Not so any longer. Today, a career in the retail industry is on par with other careers. Products of prestigious business schools, who once shunned the industry, are eager to get into the thick of action. Retail marketing has become a specialised course in many business schools. Retail outlets have become 'family outing' experiences, with entire families spending many hours browsing through shelves displaying alluring products. Clearly, the retail revolution has hit the country.

The credit for this change of heart can be laid at the doorstep of a man who, with his handsome looks and boyish face, could have easily become a leading hero of the Kannada film industry. This man is none other than, B. S. Nagesh, chief executive officer of the Shoppers' Stop chain of departmental stores. Nagesh entered the retail industry at a time when the concept of 'organised departmental stores' was considered a non-starter in this country. Prior to his entry there were some attempts made by others in the past, to set up departmental stores of the type one encountered abroad. They all died a premature death and perpetuated the myth that 'foreign style' departmental stores would never succeed in India. One can never hazard a guess as to why the previous attempts failed and why Shoppers' Stop took off the way it did. Was it the fact that the country just became ready for the retail concept? Were the previous attempts badly organised? Was there a big gap between customer expectations and its fulfilment? Or, was Nagesh just plain lucky? It could be a combination of all these factors. But attributing the last factor to Nagesh's success would be doing a great disservice to the man.

Born in Bangalore forty-one years ago, Nagesh has spent his early years in Gorakhpur, where his father, who was working with the Railways, was posted. He did his schooling in Bareilly and acquired a degree in management from BHU, Varanasi after finishing college from Gorakhpur.

After getting the management degree, he worked with Blow Plast Ltd and Orson Electronics, before joining Carona Ltd., where his thirst for retail was ignited. At Carona, which was the country's second largest footwear company, he was the youngest manager in the hierarchy and had over 100 stores assigned to him. Though he was in trade sales, he really moved the retail way by encouraging secondary sales to pump up primary trade sales. This saw the man stand behind many a counter at the retail level, which helped convince the secondary tier that his involvement was genuine – thus boosting primary sales.

After having handled over a hundred retail stores of 500 and odd sq. ft. each, he had a burning desire to set up and run a huge departmental store of 50,000 sq ft. He got the opportunity to realise his dream when a head hunter called him, presumably on the reference of his mentor, Mr. Rajiv Sahai -- currently a very senior executive with a leading entertainment company – and to whom he had mentioned his desire. The head hunter took him to a real estate tycoon based in Mumbai. This tycoon had a huge property lying vacant and had the intention of making commercial use of this property. For some reason this tycoon believed that a huge retail departmental store at this property would be the way out. The tycoon was none other than Mr. G. L. Raheja, the country's undisputed king of real estate. This belief led Mr. Raheja to meet Nagesh. And, the rest is history.

True to his nature, Nagesh refuses to take sole credit for building Shoppers' Stop into what it is today. While the arc lights for the success are on him, he is very clear that the credit for the same is to be shared with two groups;

• first the promoters of Shoppers' Stop and Mr. G.L. Raheja, in particular, for having reposed their total faith in him and his team and allowing them to make mistakes; and,
• his team, which has stuck by him during the critical phase of growth to make the store a thrilling shopping experience.

Starting off with the group as a general manager, Nagesh walked the length and breadth of the existing retail stores in the country, virtually taking in every inch of their stores. His toughest act was to get the right people into the company. For retail, as it existed then, was way below the status ladder for boys and girls to take on as careers. He still remembers the time he had to book a whole wedding hall and invite the parents of prospective candidates to tell them about the project. He had to convince them that if they could send their children aboard planes to be stewards and stewardesses, send them to five star hotels to be front office personnel, there was no reason for them to feel belittled by their children manning the counters at a super-store like Shoppers' Stop. Obviously, his charm worked. He did manage to recruit the right people and today, nearly 65% of the front end sales staff are graduates. This is way above the global benchmark where most of the front-end sales staff are just high school qualified.

He has gone a long way since then. The company is now a 850 people organisation with plans to become a 30 store organisation in five years time. Already the company has a store in all the prominent locations of Mumbai, Bangalore, Hyderabad, New Delhi and Jaipur. He has been adequately rewarded for this stupendous growth by being promoted to chief executive officer. If imitation is the best form of flattery, then Nagesh can justifiably feel very flattered. Many an industrial group are following Shoppers' Stop's footsteps into the retail arena and the industry is seeing a lot of action in terms of investment and people.

Not only that, the very people who kept him waiting for hours on end outside their offices, are the ones to come to his office to do business with him. The very associations, who denied him entry to trade fairs, are falling head over heels to get him to be the chief guest at their functions.

So what is in store for him in the future? Despite the success, he believes there is a lot more to be done. He has great plans to make Shoppers' Stop a global player in the retail industry. He has already working towards that end and has made the right moves in that direction.

He is ensuring that the group does its bit towards the very society that has allowed it grow and succeed. He plans to take the group into education for children and do it professionally in the same manner as he has done for Shoppers' Stop. He also plans to set up a training institute for retail management, and hopes that this will become the foremost of such institutes in the country.

As he rests briefly after a successful divestment of nearly 14% of the equity in favour of strategic investors who had queued up at his doorstep, he reflects on the unfinished agenda ahead of him. Now that the pressures of daily operation have eased a trifle, Nagesh finds time for his family of wife, Shailaja – who is a teacher by profession – and two daughters Pooja (13) and Pallavi (7). Though he does not openly say so, the expressions on his face, when he speaks of them, clearly shows that but for their stoic acceptance of his long hours away from home, at work, he would not have achieved this success. Now he hopes that he would be able to give them more of his time, and indulge in a little for himself too. He is a very keen sportsman and a badminton player, who had to give it all up in the pursuit of success at Shoppers' Stop. He hopes he will be able to play a few games once in a way.

But is this all going to reduce the pace at which the man has kept himself going? One look at his energetic frame makes one wonder whether he will. But then, with all the plans that he has for the future, the old saying may well hold true: "…… and I have miles to go before I sleep!!".