Success story of Hari Menon and big basket

Big Basket team was earlier set up India's first e-commerce site FabMart.com in 1999, and then established the Fabmall-Trinethra chain of more than 200 grocery supermarket stores in southern India. They founded BigBasket in December 2011 as an India's largest online supermarket with a presence in over 25 cities in India. Let’s read the story of the company and the man behind it – Hari Menon! Hari Menon was the Cofounder, CEO and Head of Merchandising at Bigbasket.com.

Childhood and Education

Hari was born in 1963. Hari was born into a middle-class family that lived in Bandra, Mumbai, and was always taught to lead a live that gave him a settled live, a stable job, etc… It was the urge to experiment that pushed him to try out something new.

Hari is an alumnus of BITS Pilani and is married to ‘Shanti Menon’ – principal of ‘The Deen’s Academy’ (Bangalore). She is also the daughter of ‘E Shreedharan’, the man behind the Delhi Metro. Personally, he considers himself to be a Music enthusiast, and also wishes to play in a band someday. He is also an avid cricket fan and a member of the ‘Karnataka Cricket Association’ as well.

The Spark

Hari Menon, co founder and CEO of Big Basket started his career with ORG Systems and worked with TVS Electronics, Wipro InfoTech and Integrated Data Systems. His wide exposure in these companies and subsequently in the education & training space in Manipal over the last few years has placed Hari in a unique position to guide India Skills in making an impactful contribution to the skills development sector in India. Before his entry into the education sector, Hari co-founded Fabmall - a pioneer in internet and grocery retail, wherein he handled a gamut of responsibilities including strategic business planning, raising venture capital, building organizational capabilities and creating a strong IT platform for the retail business. Prior to Fabmall, Hari headed Programme Management at Planetasia.com wherein he oversaw large scale project deliveries involving a wide team of software developers, business analysts, web designers& web writers. Then he co founded Bigbasket in December 2011 in Bangalore by a team of five - V S Sudhakar, Hari Menon, Vipul Parekh, V S Ramesh and Abhinay Choudhari.

What Is Big Basket?

Bigbasket is founded and operated by ‘Supermarket Grocery Supplies Pvt. Ltd.’ It has more than 14000 products and over 1000 brands listed on their catalogue – BigBasket is known as the India’s largest online food and grocery store. It offers a wide range of options in every category to provide you with the best quality products at the lowest prices which include – fresh Rice and Dal, Fruits and Vegetables, Spices and Seasonings, Packaged products, Beverages, Personal care products, Meats, and many more items.

While, BigBasket is an online based company and does not have any brick and mortar stores. It is very simple to order as you need to visit bigbasket.com and choose the products you wish to purchase then add the items to your Shopping Basket and the Big Basket team offer 4 slots per day. Finally chose a convenient payment option (Cash, Sodexo, Credit Card) then products would be delivered to your house.

Currently they are widespread across the locations like Mumbai, Delhi, Mysore, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Vijayawada-Guntur, Pune, Chennai, Madurai, Coimbatore, etc...

The Growth

It all began in 1999. Hari Menon along with five of his friends – VS Sudhakar, Vipul Parekh , Abhinay Choudhari and V S Ramesh launched their online retail website called ‘Fabmart’.

Even though they did manage to get some traction but since their idea was way ahead of its time, they could not shake the masses. And to worsen the whole deal, the dotcom bubble burst happened.

That is when they decided to put the online business on the backseat and focused all the energies on ‘Fabmall’, their physical retail chain of grocery stores. They also merged this chain with another grocery retail chain called – ‘Trinethra’.

Anyway, in a matter of seven years, they expanded their business to 200 stores across Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Kerala. Around the same time, they also decided to sell-off the business to Aditya Birla Group.

That is when they thought of getting back to their original idea online grocery store. As their discussion deepened with serial entrepreneur Krishnan Ganesh, they concluded to go ahead with it. The idea was collectively seeded by serial entrepreneurs and angel investors Krishnan and Meena Ganesh. And finally in December 2011, they launched BigBasket.com!

