"Oh, I see you're in a suit, hang on a second," says Ramesh Prabhakar, before reappearing in the meeting room wearing a blazer over his shirt. It is difficult to say quite how much of this move is planned and how much it is an honest attempt to put me at ease, but it certainly breaks the ice. The Managing Partner of the Rivoli Group is a hard man to gauge on first meeting. To the casual observer he seems relaxed as he sits back in his chair as we begin talking, and he has a fund of good anecdotes that pepper our chat, but one shouldn't be fooled. This is the same driven entrepreneur who used to travel six days a week, working 18 hours at a time in the early days of the company.
Established in 1988 as a store selling one brand of watch the group has since grown to become one of the largest importers and retailers of luxury brands in the Middle East. The company's stores now also offer products ranging from watches and writing instruments to menswear, accessories, gift items and eyewear, all at the top end of the market. In a typically savvy way Prabhakar is careful in his choice of words to describe the group's offerings: "You have to be careful because definitions like those are very personal," he points out. "For one person a CK watch is fairly run-of-the-mill, but to another it is a luxury item. So we would rather say that we sell ‘quality lifestyle' products."
Although the group has grown dramatically, and Prabhakar is keen to expand the current lines of clothing and eyewear and possibly look into retailing high-end audio-visual goods, the managing partner is very conscious of sticking to a tried and tested formula. "Watches are still a core part of the business, for example, and you have to stick to your basic DNA," he asserts. "You have to be focused, there's no point in our selling fizzy drinks for instance, that's just not who we are or what we do."
In order to remain focused Prabhakar encourages a targeted research approach to any new line, and customer trends remain at the forefront. "It's on an hour-by-hour basis," he explains. "You have to service and cater to your existing customer base, you don't go out and pick items 12 months ahead."
This customer base has changed as the group has expanded and the region has matured as both a holiday destination and a base for expatriate workers, something that Prabhakar is very aware of. "We are targeting a greater number of residents than before," he says. "In, say, 1992 to 1995, our domestic customer base was only 35% of our business whereas now it's far higher. People are staying and making a life for themselves here."
This trend is reflected in the employees that Prabhakar now sees coming to work for Rivoli. "You know, 30 years ago people who were thinking about working here would ask about packages, trying to work out whether the remuneration was worth staying outside the main primary markets," he explains. "Now it's a truer market to the rest of the world. Employees talk about long-term contracts and plan on staying rather than being transient. And obviously you spend where you live."
Prabhakar is also adamant that, although Rivoli will eventually launch a wholesale expansion beyond the region, the current point of focus is going to be on making the most of the booming local markets. "Saudi Arabia and India are the two markets that we would like to enter at the opportune time but these are huge markets one way or another so we're not ready," he says. "It's not going to be a scattergun approach. We're in a marketplace that we know now, and we know that these particular terrains require greater understanding, it's completely different."
It is not just the prospect of jumping into a new market without the necessary preparation that is holding Prabhakar back; the current demands of the business are at the forefront of his strategic planning. "The second aspect is that we've grown our top line between 40% and 50% per annum in the last few years," he explains. "When you're trying to cope with that kind of growth you can't spread it so thin - as a young man you'll realise that a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush," he laughs. "So you might as well go with what you can do."
Prabhakar is, as he puts it himself, semi-retired following the birth of his daughter: "I'm 51, you know, and I'm really blessed that I could make something like this happen while I'm still young enough to enjoy it." This does not, however, mean that he has completely relinquished the reins of the business. Instead he has taken a step back from the daily details on the shop floor to concentrate on overseeing the group's strategy.
"I'm an outdated businessman, I accept that," says Prabhakar. "But one thing I clearly adhere to is that I don't cut levels. I only talk to the top tier, so the chain of command is very clear in our organisation."
"You know, we're very committed to the ethical function of our organisation," he continues. "We're very committed to staff welfare and customer satisfaction, we're very committed to shareholder value and that is what I communicate to the top rung and they then pass that down."
All sections of the Rivoli empire are granted a certain amount of independence, Prabhakar avowing that only the people on the shop floor can spot the upcoming trends and monitor stock processes: "Operating people need to be on the shop floor with customers, superstructures just mean that you get into rarefied air, and that's when you start making wrong calls, you become too distant." Rather than becoming bogged down with mundane details he instead splits his day into two halves, the first spent in meetings with the directors of the various brands and the second engaged in his own pursuits, meeting suppliers or unwinding, before going back to touch base with his top team. "That's my greatest challenge, to inspire and stimulate positive business ideas and provoke my colleagues to re-evaluate their every decision," he admits. "From around seven, because I would have visited stores or met somebody or something that has triggered off another thought process, I call my managers."
This constant train-of-thought brainstorming is what marks Prabhakar out as an entrepreneur, and he expects his top-tier team to keep up his pace. "When I'm driving or I see something, I'm not making any notes so I immediately make a call," he says. "And I expect them to pick up within three rings or have an answering service or something. In every relationship there is give and take, as we all know. Commercially I don't hassle, I don't need to know where everybody is, where or how they travel, you can live or entertain however you like. But when I call, pick it up because I'm not calling just to find out how you're doing, I'm calling to address a situation that I've seen or something that needs action on. It's not nice, I agree, but I have curtailed it greatly, although it's still a failing I have," he admits, smiling.
It is, however, this drive that has brought him to the position that he currently occupies, and Prabhakar is rightly proud of his achievements. "I came to a new environment, the domain was not mine," he says. "There were some serious players historically in place. So to come out here and create a 250-strength retail group, with 173 international brands and over 1,000 employees, all while you're still young and can enjoy it - what more can you want?"
What more indeed?
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