Inspired by Tirupati: Big Bazaar founder reveals secret behind crowd management

“For the last 15 years, every six months we do a Bharat darshan and record every societal change happening in the country,” he added. “You can learn from everywhere,” he said.

In a podcast by Zerodha co-founder Nikhil Kamath, Biyani said “Tirupati temple has unbelievable management. We used to get a huge crowd at Big Bazaar store so we went to Tirupati to understand how to manage such a big crowd”. Biyani also said he got inspired by Chennai-headquartered Sarvana Stores to build Big Bazaar.

In the trailer of the podcast, Kamath called Biyani the “OG of commerce” and the “Godfather of Indian Retail.”

Future Group launched its first Big Bazaar store in Hyderabad in 2001. Big Bazaar’s focus was fashion, food, and general merchandise. 10 years after the launch of their first store, Big Bazaar grew to 250 stores.

However, the flourishing e-commerce business, rising debt, and lack of funds hit Biyan’s business severely. And after more than two decades, Biyani sold his business to the Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance Retail for ₹24,713 crore.

In the podcast, Biyani admitted that he is a ‘little impulsive’ and that is his fatal flaw.

“I am a little impulsive person. What went wrong is basically growing on debt. And not building a strong balance sheet,” he said.

He continued saying, “We thought that everybody is perfect. But everyone has a fatal flaw. When I started analysing my fatal flaw, I was able to discover a lot”.

Further Biyani gave advise to young entrepreneurs saying, “Life is a series of events. You have to relish, cherish every event. Some events will be heart-pleasing. Some will not be very great. The fun is in having all kinds of events”.