Deepali Rao

Was discussing with a colleague on how corporate employees in India deliberately avoid revealing their next orgs after resignation. The fear is primarily powered by the thought that the folks from the current company might sabotage it via existing networks given the long notice periods. I also think this is a baggage from our corporate history where at one point the IT services industry dominated and switches were largely within those 4-5 orgs and some sabotage stories have eventually spread across generations leading to manifestation of this distrust. Exits need to be treated as transitions and not betrayals. I remember being inspired by a senior colleague who took 'happy exits(both internal and external)' as a mission. While the behaviour needs to be modelled across the org, a safe exit culture should be a primary KRA for all leaders.  #RandomWeekendMusings

90

4 Comments

🎙️  I recently joined Darshan Suthar on his podcast to dive deep into building product at enterprise scale, the reality of experimentation, and the nuances of crafting omnichannel experiences. We went deep into: Why 70% of your experiments should fail (if they aren't, you aren't taking enough risky bets) Offline vs. Online Data: How we create "proxies" for clicks and wishlists in physical stores The 5-Step Data Framework: From instrumenting events to the "Sense, Predict, Act" model First Principles Thinking: My approach to mapping customer friction and validating hypotheses Building in India vs. Silicon Valley: Navigating India's heterogeneous market vs. the "global scale from day one" mindset Nudges & Xccelerators: Using scarcity, urgency, and social proof (and the critical need for guardrails) Hiring Mid-Level PMs: Why I look for "Data vs. Ego" and Second-Order thinking The Pyramid Principle: Why communication is a Product Manager's superpower Would love to hear your thoughts on scaling product culture in large organizations! 👇 📺  YouTube: [https://ytubl.ink/3JMQ] 🎵  Spotify: [https://bitl.to/5W6c] 🍎 Apple Podcasts: [https://bitl.to/5W6d] #productmanagement #Omnichannel #ProductStrategy #DataScience #GrowthProduct #Leadership #RetailTech #Experimentation #DigitalTransformation

56

8 Comments

These are the two signals that I use to predict if someone is going to quit/actively looking out: 1. These folks have lunch alone in office. This indicates they aren't socially embedded with the org, so below a certain level, this becomes a demotivator for the person to come to office. This also loosely translates to the HR survey questions around "do you have a friend in the office?" 2. Their LinkedIn profile is fully optimised. Their resume is updated and they have now copied that stuff on their LinkedIn in case they have to apply via Linkedin. Here the input might vary say stagnation, pay dissatisfaction, work-life conflict etc. but output converges to this one act.#RandomWeekendMusings

35

1 Comment

Grateful for this conversation and the opportunity to share how we think about real-time systems at scale. At Purplle, performance is not a technical metric — it’s a customer promise. When millions of users expect instant, personalised experiences, every millisecond matters. In this discussion with Nihal Singh and Sonia Benmouffok, we spoke about how our teams use Redis to power some of the most performance-critical workflows — from dynamic pricing and inventory to session management and personalisation — while staying reliable during peak traffic. What stood out for me is not the technology itself, but the engineering mindset behind it: - Designing for scale early - Treating latency as a product feature - Building systems that allow teams to move fast without compromising stability Credit goes to the incredible engineering, data, and platform teams at Purplle who make this possible every day. If real-time performance and personalisation are part of your roadmap, this is a thoughtful watch. Thanks to ETCIO Brand Connect Initiative for facilitating the conversation. #Leadership #EngineeringAtScale #RealTimeSystems #Personalisation #RetailTech #Redis #India

