The last three years have really seen our economy go into overdrive. I think what we are witnessing now is only a preview of larger things to come in the next couple of decades. While our stunning strides in the IT business have been largely responsible for driving our growth, I can see more and more industries and services joining the curve. Typically, one will always see between one and three growth engines on any growth curve, but what really excites me is the potential for so many different growth leaders in this phase.

One key problem with our growth over the past 50 years has been the complete lack of focus on infrastructure development, something that has propelled China to where it is today. But again this is something any government or people can only ignore for so long at their own peril. I believe that in the coming years infrastructure development will become the most important engine for our economy.

Growth prospects in India in general are tremendous! With our size and population, there is very little danger of the traditional fear of slowdown in demand. Even as saturation starts to build up in the metros, there are hundreds of small cities and towns that aspire to be metros in the future and step in to provide new markets. The telecom revolution in this country is a case in point.

Sweet and Creamy
However, history will not necessarily support this viewpoint given that over the past few years the ice cream industry has never really grown faster than 10% per annum. But this time I feel the demand will big because of product as well as the change in the retail landscape, which will provide more opportunities for sellers and buyers to meet in a better environment. This is true not only of ice creams but also of practically every food category that can deliver on product, quality and service. We are fortunate that our model is tailor made to take advantage of the boom in the retail. One disadvantage about ice creams has been that it is treated largely as an impulse purchase in this country. While that perception will not change easily, the development of new consumption drivers like malls, hypermarkets, multiplexes, etc opens up new avenues for us.

Demand Drivers
Growth of malls and multiplexes across the country is boon for us to access good locations and tap the ready consumers. There is an increase in customers who demand the best without compromises. People are very happy to pay more if they are given a quality product at par with the best available internationally. Also, burgeoning disposable incomes lead to increased consumption.

Trends
There is an increase in tilt towards premium products (as opposed to expensive), where one pays a price but gets quality and service. You will see more and more companies heading into the hinterlands in an attempt to penetrate the smaller towns and rural belts, as they promise to offer the next surge of growth.

Issues and Concerns
For our industry, development and availability of a good cold chain covering the country is essential without which we cannot reach the market target. Another issue of concern is escalating price of real estate. The reasons for this might vary, but the single undeniable fact is that real estate prices are reaching levels that can no longer be termed as only a bubble. In fact a bubble might be welcome if it helps bring prices down to realistic levels, but unfortunately there is no sign of it happening. If this trend continues, retail business is going to find it increasingly hard to deliver returns. Lack of quality and increase in prices are the biggest concern threatening to throw all growth plans completely out of gear.

Outsourcing, a Better Business Model
Baskin Robbins ice creams for the entire South Asian market are manufactured in our factory in Pune. We have opted for outsourcing as a better business model. One of our best decisions, which has paid us handsome dividend over the past few years, has been our move to outsource our distribution and logistics to core players. Cold chain logistics is central to the ice cream business but the irony here was that it was not our core competency. As a result when we operated it, we were expending valuable resources to conduct this. Five years ago we decided to completely outsource this part of our business (from factory to the last mile). This has helped us immensely in allocating valuable resources to more gainful activities.

Over the past 13 years, the Baskin Robbins brand has grown rapidly in the country to become the single largest premium ice cream brand and today it operates over 200 franchised stores in 35 cities. While technological advances do help in delivering greater customer satisfaction, it is definitely not easy managing the very technology. Given the rapid changes and strides in technology, it is difficult task to continuously keep oneself abreast of the latest developments, evaluate their relevance to our business and manage the cost/benefit matrix-not to speak of the implementations.

We have embarked upon an ambitious plan to link all our stores through a comprehensive computerization initiative, which will include a point-of-sale solution for the customer at the front end. Once completed, we hope to have seamless flow of information/MIS in real-time across all verticals. This will create value right from marketing to production to inventory planning to distribution.

Our current IT workforce is five. Head office forms the point of control from where all information is disseminated as well as collected, compiled and analyzed. The regional MIS/IT guys are points of coordination for all our franchisees in the respective areas. Their role involves implementation, training and offering back up and trouble-shooting.

Baskin Robbins is one of the leading ice cream brands in India and we focus on customer satisfaction that gives us the extra edge over competitors. Baskin Robbins entered India in 1993 as a joint venture with the Ghai Group and established its first store in Mumbai. Over the past 13 years the brand has grown rapidly in the country to become the single largest premium ice cream brand.

Focusing on the Customer
As part of our customer satisfaction efforts, we have created an internal call center for our home delivery service in Mumbai. This was a decision we took after trying third party call centers to handle incoming calls from customers using our Single Number Dial-in service. Over time, we realized that in order to truly deliver the right experience to the customer calling online, it was necessary to have people who understood the ice cream business from within. As a result we decided to create our own call center with our staff trained completely in all aspects of the business. We wanted to ensure that the customer who calls gets the same service over the phone as he would expect when walking into one of our 200 outlets nationwide. Bandwidth has been an issue for several enterprises. While nowhere near the speed seen in the West, we are getting there slowly but surely. Efficiency is a bit of a problem, but again I am sure there are teething issues, which will get sorted out as the market matures.

Baskin Robbins today is the world's largest chain of exclusive ice cream stores with over 5,600 retail shops around the globe. We are very different, yet very similar. As every other country, India also throws up its unique challenges, customs, systems, demographics, etc but at the same time overall market behavior tends to mirror the larger trends. What does excite us about India, however, is the speed at which evolution takes place. Our ability to adapt to changes in technology and work them into the fiber of our daily lives is phenomenal and never ceases to astonish me. Our brand will also soon explore opportunities in neighboring countries like Nepal, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Mauritius and Maldives. In India, apart from the sales of ice creams, Baskin Robbins enjoys great patronage among high end institutional clients ranging from the best five-star hotels in the country, to the premier airlines, high end retailers, corporate parks and campuses, cruise companies, the best restaurants and clubs, and of late, all the multiplexes, which is fast becoming a separate business channel in this country. In the coming years, the brand plans to aggressively penetrate into the smaller towns apart from consolidating its present market in the major cities and metros.