Soon after the launch, they also received their first funding of $10 Mn from ChrysCapital co-founder Raj Kondur and Ascent Capital. He had earlier invested $4 Mn in Fabmart as well.

According to Hari, the first six to nine months were the most challenging ones. Since they had already faced the heat once with Fabmart, the pressure was even more. The biggest challenge for them was to create and maintain a building capacity to meet customer demand.

This was even more commendable, since they were barely advertising about the brand and mainly relied on word of mouth. As per their stats, more than 45 % of their customers came through references.

By the next one year, they had already expanded to Hyderabad and Mumbai, and were also planning to further increase their services in Delhi, Chennai Pune, Ahmedabad and Kolkata as well.

BigBasket also roped in Bollywood actor – ‘Shah Rukh Khan’ as their brand ambassador, for an undisclosed sum; following which, they also launched a high volume television, digital and print media campaign as well.

BigBasket Business model

BigBasket team along with Hari menon has effectively managed to attain and maintain their success by using various strategies which mainly surround three important factors:

• Unmatchable Customer Service (in all aspects)
• A large variety of products
• An constant innovation using technology

Now the grocery business in India is mainly divided into two types i.e. Planned Purchase and Top-up Purchase. When BigBasket started their operations, it adopted the ‘just-in-time model’ – wherein not only perishable good but every item was brought against an order. In other words, they were purchased-to-order. In this model, the delivery boy directly picks up the item from the vendor, and directly delivers it to the customer. They still use this model for quite-a-few items like Bakery items, Pet food, Small household appliances, etc. which are not feasible to store.

Over the period of time, as their business grew, they moved on to an ‘inventory model’ (for most of its products), and BigBasket now buys products directly from suppliers like – HUL, P&G, farmers, mills, etc and then stocks these in warehouses. BigBasket then adds a margin to the purchased price of the product before selling them.

They have a completely automated process of initial inventory stocking and post its completion, re-ordering! The company uses analytics to predict their weekly demand, with the help of which they optimize their logistics and supply volumes to drive better margins.

This ‘Single-point stocking’ greatly helps the company to strictly manage the shrinkage and rejection of products, and also helps them to invest the saved money in advertising as well.

More recently, BigBasket has been seen adopting a hyper local strategy, wherein, it has partnered with more than 1,800 neighborhood grocery stores across India to deliver goods in under an hour.

Awards
	Icon Award for Entrepreneurship
	Owler 2017 Top Rated CEO Award
	AWS Mobility Awards 2017
	Retail and eCommerce app of the year
Quotes
	If people who have invested in your company are not aligned with your business and strategy, you are completely screwed. Even though this process is time-consuming, it was crucial to our success.
	Start your fundraising early. Start the process 6 months in advance. Fundraising is also dependent on external factors such as market fluxes and investor sentiments. Hence I would recommend that you raise more than you need

Hope viewers caught up the spark …

For more interesting updates follow wisdomjobs

How to answer for why do you want to leave your Job?

You have applied for the job and got an interview call. You have answered all the questions with confident but stocked up at a question why do you leave your last job?. Your resume speaks a lot about your academic qualifications and your professional experiences you have and achievements and other details. Wisdom jobs complaints say that interviewer tests your communication and your confidence levels at an interview. The next common question asked in an interview is why do you leave your last job? Now, we discuss this question and on which grounds the interviewer expects to answer this question. Below tips may help in answering this question:

What exactly recruiters want to hear from you?

Your interviewer will be keen to hear from you the reasons you carry from your previous job. He may expect the other reasons like official conflicts, stress and any other reasons to make you change your job. The reason which you are going to tell will explore you as what kind of employee you are. Here you can also explain if you have any work gaps and hops if any.

Even the interviewer also expect to know that what will be your career goals and how this job change will gift with your long-term career goals. They will also check how you will add value to their organization and long-term question with their organization.

How to face this question?