26

In a timely Winning At Retail podcast, I speak to Sudhanshu Gupta Mirchi Labs on the The Critical Importance of Product Setup for Small & Founder-Led Brands Key Insights: 1. Product Data as a Strategic Foundation Small brands often underestimate the complexity of product data management. According to Sudu Gupta, CEO of Mirchi Labs, the first product SKU setup is essentially a brand's reputation - getting it right sets the stage for future success. 2. The Hidden Challenges of Product Setup - Product setup is more than just a sale; it's the beginning of a critical retail partnership - Small errors can cascade into significant problems:  * Delayed product launches  * Missed promotional opportunities  * Sales interruptions  * Mounting team frustration 3. Why DIY Product Setup Can Be Dangerous Founders are experts in their products, not in: - Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) - Complex retail portal requirements - Intricate data syndication processes 4. The Data Pyramid: What Retailers Really Want Product data layers include: - Basic information (dimensions, descriptions, images) - Retail-specific feed requirements - Advanced data (GDSN, sustainability attributes, lifecycle details) 5. Benefits of Outsourcing Product Setup - Prevents administrative bloat - Provides predictable costs - Ensures speed and accuracy - Allows founders to focus on core business growth - Reduces operational stress Key Takeaway: Invest in professional product data management to transform your first product setup from a potential pitfall into a strategic advantage. By partnering with experts, small brands can navigate complex retail ecosystems efficiently and professionally. #retailreadiness #data #retail #CPGIndustry

40

3 Comments

Moderately-priced, higher-intent products in your store could be prime candidates for bundling. At Apteo and Nobi, I've done several analyses that have shown that certain products in your store have higher intent than others. For example, If you're a high-end footwear company, your highest priced items may be handmade shoes, but it's possible, and even likely that a large portion of your customers want to buy your socks. Or if you make luxury jackets, many of your customers may still want to buy your tees. One interesting pattern I've noticed is that these items, which tend to be less pricey than your main products, tend to have higher intent. People searching for them will check out more frequently. And they'll buy these items in pairs or bundles, getting one of each different style or color. If you're a brand that has lots of different items, it could be a good idea to take a look at your data and see if you're missing any bundling opportunities. (We do this for our customers at Nobi automatically).

3

In the midst of 2025’s economic turbulence—marked by surging layoffs across tech giants like Meta, Amazon, and Intel, as well as sectors from retail to manufacturing—many companies are grappling with shrinking revenues, mounting losses, and severe staffing shortages. 0 5 October alone saw U.S. job cuts hit a two-decade high, driven by cost-cutting pressures, AI disruptions, tariffs, and policy shifts, leaving workers anxious and teams stretched thin. It’s in these tough times that true leadership is tested—and too often, leaders falter. When sales plummet and resources dwindle, it’s tempting to revert to old, destructive habits: the blame game kicks in, finger-pointing replaces strategy, and frustration boils over into heavy-handed discipline. But this is precisely when we must resist that pull. The fundamentals that built our success—clear vision, collaboration, and resilience—don’t vanish in a downturn; they’re just harder to summon. If you’re a leader navigating this storm, pause and remember: your team is weathering it too. They’re dealing with the same uncertainties, perhaps even more acutely, with heavier workloads and eroded morale. This isn’t the moment to become the problem—a micromanaging supervisor or a source of added stress. Instead, it’s your chance to earn your stripes. Dig deep: Deconstruct the situation. Reflect on your peak performance eras—how was the team operating at its best? What processes, mindsets, and supports drove those wins? Recreate that foundation now. Shift from enforcer to enabler: Offer guidance over criticism, foster open dialogue to rebuild trust, and provide the resources (even if limited) to help your people thrive amid the chaos. Leadership isn’t a title; it’s a commitment, especially when the going gets rough. In 2025’s wave of challenges, let’s choose to lead with empathy and purpose. Your team—and your legacy—will thank you. #Leadership #ToughTimes #Resilience #Assetprotection #Lossprevention #LossPreventionFoundation #Grit

26

6 Comments

🎙 Just In: A Powerful Podcast by Nitin Ravi In this insightful episode, Nitin dives deep into the real-world pain points faced by operations and facility teams — challenges that often go unnoticed but directly impact efficiency, compliance, and visibility on the ground. From manual task tracking to delayed escalations, from zero real-time visibility to SOP non-adherence — these are pain points we hear daily from the ground level up. What’s exciting? These aren't just problems we've identified — they’re problems we’re solving through our platform. If you're in operations, facility management, or compliance and resonate with even one of these, this podcast is a must-listen. #OperationsExcellence #FacilityManagement #SaaS #ProblemSolving #LeadershipTalk #DigitalTransformation #Pazo

