Game-Changing Ops
Co-Founder and COO of one of the fastest-growing salon chains in India Glam Studios, Darakhshan Hussain states the mission of her company: make high-quality grooming and beauty services affordable and accessible to the middle-income group across geographies. “We aim to empower more and more women by giving them the chance to become entrepreneurs in their own right,” she said.
Earlier salons used to pay product brands to put up branding and marketing collateral in the store; the company’s project Glam Prom (short for Glam Promotions) has changed the game by selling space inside the salons to brands that want to promote their products to a captive audience. Consequently, a major increase is seen in the income of the associated salon owners, with major brands like Marico, Palmolive, and HUL paying the salon partners to place marketing collateral inside salons, making the process of payment collection from salon owners easier.
Hussain, a single mother and defence wife, has contributed in different capacities towards the company’s mission, the main role being providing operational support to business partners. A major achievement under her as head of expansion is taking the number of salons from 0 to 200 in less than four years. The company has created more than 150 plus new women entrepreneurs and upskilled almost 3300 workers towards 50 per cent incremental salary.
Constantly evolving
With over 16,000 book shops across 550 districts in India, Oswaal books is a 20-year old renowned brand in the book publishing industry. Divya Jain Bansal, Director of Marketing has helped the company in make a major development in developing its ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning). She informs, “I have started spending 30 per cent of my time in hiring the right talent. This will enable us to tap all the available opportunities.”
The company has been able to create a huge network of retailers and approached them directly as well as through distributors. Bansal believes that as a leader the single biggest task is to genuinely take care of the team members as it’s them who take good care of customers, partners, and vendors. “We started reaching the schools directly which made a huge impact on the demand. Keeping pace with a constantly evolving board syllabus, it has always been a challenge to provide the most relevant content to the students and for that, we have to be very fast-paced in incorporating the changes made by any of the boards,” she said. She further added, “We ensure we are constantly working on the development of our books with accuracy and speed.”
The company has been able to cap on the arrival of the e-commerce market that changed the retail of books in the last three years with online retailers gaining up to 25 per cent of market share
Tradition As Inspiration
For Happy Mimosa, building a modern luxury brand with artisanal products rooted in heritage has been their core vision. Co-Founded by Inayat Bhutani and Kavya Rai, the company has been working directly with the weavers in the handloom sector. The company says: We make fashion with a purpose and design products that define the modern Indian experience. We aim to be champions of slow fashion, and want to challenge the notion that sustainable fashion is uninspiring. There is a notion that sustainable fashion is uninspiring. The company has taken up to challenge the notion.
The company has been inspired by the local crafts and regularly said to seek knowledge form the other like-minded people. It capitalises on the effective supply chain management and effective e-commerce marketing tools. The company has said to have had a modern-day rediscovery of Morocco culture inspired by the styles of Moorish lands. Making fare practices, Zero Waste, recycling and use of no plastic have been the key focus of the company in line with all its objectives.
Looking ahead, the company has the target to expand into the different markets and make global tie-ups. Keeping up with new trends has been one of the key focuses of the company. Focusing on social awareness and developing special programs are other agendas for the company.
Newer Dimensions
Famed for the creation of the film Khosla Ka Ghosla, Savitaraj Hiremath, Director of Tandav Film Entertainment, says she is a workaholic and believes in excelling and raising the standards. Starting with the ad-films, she pushed herself out of the comfort zone and made music album and later feature films, which she says is the ultimate form of creativity.
The production company is said to have been operating through its funds presently, for 2020, the company will seek funds from HNI investors from India and Singapore. The revenue generated by the company is said to be 30 per cent to 100 per cent of the investment. Hiremath shares, “Tandav was a startup of a new venture into media and entertainment with the new perspective explored by believing in one’s though, gut, and vision to achieve the target set.” Speaking on the role she has performed working for the company, she stated, “My position in the company and my past performance of producing Khosla Ka Ghosla has bestowed on me vision, respect, and a leader to lead the company to initiate, to produce and market differentiated content for the Indian and International markets.”
The advent of Netflix, Amazon, and Youtube has given the company newer dimensions to explore and bring their content to the audiences. Her company has made films for UN collaborating with artists like AR Rahman, Gulzar, Alka Yagnik, Kailash Kher, Yuvraj Singh, Ranbir Kapoor.