Retail Leadership Summit 2022: Academia-industry interface a must for deepening understanding of future retail landscape

A two-day Retail Leadership Summit 2022 was organized by the Retailers Association of India at Powai, Mumbai with the theme "Creating a vision for modern retail in India".

Shivani
Published on: 30 April 2022 12:01 PM GMT
Retail Leadership Summit 2022: Academia-industry interface a must for deepening understanding of future retail landscape
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Mumbai | A two-day Retail Leadership Summit 2022 was organized by the Retailers Association of India at Powai, Mumbai with the theme "Creating a vision for modern retail in India". The mega event included keynote addresses, Digi Expo, Workshops, Awards, Knowledge Reports, etc. involving over 800 brands and 150 industry experts and speakers.

Addressing the summit on the topic "Academia-Industry Interface for Deepening understanding of Future Retail Landscape", Dr. Kavita Pathak, Director, Jaipuria Institute of Management Lucknow said, "Retail industry is the lifeblood of the global economy, it is an industry that is standing on the cusp of transformation, and thus needs more knowledge creation and more practice hands".

"It is evident that a very small percentage of academic research is ever used by practitioners for problem-solving. On the other hand, the practice the domain brings to the table is called "Anecdotal evidence by the academia. The major takeaway for the industry and for academia is the unfolding of the future. If the industry does not build a bridge with academia, the future workforce of the retail industry will be prepared at a lag of three to four years. What is happening in the industry right now needs to be captured and codified at the same time. Retail management programs are niche specialization programs that are gradually shutting down to become vanilla plus. They are being merged into the mainstream management programs or are somehow a shadow of the mainstream management programs", said Dr. Pathak.

She emphasized the practice of how to leverage the ties between the industry and academia effectively and suggested ideas like Professor of Retail practicing chair positions, Ongoing faculty internships, Immersive courses, Co-teaching, Jointly authored books, and Academic voice in industry forums to support and effectively shape the modern retail industry in India.

Shivani

Shivani

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