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Pay Rs 699/day, fly, Sahara for a month

IN AN attempt to shore up its market share to 12% by December, born-again airline Air Sahara has come out with a new scheme, offering passengers unlimited flying to any destination on their network, including international ones, on payment of a fixed sum, ranging from Rs 699 to Rs 999 per day. With this, the airline hopes to augment its 2-lakh strong frequent flyer base by 10-15%, Air Sahara president Alok Sharma told ET.

Under the Fly Unlimited scheme, passengers can fly to any destination for a year on paying at Rs 699 for 365 days, that is by depositing a sum of over Rs 2.55 lakh. The 30-day package comes for Rs 999 per day while the 60-day package can be availed off after paying Rs 899 per day. One has to pay Rs 799 per day for a 90-day package. In all these cases, taxes and fuel surcharge will be additional as applicable on the day of travel. To be able to fly on international routes, one has to pay Rs 100 extra per day. For flying business class, one has to pay 50% extra on each package.

Mr Sharma said the scheme is targeted at regular flyers, who generally travel more than twice each month. “While keeping cost of travel low, it will also help passengers to save on hotel expenses,” he said, adding that the scheme would help the airline in getting committed business passengers. Around 30% seats in each flight will be dedicated to this scheme. Industry analysts note the scheme will help the airline to earn working finance in advance for a minimum load factor.

Source : ET

Retail war cry echoes globally

AS the noisy tug-of-war for retail talent gains momentum in India, it’s echoes are being heard abroad. A steep demand-supply gap is increasingly forcing new entrants in retailing to go on a global hunt. Local poaching is just not sufficient as they have discovered. Several head hunters confirm, they have international mandate to head hunt in the developed markets that offer the same complexity and scale as is being envisaged by the fresh retail ventures back home.

Reliance Retail, which mopped up the market to fill its top positions early this year, is now looking overseas to fill vacancies in the core areas in its retail venture. So is the AV Birla Group, which has roped in ex - Shoppers Stop honcho Vijay Kashyap to help it hand-pick key people. Ebony Retail Holdings, which is on an overdrive, too, is bringing key executives from global retail chains who have worked in large, complex and more mature markets such as China and Japan. Seeing all this, it doesn’t surprise many when sources say, Bharti has brought in a Tesco honcho, an expat, as CEO for its retail venture.

Much of the head hunting overseas is meant to bring in professionals especially in operations and merchandising. “There is no option but to scour global markets for talent in the retail sector considering the modem retail has a short history,” says B S Nagesh, CEO, Shoppers Stop. Yet he feels that people, who come on board, will have to go through a complicated learning curve.

The crunch is so acute that even abroad, companies are looking at professionals who have retired from global retail chains. And this is going to stay for some time, say analysts. “There’s a huge market for what they call interim executives in the US, which include people who may have retired and would be happy doing trouble shooting or work on a project basis.

This is being seen as a potential talent pool now,” says Atul Vohra, managing partner, Transearch, which has just helped a client get a key executive for a hyper market venture in India. Adds Arun Das Mahapatra, managing partner, Heidrick & Struggles: “We are focusing on talent mapping of Indians abroad with the objective of repatriating them for specialised sectors that lack competency in India.” Meanwhile, locally, the retail brigade is hunting for talent from outside of retail as there’s little to poach from within, says K Sudarshan, managing partner, EMA Partners. “For now, any hiring exercise for retail ventures is looking at sectors beyond retail such as those which are mass market and operations led, but many have started going overseas for talent hunt.”

Tug-of-war
The retail war for staff has entered global turf. Several head hunters confirm they have international mandate to head hunt in the developed markets that offer the same complexity and scale as is being envisaged by the fresh retail ventures back home.

Source : ET