The committee at IIT Kanpur organized an interactive session on “FMCG Sales and Distribution Channels in India”. Students across various disciplines including MBA, M.Tech. and B.Tech. attended the session.
The lecture was delivered by Mr. M.P.Pusalkar, Executive Director and President, Godrej Industries Ltd – Foods Division. An alumnus of IIT Kanpur, 1971 batch and having done his MBA from JBIMS, Mumbai in 1973, Mr. Pusalkar commenced the session with a nostalgic note, missing his engineering days. The honorable speaker was felicitated by Deputy Director Prof. Kripa Shankar, who gave a brief account of what happened in last 30 years since Mr. Pusalkar left.
The idea of the lecture was to introduce the audience with the intricacies of the Supply Chain Management and the Distribution networks associated with the industry. Giving an overview, Mr. Pusalkar talked of the fluctuations the industry had been witnessing for the last 4-5 years. As the presentation proceeded further, came the most interesting part and the crux : The Supply Chain. Giving some staggering figures, Mr. Pusalkar told that there are 7.3 million odd retailers in this sector. Terming it as highly unorganized, the speaker said the real challenge before FMCG sector is to provide penetration to its products across the breadths of the nation. Emphasizing the potential of huge untapped rural market, the speaker talked of the emerging trends and the changing mindsets of marketers with regards to the rural segment. This was followed by the financials of the distribution network and the FDI trends in the market.
In the concluding part of the session Mr. Pusalkar discussed some general management concepts by the management guru Peter F Drucker, substantiating his point by sharing some moments from his rich 30 years of experience. Also he stressed upon the need of PR in the Distribution Chain in particular and any industry in general.