebrated with as much pomp and glory as the Father’s Day and Mother’s Day are celebrated. There is no separate Son’s Day yet, though! Perhaps consequent to a yet strong or binding relationship that is nurtured by parents that they do not have to celebrate these days to remember children! May be it is the children who have lost the strength of the bond (often leaving parents to feel like a weaned child!), that they have to celebrate a Father’s Day or a Mother’s Day to remember them! Some argue that the Father’s Day and Mother’s Day would suffice for the parents too to remember their children. Hence there is no need for separate days to be found to commemorate in reciprocation! Critiques reveal that these days have been called into existence for commercial reasons – reasons to sell greeting cards, gifts and bouquets!

Let me come to the brass tacks of business. B. S. Nagesh, the founding CEO of Shoppers’ Stop who is known in the Indian retailing circles as the Pioneering Modern Retail Professional conceptualized a Day to recognize and reward the achievements of the front-end sales and service personnel. He calls it the Retail Employees Day with an acronym RED! He gives an opportunity to the sales and service people every year to tell of their great deeds – where they have gone the extra mile to satisfy customers! Some argue that people in the service industry have to serve by going the extra mile all the time as hygiene need. They quiz the very need to talk about the demands of the nature of the job and fulfillment of the job’s responsibilities! Others say that it is only just and fair to recognize and reward the best. Yet one may say that millions of floor personnel are serving customers on the shop floors day in and day out in the retailing continent of India and it may help to remind every one of them to excel in delighting customers. And reward the best among them!

India’s Father of Brick and Mortar Retailing, Kishore Biyani conceptualized many significant days to celebrate on his shop floors. The most significant of them are The National Festival Holiday Day Sale (that eventually got extended as The National Festival Holiday Week!) and The Big Billion Day Sales. He has marked the days to shake his customers out of the comfort zones of their homes on National Festival Holidays and make them go to his stores in loads every year!

It’s now the turn of the billion dollar online retailers. They sell at less prices. Customers can enjoy additional value. That’s super value! And here comes one more day – The Super Value Day!

We are sure to have many genres of retailers who would be competing to establish their own ‘days’. On the other hand, we would have our retail floor personnel vying with each other for achieving excellence.

Now for the doyens of Indian retailing and for all that they have done, the retailing posterity may remember them and ask the Shakespearean way, “Were these the faces that launched a thousand ships and burnt the topless towers of Ilium?”

- Dr. Gibson G. Vedamani