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1. 30 | MARCH 2017
INTERVIEW
WEHAVEANEW-
AGERAYMOND
EVOLVING,
FAIRLYRAPIDLY’
aymond has been an
iconic brand in India
for ages. Generations
have identified the
over 90-year-old brand
with high-quality suiting and
fabrics. The legacy tagline and
imagery of its path-breaking
advertising personifying “The
Complete Man” has touched and
stayed with us for decades. But
that said, Raymond has been
confronting a classic challenge
that most legacy brands do:
Staying relevant. A challenge
that Sanjay Behl, CEO, Lifestyle
Business, Raymond, has taken
head-on since he joined the
top post at the company in
2013. “The key challenge was
of a brand getting older in a
country getting younger,” he
says. “There was an urgent
need for the brand to evolve
from its legacy trappings in
classic suiting and trousering
fabric, largely meant for the
pre-millennial generation
and restricted to special
occasions like weddings.”
Behl has set an uphill task
for himself: To transform the
suiting manufacturing Indian
behemoth to a cutting-edge
contemporary fashion retail
organisation in India as well as
in select markets globally by
2020. In essence, the transition
means moving Raymond
being a “classical product-
oriented organisation” of over
nine decades to becoming
a “menswear full wardrobe
solution-based organisation”
by 2020. “It had to be a holistic
transformation, almost akin
to a rebirth of an organisation,
but without any dilution of the
core brand equity and inherent
organisation strengths,” says
Behl. A massive three-phase
organisational overhaul is
underway, already achieving
what it set out for the first
phase. In an interview with Amit
Ranjan Rai, Behl talks at length
on his strategy and action plan
to turn his vision for Raymond
into reality as well as the trends
shaping business today.
CEO INDIA | 31
Photographs by SAMEEP SINGH | Motorcycle INDIAN CHIEF VINTAGE
WARDROBE COURTESY
RAYMOND MADE
TO MEASURE: A
statement quilted jacket
stylishly paired with in
spring themed printed
premium Giza cotton shirt
and classic blue denims
with a printed pocket
square for accessory.