Wisdom jobs reviews found that answer with a positive tone and explain the reasons why you are going to change your job. If you have any bitter experiences with your previous job, then explain them with a confident voice in a positive way. Be brief and concise and up to the point. The suggestive answers will be:

·         Searching for new opportunities and challenges

·         A wish to work for a multinational company or larger and established company

·         Shifting in the domain

How not to answer?

Go through wisdom jobs career edge for more details. Never criticize or badmouth about your previous employer. Never highlight salary matters, conflicts, and other issues at the workplace. The reasons for changing your job should present in a positive tone. The answers should reflect as you work for organization growth and add value to your profile.

E-learning and skill evaluation through wisdom jobs

Pragnya meter tool is an online skill evaluation tool designed to meet the needs of job seekers and employers. It is an innovative recruitment tool for employers and skill assessment tool for job seekers.

Jobseeker perspective:

A job seeker can explore technical ability on their chosen skillset with the help of pragnya meter score and presents them on their profile. Wisdom jobs Gulf complaints say that Pragnya meter score helps in resume screening to get shortlisted for the job among the equally qualified job applicants. It showcases your skill rating and let you stand apart from the crowd by keeping your profile in limelight. job applicants can explore their knowledge of multiple skills and present the pragnya score to the employers.

Employer perspective:

An employer may found the profiles with pragnya meter score which enable them to rate the skills of a potential job seeker. We have pragnya meter auto search tool enables to find skill rated candidates as per the specific location, skill, salary range, and keywords. It reduces the time and cost in the recruitment process.

Wisdom jobs Gulf assessment tool -Pragnya meter features:

► Online exam tool to rate a candidate skills
► Great opportunity to rate your skills and publish on your profile
► Multiple questions based exam pattern
► Visit our site and book your slot on your convenience
► Customized exam patterns on 24/7 basis
► Take exam on your skill from 6000 skills
► Pragnya meter score presents a candidate skill and appears on your CV
► An outstanding Pragnya score helps in short listing of profile
► An employer can conduct their own pragnya meter tests to shortlist candidates Or else he/can choose from the pragnya score rated database
► Saves time and cost in profile sourcing
► Support team to solve the queries

6 top career options for Saudi Arabia women

Over the last decade, KSA has achieved sustainable growth in education for women and the country is initiating women-friendly reforms by the late King Abdullah to join the workforce. Saudi Vision 2030 a diversification plan designed to increase women participation in the workforce from 22 to 30%. Check out for the latest jobs posted on wisdomjobs gulf.

The  Saudi government has made several initiatives to encourage women workforce to connect with university degrees to job opportunities, maternity leaves increments from 4 to 10 weeks and companies having more than 15 employees have been initiated to set up child care centers.

Wisdom jobs Gulf review reports say that number of Saudi working women had grown by 130% over last four years. Following careers are available for the Saudi Arabia women who wish to seek career:

1. Healthcare: Whether you are looking for a nurse job, doctor job, healthcare staff job or pharmacy job there’s a more demand for women professionals.

2. Education: Education is one of the top career choices for women across global. In KSA teaching is considered as the greatest way of earning source for women. Plenty of opportunities are there for women teachers and lecturers.

3. Retail: A royal decree in 2011 has encouraged Saudi women to select a career opportunity in the retail sector. Wisdom jobs complaints study report mention that female employment in the sector has created nearly 50000 jobs in a year and now it’s common to see women serving as sales staff or working as cashiers.

4. IT: A large number of software houses and IT firms are looking for software engineers, system managers, and software developers. While companies are offering work from home option to encourage women professionals.

5. Consultancy: The demand for skilled employees is always high be it design, marketing, business intelligence, risk management, supply chain or quality assurance, the options are many.

6. Administration: Many companies in Saudi Arabia are looking for women administrators who are able to manage their offices and other responsibilities. Having good management and communication skills are mandatory.

10 Tips for a successful career plan

Career plan is Important as it will help you for smooth flow of future. A clearly spelt career plan is essential for achieving long career goals. According to wisdom jobs gulf reviews, following tips may help you in achieving career goals:

1.     Think before changing your job: Don’t plan to quit your job as your friends or family members are doing so. It is your career and you have to build your career. So, take decision accordingly and build your career with wisdom jobs.