4

Indian Retail requires smart teams at ground to follow execution seamlessly. Today in retail lot of raw talent is available which can be trained and retrained from time to time to increase operations excellence. Making operations auto driven through defined processes tracked with apps in mobile phone. It can drive from people centric processes to process centric processes. In general, managers who are supposed to drive delegate to juniors and then not check regularly which can lead to execution gaps. The solution is ask only managers... https://lnkd.in/gxvTfYbD

3

In Deepinder Goyal’s #podcast with Raj Shamani, what stayed with me was the post-delivery conversation: Customer experience is built in your resolution process, not your ad copy. A few years ago, I watched a pattern in e-commerce that looked harmless on dashboards: 📈 complaints creeping up 📉 trust slipping quietly 📈 margins leaking in small, “acceptable” amounts This week, Raj Shamani’s podcast with #DeepinderGoyal simply put words to what many of us already see in the field: Some customers don’t just “raise an issue”… they manufacture one. Objects planted, evidence staged, and now even AI-edited photos to make a false complaint look real. This is where many brands swing to the other extreme: They tighten policies so much that genuine #customers start feeling interrogated. That’s the hidden trap. Because the moment your post-purchase experience feels unfair, your marketing stops working — even if your #ads are brilliant. The real #retail lesson from that conversation: Don’t run refunds on emotion. Run them on patterns. One-off issue? Resolve fast, protect trust. Repeat behaviour? Add friction, protect the ecosystem. Same rulebook every time? 𝐏𝐫𝐨𝐭𝐞𝐜𝐭 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐛𝐫𝐚𝐧𝐝. In organised retail and e-commerce, this is no longer a “support” topic. It’s a 𝐏&𝐋 + 𝐫𝐞𝐭𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐭𝐨𝐩𝐢𝐜. Marketing ends at checkout. The #brand begins after delivery. Question: In your business today, what’s the bigger growth lever — customer acquisition… or post-purchase trust? #Ecommerce #Retail #CustomerExperience #MarketingStrategy #Operations #PandL #Retention

16

2 Comments

🚀 India’s Retail Surge: A CEO Wake-Up Call India’s retail sector just posted a 4x jump in deal value in one quarter - from under $800M to $3.4B in Q3 2025. That’s momentum! and it’s quietly rewriting the global retail playbook. 🔍 Why the spike happened? 1️⃣ Omnichannel consolidation is accelerating. Reliance Retail continues to buy across categories - from fashion to quick commerce. Tata Group is connecting Croma, Westside, Starbucks & BigBasket under one digital umbrella. Flipkart is doubling down on supply chain partnerships and grocery expansion. 2️⃣ Investor confidence is back. Private equity and sovereign funds are returning - betting big on India’s consumption story. Apparel, food, and consumer tech are leading, powered by logistics tech and AI adoption. 3️⃣ Tier-2 and Tier-3 cities are the new growth engines. Zudio, D-Mart, and Nykaa prove that aspiration + affordability now coexist outside metros. The next billion-dollar retail stories won’t come from Mumbai - they’ll come from Indore, Surat, and Lucknow. 🌍 Lessons for Global Retail CEOs 🔹 Localisation at scale wins. India doesn’t reward imported playbooks - it rewards context-driven ecosystems. H&M’s India-exclusive collections and IKEA’s small-format stores show how localisation drives growth. 🔹 Ecosystem thinking beats category thinking. Retail isn’t about stores anymore - it’s about networks. Payments, loyalty, delivery, and content now define the customer experience. 🔹 Agility is the new scale. Indian retailers scale through fragmentation - micro-pilots, regional SKUs, and flexible supply chains. Global leaders can learn: test → localise → expand, not the other way around. 🔮 The future playbook India is a blueprint for the next era of retail. AI-personalised commerce at mass-market prices. Digital-first brands like boAt, Nykaa, and Lenskart going global. A young, tech-savvy, value-driven consumer base rewriting loyalty. Its worth asking yourself - “How do we apply India’s ecosystem mindset everywhere?” #RetailLeadership #IndiaRetail #RetailInnovation #GlobalStrategy #ConsumerTrends #DigitalTransformation #CXOInsights #RetailTransformation #StrategyLeadership #FutureOfRetail

