"I will do anything for books:" R Sriram, Crossword's happening CEO

"Fundamentally, business zeros down to one fact - Understanding the customer and offering him the best product and service. Everything else is jargon," says R Sriram, CEO and the brain behind the mega-bookstore, Crossword. The store is a Shopper's Stop and ICICI venture, a joint buyout for Rs 14.75 crores from India Book House.

In a city like Mumbai with a population of over 14 million, there are only about 50 known bookstores. Crossword has over the years created its own niche as a 'community centre' and today is one of the most happening bookstores in the country. Mumbaibest.com spoke to R Sriram, CEO, Crossword, on what gives the store the edge.

Do you think book readers in India have increased over the years?
We see an opportunity for people to use books growing dramatically. The literacy rate is growing and so is people's purchasing power. Rather than looking at the existing market, we prefer to look at the potential market. In a way, we are building a new market. There are a very large number of people who can afford to buy books, but who are not going into bookstores, we are trying to get these customers to come into our bookstore. Once they are in the bookstore, purchasing just happens.

The existing book market when we started and even today, is a very small percentage of the potential market. About 5% of our population is English literate, that is almost 50 million people. But if you look at the average print run of a book in India, it is only about 2000 copies. Relatively few people buy books. One of the reasons could be because they do not have the habit of going to bookstores. They have not cultivated the habit of reading books, most people read newspapers and magazines. Also, bookstores are perceived as rather intimidating places by most. No bookstore displays signs saying 'limited entry' or 'restricted entry,' but that is the general feeling one gets on entry.

Crossword has been designed to make browsing very comfortable.

How did you come about setting up Crossword?
Before Crossword, I had set up a bookstore in Hyderabad called 'Walden.' I was also part of a team that helped set up 'Landmark'in Chennai. I came to Mumbai in 1992 and on the request of Deepak Mirchandani, managing director, India Book House, that I came to become part of Crossword. We had a very clear objective. Firstly, we were looking at the first of a chain of bookstores, so we had to develop a model that could be replicated across the country.

How did you make Crossword different from other stores?
There is a common saying in retailing, 'Retail is detail.' That is true for book selling also. We designed Crossword to be friendly, non-intimidating, welcoming, a store that anyone would feel comfortable in. To us, a bookstore should be fun, friendly and comfortable, unlike a library wherein you have to invariably be on your best behaviour, start whispering and do not raise your voice. We wanted to create an environment of freedom, not simply a commercial point. Crossword is the place to go for information, knowledge and even for your leisure needs.

The name Crossword brings out 2 central aspects - you do crosswords for fun as a pastime, you learn new words every time you do a crossword, it stimulates your intellect. The word 'Crossword' can appeal to a large number of people. It is not an 'elitist' word.

Do you only want to restrict yourself to English language books or will you go regional also?
We offer a selection of Gujarati books in Ahmedabad and a collection of Marathi and Hindi books at our Mumbai store. The customers that we have today, prefer to buy English books. Perhaps, because English is the aspiring language.

We actually have an award every year that recognises and rewards the best in Indian writing. We have a prize for English and a prize for translated works. 'Sahithya Academy Awards' is there to promote and reward regional writing, but we did not want to replicate that. Last year, we gave a prize of Rs 3 lakhs for best work in any Indian language. We are here to promote books, whether English or non-English, but we will be dictated by market forces.

The bulk of our sales are from books - over 60%, children's books, fiction, business management, health and fitness. Sales wise children's books come first and next fiction. We have the largest children's book section in each of our cities.

You are planning to expand to 30 stores all over the country. Comment.
We have already set up over 10 stores across various cities. Our criteria is very simple - we want to have a great collection of books and stock according to customer's tastes. For instance, poetry is a section that any good bookstore ought to have, in order to promote it. But, poetry does not have much demand when compared to fiction.

What is the percentage of Indian authors to international authors?
Compared to any other store, we actually have the largest percentage of Indian authors, about 6 to 8 per cent. It is a simple question of numbers, we carry some 35,000 to 40,000 titles and we do not have enough Indian authors to cover more than 6 to 8 per cent of the books. We have Indian authors in areas like parenting, health, fitness, children's books, business and management, among others.

