Leadership in India's Retail: Management Challenges and Solutions

This essay explores the complexities of leadership within India's rapidly growing retail industry, specifically focusing on the challenges of leading in a non-Anglophone context. It examines the applicability of various leadership theories and management practices, emphasizing the need for clear communication, cultural sensitivity, and visionary leadership. The analysis considers the importance of dynamic thinking, staff interaction, continuous learning, and emotional intelligence for leaders to effectively transform companies and drive industry growth. The essay also highlights the significance of modeling desired behavior, motivating employees, and making tough decisions to achieve organizational objectives in a diverse cultural environment. The study draws upon academic literature and real-world examples to illustrate the key factors that contribute to successful leadership in the Indian retail sector.

Running head: LEADERSHIP AND MANAGEMENT
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1. Describe the industry in terms of size , complexity and context
The retail industry that this paper seeks to analyze is India’s retail industry. Being an non
Anglophone country, India is a good to base our analysis on. Also, the paper shall analyze
the retail industry of India and how leadership will be applicable in the retail industry. To be
more specific we shall look at the retail industry in India. The retail industry in India has
occupied a remarkable position in global ranking. In terms of size, India has got one of the
highest consumer economies in the world (McCaffery,2018). Backed by a rapidly growing
consumer spending and coupled with a rising middleclass the retail industry is expected to be
reach US$ 450 billion by 2021. The retail market has witnessed investment worth US$ 900
million in 2017 according to Boston consulting group.
Therefore, with all this investment by wealth funds and private Equity especially from
Foreign Direct Investment, there should be a good leadership to oversee all the funds
channeled in this industry as well as providing a sense of leadership to them. Representing,
enacting and expressing authority beyond the English speaking world can be a challenge
since it is not their first tongue. Thus, giving instruction is a main challenge to the people in
these countries (Goetsch & Davis, 2014). Being a very large industry, the retail industry in
India will grow further if the multinational companies can transform the retail industry in this
country through effective leadership. The context is leadership in a non-English speaking
country.
Question 2
Explain the leadership topic you have chosen and how it is applicable to the industry

LEADERSHIP AND MANAGEMENT
That expression of "theirs is not talking" is already incompatible with the leaders of current
companies and, of course, the future. The truth is that the people who are leaders speak, they
address the rest of the people in a very special way, with their own characteristics and they
know it, which is also important (Barnes, Smith & Kempster, 2017). The language of the
leader must be clear, precise and concise. Therefore in this industry where English is the
second language, the leader of a company in the retail industry in India should and must be
clear so that employees can achieve the companies’ goals and objectives and thus the
industries goals are reached.
A leader, through language, should not pretend to impose. Rather, what you should aspire to
is to convince. Moreover, many times your communication will consist of listening more than
transmiting (Hayton, 2015).In fact, part of their obligations is to do so in order to know their
problems and help them. In fact this is crucial in non-Anglophone countries such as India
where the retail industry requires visionary leadership to grow the industry (Bolden,2016).
For example, British born Karl Slym ran Tata Motors, a fortune 500 company exceptionally
because he knew how to lead the company despite there being a challenge of communication
because most people in the company do not speak English as their first language and yet Tata
Motors grew in turnover.

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Image: management and leadership performance in retail industry
Source: https://www.researchgate.net/figure/The-effects-of-competencies-on-leadership-
performance-in-retail-trade-industry
For management and leadership to transforma an industry and especially in a non
Anglophonic country then the leader should have dynamic thinking ability, be able to interact
with their staff and have a continuous learning towards the culture and practices of the
people. It is also important as he is able to project optimism, communicate, manage conflict
And have self control and emotional self awareness.
To be aware that a leader must be a leader because of their language, by the way they
say things, is basic. In this way, among the communicative virtues of a true champion will
always be a great verbal discipline to improve what is necessary. In addition, a good leader
must do homework beforehand (Răducan & Răducan,2014). In the retail industry, when a
good leader takes over there are so many huddles that are done away with because people
will follow a person with good leadership and management skills. That is to say, it will

LEADERSHIP AND MANAGEMENT
always be easier to lead if we know what we want to transmit and we limit the conjunctions
as "but" that indicate a contraposition and do not transmit security.
Also the tone is important for a leader, for example a person who speaks softly or the
one who shouts are difficult to follow. Therefore, a leader should use uninhibited language
without great changes in volume, but with tones to attract attention.Of course the language
must be direct and able to motivate its employees, treat them as people and not as resources.
In the end, the leader must convince people through language and for that he should
empathize with them, know their lives and their problems (Renz, 2016). If we add to this
elements in the speech that highlights its authenticity, the message will come even better.
And of course, you must not only use spoken language, but you must use body language to
convey everything you want. After all, you can often come up with the right words, but if
your body does not accompany the message, the employee may get the wrong impression.
Application in the industry
The key role of any management and leadership is to transform a company. When the companies
in a particular industry are transformed then the industry also grows. The leaders in this industry
will make transformation meaningful. If a CEO’s of a company in the industry believes in a cause,
he or she will go to great lengths to ensure that they achieve the said cause (Amanchukwu,
Stanley & Ololube 2015). For leaders in this industry , they will make the other employees work
hard for them to achieve the industry’s objective. They also model desired behavior and role
modelling to their staff and encourage workers to practice and support the new type of behavior in
the transformational journey Hayton, J. (2015). Building a committed and strong team is part of
the leadership journey of a leader. In the non-Anglophonic countries, CEO’s who makes tough
decisions and has the ability to motivate his workers is usually the most successful.

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References
Amanchukwu, R. N., Stanley, G. J., & Ololube, N. P. (2015). A review of leadership theories,
principles and styles and their relevance to educational management. Management, 5(1), 6-
14.
Bolden, R. (2016). Leadership, management and organisational development. In Gower
handbook of leadership and management development (pp. 143-158). Routledge.
Barnes, S., Smith, S., & Kempster, S. (2017). Going for gold: leadership development
through a quasi-non-executive board in the SME context. In Field Guide to Leadership
Development. Edward Elgar Publishing.
Goetsch, D. L., & Davis, S. B. (2014). Quality management for organizational excellence.
Upper Saddle River, NJ: pearson.
Hayton, J. (2015). Leadership and Management Skills in SMEs: Measuring associations with
management practices and performance. London, UK.: Department of Business Innovation &
Skills.
McCaffery, P. (2018). The higher education manager's handbook: effective leadership and
management in universities and colleges. Routledge.

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Renz, D. O. (2016). The Jossey-Bass handbook of nonprofit leadership and management.
John Wiley & Sons.
Răducan, R., & Răducan, R. (2014). Leadership and management. Procedia-Social and
Behavioral Sciences, 149, 808-812.