15

5 Comments

KOHL'S SHARES SURGE 25% AS TURNAROUND SHOWS MOMENTUM — RETAILER LIFTS OUTLOOK Kohl's shares jumped around 25% on November 25 after the department store chain raised its full-year outlook and posted a surprise quarterly profit, signaling its turnaround is gaining traction. The stock has now climbed more than 150% since hitting a low in April. The company improved its full-year sales outlook, now expecting a 3.5% to 4% decline compared with a prior forecast of a 5% to 6% drop. Comparable sales are now expected to decline 2.5% to 3%, versus a previous outlook of 4% to 5%. For the quarter ended November 1, Kohl's posted a profit of $8 million, or 7 cents a share. Sales slipped 2.9% to $3.41 billion but came in ahead of the $3.32 billion Wall Street expected. Comparable sales fell 1.7%, less steep than the 3.7% decline analysts projected. The earnings report came a day after Kohl's named Michael Bender as its permanent CEO. Bender had served as interim CEO since May, after Ashley Buchanan was fired for violating the company's ethics code. Bender is the Menomonee Falls, Wisconsin company's fourth CEO in as many years. Kohl's has been working to reverse years of missteps and sales declines. The company has been repositioning departments in its stores and restoring previously scaled-back categories. "We are focused on building on this momentum, as we remain committed to delivering quality products, great value, and a frictionless experience to our customers in an uncertain macroeconomic environment," Bender said. The results show that basic retail blocking and tackling can still work. Kohl's didn't unveil a radical reinvention. It fixed merchandising mistakes, restored cut categories, and repositioned store layouts. The 150% stock recovery since April suggests investors will reward operators who execute well on fundamentals, even in a challenging department store environment. For a sector written off as terminal decline, Kohl's proves there's still value in getting the basics right.

14

3 Comments

Nike just killed SNKRS in India. Nike might be thinking that they did the smart thing. "Fixed operations. Better customer experience." I think they just torched their cultural moat for a logistics problem they could have solved differently. --- ❗ THE PROBLEM THEY SAW: Delivery delays. BIS compliance issues. Angry customers. ❗ THE SOLUTION THEY CHOSE: Hand operations to Nykaa. Lost: SNKRS (premium drops) + Nike By You (customization) Combined impact: No exclusivity, no personalization ❗ THE PROBLEM WITH THIS: They fixed operations. But they killed positioning. --- Here's what Nike actually lost: ➖ SNKRS wasn't 100K or 150K customers. It was 100K or 150K cultural distributors. ➖ Every drop = 1000s of Instagram posts (free marketing) ➖ Every resale = demand signal (market data) ➖ Every sneakerhead = 10 friends who see the flex (organic reach) You can't put "CULTURE" on a P&L. But it shows up in pricing power 2 years later. Nike just traded that for faster delivery. --- 👉 What they should've done: Keep SNKRS. Partner with Nykaa for logistics only. → Nykaa handles warehousing + last mile → Nike keeps the app, customer data, drop mechanics → Validate it works (6 months) → Build local infrastructure in parallel Best of both: local execution + brand control. They went straight to full handoff instead. --- 👉 What happens next: 🔷 2026: Operations fixed. NPS up. Problem solved. 🔷 2027: Nike realizes they have 0 data on premium buyers. Can't personalize. Can't retarget. Can't do exclusive drops. 🔷 2028: India's sneaker culture explodes (~18.7% CAGR market) But now: Nike's just another shoe brand. Adidas, New Balance and ASICS own the drops, the culture and the distribution. ‼️ 2029: Nike tries to rebuild SNKRS. But the sneakerheads have already moved on. --- 🎖️ THE PM LESSON here: Great PMs ask: "What are we sacrificing to fix this?" Nike optimized for operations. They ignored positioning. 👉 In consumer brands, CULTURE and ecosystem compound. Once you lose it, you can't buy it back. --- 🤟 The answer isn't "never partner." It's "partner intelligently." Keep: Data. Relationships. Brand positioning. Outsource: Logistics. Warehousing. Compliance. ‼️ Nike did the opposite. And in 3-5 years, when someone asks "Why did we exit the premium segment?" The answer will be: We optimized for the wrong metric. #ProductManagement #ProductStrategy #ProductThinking #D2C #Nike

