THESE days, Kishore Biyani is reading a new book titled 'A Perfect Mess' . The book, written by an American professor and a business journalist, questions the widespread assumption that organisation and neatness are inherently better than disorder and clutter. It's a theme that has always been close to Mr Biyani's heart. In fact, his popular Big Bazaar hypermarkets are consciously designed to be disorderly - just like a typical Indian bazaar. "Chaos is a way of doing business. Clean stores are so easy to build. But in India, if you don't butt into someone while shopping, it feels strange," says the maverick retailer. Yet, in the last two weeks, Mr Biyani has shown a surprising change of heart. In a flurry of moves, he has injected more than a dose of order - a new structure, process and strategy - into his Rs 2,017-crore retail empire. He has pulled himself out of operations and handed over the reins of his retail business to younger brother, Rakesh. He has clearly separated his steady-state businesses (like Big Bazaar) from the businesses that need incubation. He has appointed professional CEOs for each of his mature formats - Big Bazaar, Pantaloon, Central and Food Bazaar - and another one to manage all new forays. These large formats will now become separate companies under a holding company that Mr Biyani is planning to create, named Future Retail.
The holding company will have stakes in each of these companies. The idea is simple: to allow these four 'mature' businesses to function like independent subsidiaries so that they can get into JVs with global retailers, seek private equity funding or even tap the capital markets.
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