Franchise India 2009 Conference

The Entrepreneurship Summit was the biggest draw of the event which covered the entire entrepreneurship spectrum in the cope of starting, selecting, managing and growing a Small & Medium Business. The glittering ceremony was enlivened by top notch entrepreneurs and expert panelists from all over the world.  Commencing with a brief address by Ritu Marya, Editor, Franchise India, the summit was formally inaugurated by Chief Guest, Mr P N Dhoot President Videocon Group.  The summit upholds the idea of self-employment through entrepreneurship wherein franchising plays a major role for the start-ups as well as for the franchisors for rapid growth. The Conference provided aspiring entrepreneurs with a comprehensive overview of the industry covering every vertical including food services, education franchise, apparel and specialty retail. The summit also stresses upon women power which, as the eminent speakers think, has a lot more to offer to entrepreneurship.

The distinguished speakers present at the do were Mr Donald Borrian, Chairman-CEO, Francorp, USA; Mr Anup Bagchi, Executive Director, ICICI Securities Ltd; Mr Tony White, Director, The White Connection; Mr Rod Young, Executive Director, DC Strategy; Mr Rajiv Agarwal, Director & CEO, The Mobile Store; Mr. Vivek Bali,Spice Hotspot,Mr S Ravikant, COO, Titan Eyewear; Mr. Pranav Ansal,V-Chairman,Ansal API, Mr Uday Mathur, Ninad Karpe,MD, Aptech, , Managing Director, Eurokids; Akhil Chaturvedi, MD, Provogue, Mr Jagdeep Chhabra, Managing Director, Chhabra 555,Mr. Jay Gupta,MD, Loot,; Mr Ashish Kapoor, Managing Director, Yo! China; Mr Sanjay Kapoor, MD, Genesis Colors & Luxury, Neeta Lulla, Eminent Designer; and many other industry stalwarts.

The Franchise Knowledge Series conference was led by Ratan Jalan, Founder – Director, Medium Consulting and began with a presentation from Donald Boroian, Chairman, Francorp USA on ‘Getting started in Franchising’. Then, the podium was handed over to Brian Duckett of The Franchise Co. UK and Rajeev B. Sharma, Country head, Unicon Investment solutions India to discuss on ‘Franchise Marketing Plan’. Uday Mathur of Euro Kids and Rod Young, MD, DC strategy handled a series of advices on effective franchise recruitment process.

Dawn Stallwood, a legal advisor and a commercial partner with Thomas Eggar LLP simplified all ways to legal framework in franchising. Then the session was transferred to Doug Bugie, CEO of Antal International, UK, who spoke on the ways to build a franchise of high value capable of being sold to a public or private company and launched as a public offering. The first day session ended on the discussion with Mahmood Khan, Professor in Hospitality and Tourism Management in VirginiaTech, USA who thrown some light on this aspect of food industry.

The second day was started by Rod Young, who believes in “Good franchising is so much better then independent small business operation”. This sitting was accompanied by Ratan Jalan. Then, Brian Duckett and Arun Khetan, MD, NAKS spoke on the various aspects of getting field staff ready to do business for franchisor and franchisees. Robert F Trota, Chairman, Philippines Franchise Association and Donald Boroian advised on how to export a franchise brand abroad. Post lunch legal expert Babette Marzheuser-Wood, Partner, Field Fisher Water, UK told about what to be expected while partnering with international brands. Following this, Tony white, Regional Development Manager, Gloria Jeans coffees International discussed the whats and hows of franchising in Asian countries. The last session of the day laid importance on managing change in a franchise system. Both Donald and Rod discussed in detail and interacted with the audience on managing such transitions.

The Retail Knowledge Series based on the theme of “Efficient Retailing” had presented eminent experts of the industry of both national and international reputation. Names like Mr Yuri Bolotin, Principal, Design Portfolio; Mr Hemchandra Javeri, an eminent retail expert and MD, Forum Synergies; Ms Marie Louis Jacobsen, MD, Retail Management Solution graced the speakers list of the two day retail episode.  This knowledge series touched upon all the pertinent issues ranging from  store designing, merchandise assortment, retail theft, supply chain efficiency, clout computing in retail, selecting a right location, understanding customers’ preference, multi-channel retailing, customer loyalty programme and branding. The well-known industry experts who spoke on the occasion were Mr Manu Neelakandan, Design Director, Idiom Design & Consulting Ltd; Mr Kush Medhroa, COO, EWDPL; Mr Dheeraj Dogra, GM-Leasing, Express Avenue; Mr Mridumesh Rai, Head- Customer Experience and Head-Sales, Globus; Mr Brendan Dorrian, CEO, Gobal Retail Network; Mr Sandeep Malhotra, CEO HomeshopTV 18; Mr Vineet Kanaujia, GM-Marketing, Safexpress; Mr D. Baskaramoorthy, VP, Posiflex; Mr Neeraj Kapoor, CMO, Loyalty Solutions & Research Limited; Mr Harminder Sahni, MD, Wazir Advisors; Mr Sandeep Kulhalli, VP, Tanishq; Mr Darpan Kapoor, Director, Kapsons; Mr Amol Dhamane, Brand Promoter, Admiral India; and Mr Santosh Srivastava, Managing Director, Gitanjali Jewellery Retail Pvt. Ltd.

Brand Licensing Conference opened with Mr Kelvyn Gardner’s, MD, LIMA-UK, session on basics of licensing. He was also chairing the conference. Mr Gardner started his speech by imploring to sell licenses in order to boost awareness about IP, to aid in the marketing of the core IP and to borrow the competence of licensees. It’s an alternative to brand extension. And last but not the least, to make money. Buy a license, to increase sales, to increase your profile, and obviously to make money was his statement. It’s an alternative to developing one’s brand. This 2-day conference touches upon the topics like legal issues for structuring  a proper licensing deal, challenges in brand licensing, the influence of character, entertainment and animation licensing, role of a licensing agent, right time for a brand to go for licensing, fashion, lifestyle, homestyle and sports licensing. The franchise industry experts who spoke on the occasion were Mr Akhilesh Kumar Rai, IP-Head at AZB Partners; Mr Narayan Ramaswamy, Executive Director, KPMG Advisory; Mr Mark Hurry, Legal and Commercial Director, Picture Production Company Enterprises, UK; Ms Michelle Minieri, President, Bradford Licensing; Mr Nicholas Bloom, AVP, Brand Management, Beanstalk; Mr Joseph Sam, Director, Vedact Advisors; Mr Samir Jain, Director, Green Gold Animation; Mr Pankaj Sikka, Manager- Licensing, Bioworld Merchandising (India) Pvt Ltd; Ms Dwijorani Senjam, Director and Co-founder, Extend Brands; Mr  Ashish Goel, COO & CFO-ACK Media Pvt. Ltd; Mr Sanjay Vakharia, Director, Spykar Lifestyles Pvt. Ltd; Mr Chandan Savera, Retail Business Head, Creative Portico; Mr Anurag Rajpal, VP-Apparel, BHPC; and Mr Utkarsh Singh, Business Head, Rajasthan Royals.