Kishor Biyaani's autobiography "it happened in India"

Kishore Biyani, who three months ago was conferred “International Retailer of the Year” Award by the prestigeous US National Retail Federation (NRF), could truly be considered as the pioneer of multi-brand modern (organised) retail in India.

Born in a middle class marwari trading family, Kishore Biyani, began his career selling stonewash fabric to small shops in Mumbai. After having a brush with film making and festival organising, he went on to launch Pantaloons, the biggest listed retailer of the country, today.

Pantaloons is credited with launching many retail formats in value and lifestyle retailing under some of the best known retailing brand names in the country, including Big Bazaar, Food Bazaar, Central, e-zone, and Home Town.

While, most successful men and women 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.

“It happend in India” is the story of this maverick entrepreneur’s experiments with exploration of business the Indian way, his uncanny insight into the mind of Indian consumer and his simple philosophy of - Rewrite Rules, Retain Values.

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.

The book in a true Kishore Biyani style has been priced at Rs 99/- only for soft cover, while the hard cover price has been fixed at Rs. 495/-. The book, which has been co-authored with Dipayan Baishya, is currently available for sale in a few Big Bazaar and Depot stores in Mumbai and Pune and can also be ordered online at Futurebazaar.com.

By,
anand kumar pandey
pgdm sec-a
3rd sem