We feel that Indian authors are among the best in the world. It is like a 'chicken-in-the-egg' situation, they would write books if there is a market for it. The market is still very small for books in India that is why very many Indian authors have not attained 'star status.'

Has the advent of the Internet hampered book sales?
The Internet has increased sales and made people more aware of books. Amazon.com is a great example of the Internet helping people get more books.

A large percentage of reading happens just before going to sleep, you cannot really curl up with the computer. If you look at e-commerce, the only category that is thriving is books. Books sales interestingly are on the increase in America, where there is more entertainment, more Internet savvy people and more avenues for entertainment. Last year, America sold nearly 28 billion dollars worth of books. This year, they are looking at a 30 billion dollar figure. It is projected that by 2004, book sales in America will hit 38 billion dollars.

How have you tried to project Crossword as brand?
We have developed Crossword as a brand. Brands help people realise that they get a standard service, standard range of products, standard prices, etc. Brands have to be consistent. If we are different in each city, then Crossword as a brand will not be well defined. For that the Crossword experience had to be similar everywhere. By and large, 80 per cent of the range is the same.

A good bookstore has to be more than a 'Dhukan'. It has an important role to play in the community itself. We are positioning our store as a platform for interaction for dialogues and discussions. We have developed Crossword as a community centre, a place for the community to come together, interact and exchange values.

What is the value that you offer the customer?
We offer gift vouchers that are valid across all our stores for a period of one year and renewable on request. You can spend some part of the gift voucher and get credit for the rest, to be spent someother time.

Our dial-a-book offers free home delivery of in any of the cities we are located. All the customer has to do is call our stores, e-mail or fax us with the request for a particular title. We will deliver it within 24 hours anywhere within the city. We are the dial-a-book provider for BPL Mobile.

We offer a far better and far greater browsing experience than anybody else. We are the only store to have chairs and tables in our stores, for people to sit and read books like a library and the only ones to have cafes in the stores. Our bookshelves are made for the 5-footer, so that even a short person can access books easily. All this has been born out of experience. If you want you can come into our store at 10.00 am and read books till 8.00 pm here and then just leave the store without making a purchase.

Are you looking at Crossword as an online bookstore also?
We have not yet launched our online bookstore and it seems to be a wise thing. At the end of the day, the Internet is going to be an online medium for services and goods to be provided. It will not replace conventional media, but will add an additional channel to provide products and services. To us, the online store will be a small profit medium we should be launching it in early December.

Right now we are focussing on great places for people to come and discover books.

Has Crossword been designed on the lines of any international book store?
I got the opportunity to travel abroad only one year after I set up Crossword. The British Council sponsored my trip to study the book trade in the UK. My going abroad definitely helped, but Crossword is not modelled according to any one particular store. For instance, the dial-a-book service is unique and no one else offers it. Here we do events and promotions, abroad people simply do book signing. We look at the book store more as a social point, not just as a commercial point. When I went abroad I realised the market for books is much larger than what we Indians realise. The more developed the country is the more books people buy.

Where do you see Crossword heading 5 years from now?
We want to do over a Rs 100 crores turnover over the next 3 to 4 years. We are actually in a growth process, not actually looking at profits, as much as we are looking at building a chain. We are definitely building on the future. We have a large number of franchises. Our Pune franchisee has doubled its store in 2 years time, our Ahmedabad franchisee has tripled its store size in 5 years time. They would not do it if it was not profitable enough for them to do it. We are planning more stores in Mumbai. A store at Ghatkopar should be up in December.

Five years from now, we want to be the largest book player in the country. We see ourselves as bringing books to the forefront and making it a part of people's lifestyles. We also want to establish Crossword as one of the finest stores in the world and make a difference to our society.

Who are your competitors?
We have a different view of competition. Our biggest competitors are Sachin Tendulkar, Aishwarya Rai, Hrithik Roshan, because when a good movie or cricket match is on, nobody is reading. Bowling alleys, pubs, are our competition.

By Anupama Vinayak
Photographs by: Vinayak Prabhu