Meet the Business Head of Lulu Mall : Shibu Philips

Photos: Jinson Abraham

When FWD media met Shibu Philips, Business Head of Lulu Shopping mall, he was excited that Lulu Shopping Mall just got awarded the best mall in South India in the Images Fashion Awards for the second time in consecution. This tall gentleman has been with the Lulu team from the time they were just setting up back in 2010. He was planning to take a much needed vacation with his family to Chicago the following day. But he says that there is never going to be a day away from work at this era of technology. Throughout the interview, Mr. Philips kept glancing at the computer screen on his table which showed the CCTV footage of various parts of the mall. He constantly kept a check that everything was perfect in the mall, even though there where many assigned to do that. The man loves his job and his staff recognizes his dedication and sincerity he brings in.

Tell us a bit about yourself.

I am a Hotel Management graduate from IHMCT- Mumbai University… I’m also retail professional. I have been with the shopping centerindustry for the last 12 years now. I have been working with brands like Orbit, which was one of the pioneers of shopping center industry back in 2004. I also had the privilege to head the business of mall of Oberoi. That’s one of the premium malls in Bombay today. After that obviously the mall which India was waiting for. The one Kerala is proud of. I have been here for the last five years and been there from the construction. Was part of the team that planned and put life in to the mall. Picking and choosing each and everything that you see today.

It is such a large work force here. How do you manage it?

Lulu has 2 divisions. We have a retail division which has more than 2000 employees working in various shifts.  The mall management has 100. We have a mall management division which is comparitively very small.

What is the profile of the staff here like?

Basically Kerala has a lot of talent. Education is not a problem here. But opportunities are limited. There was an initial period where huge number of people went to other states or the gulf on pursuit of a job. But today Lulu provides that opportunity.

There are so many employees here from other states. Is that because there is a scarcity in availability of local talent?

The world is evolving and people are moving to all parts. People from other states come in for work over here. Malayalis also work all over the world. So what are we complaining about?

You have once said that in order for a company to stay on top they have to constantly reinvent. How do you reinvent yourself?

Customer feedback is one way. We try to listen to their opinions through all mediums. They write to us or connect through social media. Retailers also help us to understand customer demand. We make changes accordingly. Major changes will always be done by the chairman, Mr. M. A. Yousuf Ali, who has over 115 outlets that sees 5.2 lakh customers on daily basis, and mostly visitors are Indians. I remember a customer telling me that the Keralites who used to buy products from the dirty local markets can now purchase from the air conditioned lulu hypermarket wearing their fine clothes. Today we are able to change the way people shop by understanding the psychographics and demographics of the customer. Today if lulu hypermarket is still getting huge footfalls then that is because you can’t get this sort of facility anywhere else. If we are having 34% of the market share in the Middle East then it is because of the vision of the Managing Director, M.A. Yousuf Ali. Out of 38,000 employees, 24,000 are from Kerala.

 What makes the Lulu mall here similar or different from that you find in the Middle East?

There is no comparison with two different markets. The Hypermarket we have might be similar but the fashion is different. The product consumption in a daily basis everywhere is different. 80% of the Asians coming in there would be Indians. But a mall is for everyone.  Gulf is a place where people from all countries visit. All their taste is supposed to be considered. Space fordifferent products of varies countries are given. Here, even though we have international brands, the fashion here is a bit more predictable and doesn’t have as much variety as you might find in Bangalore orMumbai. But it is slowly growing. So we can’t compare malls of different places. Everything will be different.  The Hypermarket in gulf will have to include the palette of taste of the Arab or Chinese.

So are you saying the consumption pattern of Malayalis in the gulf differentfrom them in Kerala?

Not really. They are all the same.  One thing we have learned is that no matter where you are customers are not really sure what they have to buy. So it is we who have to teach them what suits them. If you go to our ethnic wedding shop, there will be someone there to guide you to help you purchase what all need to be bought for the wedding days.

Is the spacing for the retail outlets here any different from other malls of Lulu?

It is similar. We have built it in the way that the Indian retailers want it. We have kept the international standards and have not compromised on the heights and size of the stores.  We have designed it to match any mall of international status. Today what happens is through the internet people can see anything. So the consumers have become more global.So we have done things accordingly and have not compromised on anything.