2.     Design a career goal: Take a paper and note down all your career goals. Now, take a decision and make sure yourself that what you are planning to aim in your life. Wisdom jobs gulf complaints report say that your career map will help you in designing your career strategies clearly.

3.     Your goal should have a plan to fulfill: Note down your career goals, which you want to fulfill in coming 12 months. Also draw actions accordingly.

4.     Update your skills if needed: Be honest in evaluating your skills. Check yourself that whether you have updated skills or not? Analyze your strengths and weaknesses by discussing clearly with your peers and others.

5.     Concentrate on required skills: Set an achievable goal and plan according to that. Upgrade your skills and set timelines to evaluate the plan.

6.     Never give-up: Be target oriented and never-give-up you plan, if you have faced any obstacles.

Below myths needed to be ignored while designing your career goal:

  

7.     Career counseling is must: A career counselor from wisdomjobs.com can guide in taking a decision but he is not the decision maker.

8.     I have to choose the most ongoing career: Most of the people will choose their career as per the market trends. But, see yourself that it is suitable for you or not.

9.     I have to follow the same career for many years: There is no rule that you have to follow the same career for lifelong. You can always change careers as per your wish.

10.  I don’t have unique skills: If you don’t have unique skills, no need to worry about that. Update them regularly. 

Wisdom Jobs - Key to workplace success !

Workplace is a heterogeneous mixture of people with different qualifications, aspirations, and hierarchy working under the same roof towards a common goal of the organization as per the study of Wisdom jobs. We spend at least half of our time at the workplace (a minimum of 8hrs). All of us want to survive and succeed at the workplace immaterial to the job position we take-up. Workplace ethics include a number of things like dress code to be followed at the workplace, Interpersonal skills and communication, team dynamics, management, office politics and grapevine especially in India and personal issues that could affect you and your work are to be addressed without any delay.

If all the workplace parameters are maintained at equilibrium, output of all the employees would be high and in turn help in the growth of organization as well as the employees. The employees would learn new things from each other and achieve success in their career climbing up the corporate ladder.

Wisdomjobs.com reviews says that , if you want to fulfill your job requirements and achieve success at the work place you need to follow the following principles:

Set your goals: Keep the clear picture of your goals to be achieved by the end of your project and make suitable action plans. You should be strongly confined to your goals, review them regularly, correct the deviations, and evaluate your progress and be accountable. A clear path to achieve your goals makes your efforts towards your goals very easy. Always remember that your goals should be congruent to that of organization and not of any personal interests says career experts of wisdomjobs.com.

Set your own standards: Define few standards and principles based on you abilities, capabilities, experience, and knowledge. Do not try to blindly follow complicated social and cultural norms. Let your values and defined principles guide you and help you to operate your business and life accordingly.

Wisdom Jobs Intro.!!!

Wisdomjobs.com is one of the best job search sites in India. It is the first skill assessment based job portal that offers free skill testing to job seekers. With more than 30 million registered candidates, out of whom 14 million are skill-tested, Wisdom Jobs is helping job seekers to make the step up from just being listed to getting shortlisted.

Wisdom Jobs’ free skill testing tool – Pragnya Meter – helps you to take an unlimited number of skill tests, on more than 6000 skills, and to showcase your test scores to recruiters along with their profiles. This gives you a better chance of being shortlisted for over 4 lakh job vacancies on the website. In addition to job opportunities, Wisdomjobs.com also provides free online course material, interview questions and practice tests on more than 4000 skills through its online knowledge library – E-University.

Wisdom Jobs is a single stop for your job search, skill testing, skill development and resume writing services. Whatever be the opening (or naukri) that you are looking for, chances are that you would find it on Wisdomjobs.com. Be it IT jobs, Pharma jobs, Bank jobs, fresher jobs, govt. jobs, non voice jobs in Bangalore or BPO jobs in Hyderabad, you can find the latest job vacancies with us.

Wisdomjobs reviews are listed in all major review boards with a lot of positiveness