Masterclass with Rajneesh Mahajan, CEO of Inorbit Malls
Our latest Masterclass session for the management students featured Mr. Rajneesh Mahajan, CEO of Inorbit Malls (India) Pvt. Ltd. Our student and President of ATLAS Fintrest Club Hussain Ajjani engaged him in a gripping Q&A session that covered his process and inspiration in getting into retail management, evaluation metrics for mall industry, strategy in selecting brand, trade and tenant mix, challenges, sustainability initiatives, technology adaptation, customer expectations and his vision for the mall in the next 5 years. Filled with personal anecdotes and experiences, his insights into career, experiential offerings, customer perception and having a right attitude were invaluable to our student entrepreneurs.
Skill can be taught, talent can be bought, but attitude cannot be taught or bought. If you have the right attitude, nothing can stop you.
About Rajneesh Mahajan
Mr. Rajneesh Mahajan currently holds the position of CEO at Inorbit Malls, one of the leading mall chains in the country. He was honored with the prestigious ‘Most Admired Shopping Centre Professional-West’ award in 2016. Mr. Mahajan began his journey with Inorbit Malls as the Vice President of Leasing in 2009. Prior to joining Inorbit, he had worked with Barista Coffee Company and Cushman & Wakefield. Mr. Mahajan holds a Bachelor’s degree in Science from Punjab University, along with an MBA and a post-graduate diploma in Marketing and Finance from ICFAI Business School.
Q & A with Rajneesh Mahajan
What was your thought process and inspiration in getting into retail management industry?
In 25 years of my career, I worked in only three companies. All of them were in and around retail real estate. When I finished my studies in 1998, job market was not very attractive. I was lucky to get into a company like Barista with diverse portfolio. Later, I started retail consulting practice with Cushman & Wakefield and from there, I moved into Inorbit Malls fourteen years back.
I was not actually looking for real estate/ retail as my career path but it gradually drew me towards it. The sense of satisfaction that you achieve with every deal kept me going in real estate. When you get a job opportunity, don’t worry too much about the size of the opportunity. How you do it defines your success.
More than what you do, how you do it matters the most!
How do malls measure success and what kind of metrics you use to evaluate the overall performance of the mall industry?
Traditionally people measure success of the mall by the rental rates. We measure our success by the consumption we create at the mall. Collective sale of the entire property defines a lot of decisions like the kind of brands we bring in, the amount of rentals we charge, our commercial arrangements with retail and our investment in designing.
Take criticism with gratefulness and graciousness and appreciate it
What are key differentiators of Inorbit Mall as against the competitors?
Our vision is to create great social spaces where people would like to come and spend time. Indian urban areas lack social infrastructure. The main drive of the people to visit the mall is not just the shopping. They come out for social interaction. We are actually designing social spaces like gardens, jogging tracks, cycling tracks, multiplexes and stadiums in our malls.
Future of malls is a lot more experiential
What is your thought process in selecting the kind of brands you want to have in your mall?
It depends on the trade and tenant mix. It also depends on the consumers’ social profile, social fabric of the location, price points etc.
Your customers’ perception is your reality
What are some of the biggest challenges that a mall faces?
Life and asset safety is the biggest challenge for any mall. As a business, the biggest challenge is infrastructure.
On Sundays we get about 50000 people. However we don’t have any external support for managing traffic, public transport, private vehicles, parking, security etc. So Managing infrastructure is the biggest challenge for any mall.
Life & asset safety is the highest challenge for a mall
I would like to take you back to the COVID times when malls were completely shut down..
When you are not allowed to do anything, the best thing to do is do nothing- not even worrying about it. But there were a lot of activities still happening at the mall in terms of managing basic hygiene and safety of the goods that were lying inside. In those six months we didn’t observe anything changing in the social practice as there were no social events happening. So, we didn’t have worry about the change in the consumption behavior. But we were wondering about the time the mall industry will take to bounce back and we were surprised by the amazing response of the people after the lockdown. One change that we observed is the frequency of coming out went down but per person spend went up. Somehow, in the last two years that habit has not changed.
Our biggest challenge is with ourselves
A lot of businesses in the world are talking about sustainability. What kind of steps have been taken by Inorbit malls for environment?
When you are in consumption tamper, when you consume a lot power for your business, you are actually adding to the trouble on the face of it. But there is a lot that we do. We are looking at lot of green energy options like solar panels on our rooftop. We are buying a lot of renewable resource energy. We are trying to be a zero waste organisation. Every drop of water is recycled and brought back into the system for gardening, air-conditioning etc. We also do wet waste management and convert biodegradable waste into manure to be used for our gardens. In one of our malls we also donated it to the consumers. For plastic, we are trying to figure out players who can convert plastic into a resourceful element.
Whatever you do, do it with lot of positivity, passion & love
What is your vision for the future of malls in the next five years?
Online shopping is convenient. However, there is a huge amount of romance in going out and shop. Talking to the store manager, being with friends, trying out different things- this is not just a transaction. It’s a joy! Online shopping doesn’t give you a chance to experience that romance. Browsing online through innumerable options is tiring at times. Physical spaces provide you the interaction, joy, experience of shopping together. Hence the future of physical spaces is far more experiential. People see for more personal experiences at the mall. They want somebody to guide them, show them the right size and suggest different combinations. This social engagement drives the physical spaces. Future designs of the malls have to incorporate these social interactions with spaces to hang out, multiplexes, food and entertainment spaces scattered all over the mall.
Offline shopping gives you a sense of romance & joy
How can technology multifold the business of a mall?
Technology brings more efficiency. It brings organised structured data, gives you an analytical capability, gives answers to all your questions.
Technology has become extremely capable, but what to get out of it depends on your intelligence. Technology will play a role in data analytics, automation, increased efficiency and effective data storage and communication. It is going to change the way we run mall, design our products, communicate, do data analysis and take your productivity to different level. Human efforts in doing mundane job will go down.
Today you are living in the slowest world that you will ever live again. It is only going to get faster from hereon. The challenge of managing your technology will be far higher in future than today.
Today you are living in the slowest world that you will ever live again
Small shop owners don’t see malls as an opportunity to expand their business. They are going to small format shopping complexes or high streets…
When you enter a mall, your expectations are different versus when you go for shopping on high streets. Customer expectations change depending on the environment they enter in. A high street retailer cannot trigger consumers of a mall. They have to come with a new format that will match the consumer expectations.
Customer expectations change with the environment you are in