Any plan of expansion?

We are planning to start a project in Calicut, Trivandrum and other southern metros including Bangalore. It will happen very soon.

What can we expect from Lulu the coming years?

More on fashion—changes will be more on apparels we sell. All the other quotient in this mall is thelatest and nothing more could be done. It is all the best. You have the best of the best brands available here.

Any particular brand that we can expect to see?

We don’t want to expose all that.  Today you get most things in online shopping. We are actually very happy that ecommerce has come. It is educating people. it is encouraging consumption. But ecommerce companies are burning a lot of money trying to compete with the market. They are actually functioning at a loss. They will have to come out on public rather soon and at that time they have to show a profit on the kind of business they do– which they won’t be able to. At that time the consumers will understand that this is not an everyday possibility and by that we will be ready by having all that they can consume online. Moreover the kind of fashion you buy from online is sold in a mass. The fashion element is lost when more people wear the same clothes.One other thing is that till yesterday Kerala didn’t have any venues to showcase their fashion. Like Mumbai have a lot of page 3 parties. The culture of pubs and discotheques are very common. That is not the case in Kerala. But it is slowly changing.

Now that Lulu has also Marriott what else can we expect?

Hyatt is coming up soon. It is amore premium brand hotel. All the shopping malls we are building will have a shopping mall next to it.

Which category of this mall did you find to be the most challenging?

We clearly knew women and men apparel fashion was going to be a challenge in Kerala. Today the trends are changing from the ethnic wears they used. Now we come to learn that, women who used to have 20 pairs of shoes in their wardrobe now has 200 of them. This makes us very happy. Our shoe section is doing really well. It is showing some great numbers. Earlier men used to have a pair of shoes for each purpose. Now that becomes two pairs. Even cars… people have now three cars.

Is there any particular customer demand that actually surprised you?

Kerala has highest density of cars. Everyday customer is asking for more parking spaces. We see people coming from very far… even from neighboring states. So we are seeing to that.

Wouldn’t this large inflow of vehicles to Lulu affect the traffic of the city?

We have 3000 parking spaces at Lulu. On an average we rotate it four times, so 12,000 cars can come in. So it is not like they are waiting on the road to come in. Generally the entire state has narrow roads.  And on top of it we have narrowed it even more by constructing. That has led to the traffic problems. The roads inside the malls are wider and if you come here on a Sunday, we have a five lane inside the mall. The outside road has only two lanes. We are actually helping the government.  We just now inaugurated a 1000 car MLCP (Multi Level Car Parking) which we spend 45 crores on. Weare adding on to the infrastructure development. The neighborhood will not suffer because of us.

Is there more scope of growth for malls in Kerala?

It is there. Other than that, food also has a huge scope of growth. You see there are not many varieties of global food here. You will see a lot of global cuisines coming here. That is going to be one another revolution. The options available here compared to other metros are very less. The third category that has scope for growth is the entertainment category. Because most of the development of these segments will happen only in malls as the infrastructure elsewhere is not par with other places. So with the standard we have already set, it can happen only in malls.

How does it feel to be the Business Head of lulu?

Very proud. I am very happy to be working under a Managing Director who is very visionary. It is his vision that made this awesome. When we planned to start it nobody believed it is possible. But he stood firm by his vision. Now that he has vindicated, we all feel very happy about it.

How do you spend your free hours?

I spend a lot of time reading business books and magazines. I do a lot of cardio workouts too.

What is the most consistent challenge that you deal with here?

That would be the customers asking for more. We just had a meeting discussing the same. We were even discussing what the customer would be asking after 10 years.  At that time, customers would be even coming at driverless cars. So there are things we have already started working on. We understand the future of technology and areplanning accordingly. At present we are providing a 45 mbps Wi-Fi that enables the customer to download anything at a high speed. We have a Facebook page that is the 7th most visited page in India. Technologically we are trying to do everything we can to keep rewarding the customers.  Thanks to all our customers who have spent their precious time and money to us. We feel we are able to enhance the life in Kerala. So everything put together we feel we have done a great job.