The second day for World Retail Congress 08 opened with a Breakfast Briefing on ‘If You Think Innovation is Risky, Try Stagnation’. Session Chair Darrell Rigby, partner, Bain & Company, began the talk by differentiating ‘innovation’ from ‘creativity’.
“Creativity is great ideas, innovation makes creativity doable,” he said. Rigby went to illustrate the difference by using the human brain as an example – how the left side of the brain – the logical, sequential, analytical side, and the right – the more creative, imaginative side, need to meet to make a great idea commercially viable.
He pointed out how some of the best ideas do not translate themselves into innovations because they are not commercially interpreted well, and do not align themselves with what the market wants.
On the panel were Lucy Neville-Rolfe, corporate and legal affairs director, Tesco; David Shriver, strategic adviser to the chief executive, Carrefour; and Trudy Sullivan, president & CEO, Talbots.
Speaking to Indiaretailing on the sidelines, Lucy Neville-Rolfe said India is a very strong focus for the retailer’s future plans, and that in its Bengaluru office, close to 3,000 Indians are contributing to studying the Indian market and to translating Tesco’s ‘Steering Wheel’ philosophy to the Indian marketplace in the future.
“We are aware that the Indian media is quite active on predicting our moves in India, but they are all rumours. We would love to be in India, but we need to understand the market more closely, and for that the FDI bars need to lift. We need to be in control of where we would go in India, and it’s important that we are in a position to operate with some degree of independent control,” she said.
– Nupur Chakraborty