31

4 Comments

🚀 This year, we began laying the groundwork for something ambitious — bringing MetricsCart’s digital shelf intelligence to India with a dedicated #QuickCommerce analytics stack built for Blinkit, Zepto, Instamart, and ONDC-native brands. What drew us to India’s quick commerce market is the challenge — and the opportunity: ✅ Hyperlocal visibility different store-to-store ✅ Stockouts and discounts changing hourly ✅ Velocity signals hidden behind dark stores ✅ Price-pack architecture driving brand perception at SKU level Instead of building a dashboard first, we built the infrastructure: ⚡ Real-time data ingestion across multiple quick commerce apps ⚡ Fast SKU reconciliation to handle messy catalog data ⚡ City & store-level visibility in near real time ⚡ Merchant-level signals for category benchmarking Now, after months of engineering and field testing with early pilot brands, MetricsCart’s India Quick Commerce Intelligence layer is live — powering: ⚡ Daily-updated pricing and discount visibility ⚡ Demand signals mapped to SKU & pack-size performance ⚡ True availability tracking at a store/city level ⚡ Competitive product positioning at lightning speed This launch is personal for us — because it reflects the future of how CPG decisions will be made in India: not quarterly, not monthly, but daily. We’re just getting started. If you’re building for quick commerce or scaling a D2C/CPG brand in India — let’s talk. This next chapter is going to move fast. Find the link to our offering in the comments. 🔥

9

3 Comments

Had a good time speaking at the 10th Edition of Product Management Summit in Bangalore a few days back. My session for seasoned Product leaders covered how to measure success of any product, creating and analysing segmented retention curves, how to nurture a set of engaged (and loyal) power users, and how closely episodic NPS is correlated with customer retention for high repeat businesses. Also spoke about the link between product strategy, OKRs, and KPIs.

29

Reading The Economic Times this morning, there was an interesting piece citing a BCG report. The numbers are hard to ignore. India’s retail market is projected to grow from ~₹90–95 trillion today to ₹210–215 trillion by 2035. Translated that’s: •⁠ ⁠₹115–120 trillion of incremental value •⁠ ⁠More than 2x expansion •⁠ ⁠8–9% compounded annual growth for a decade Interestingly, that CAGR is broadly in line with India’s projected nominal GDP growth!! Which means retail isn’t just expanding it’s moving with the economy itself. On paper, that sounds like a dream decade. 📈 But here’s what stood out for me: Organized retail is no longer significantly outpacing the broader market. For years, the formula was simple: Expand footprint. Raise capital. Scale faster. If the market was growing, you were growing. What about now? Consumers are less predictable. AI is reshaping discovery. Digital-native brands move faster. Capital is more disciplined. So here’s the contrarian thought: The next decade in retail may not reward expansion as much as it rewards precision. 🎯 Sharper positioning. Clear trade-offs. Data-led decisions. Relentless execution. The market may double. But I suspect the number of truly strong, profitable brands won’t. I'm curious what do you think will actually separate winners from noise in Indian retail this decade? 💭 #IndianRetail #RetailStrategy #Amuktifashion #Entrepreneurship #Leadership #AIinBusiness #EconomicTimes #BCG

12

2 Comments