In our relentless pursuit to identify and share with our community some of the unique and compelling stories from the ecosystem, this week we spoke to Mr Mahesh CEO of Creaticityto understand more about their journey, their vision and the way forward. Creaticity is India’s first Furniture and Decor Mall. It is one of the favourite hangout places for shoppers in Pune. Let’s read their unique story!
Excerpts from our exclusive interview with Mr Mahesh:
We are aware of your contribution to the ecosystem, tell us a little bit about your business and the problems you guys are solving, please;
Creaticity is arguably India’s largest and finest destination for Home and Furniture situated in Pune. We are into solving one problem, namely enabling customers to complete their entire home makeover or new home furnishing without running around various markets and dealing with multiple sources.
Simply put, we are a start-to-end solutions destination for Home furnishing needs with nearly 100 regional, national and global brands in the Home category. There is more to it, the value that we add really gets amplified when we help with design services, functional and aesthetic solutions for Homemakers with knowledge sharing as well as post-sales product and home maintenance services.”
‘Creaticity’ is such a unique name; talk us through more about it, please and what was the vision behind it?
Well, as it can be inferred, the name Creaticity is a mild, yet thoughtful letter-play on the word Creativity. When we were on our journey of transformation from being Ishanya( the genesis of our journey for over a decade), our intense soul-searching on the purpose of business existence revealed one single truth and that was creativity is what makes life worth living and we want to share it’’.
Hence, is it not logical to be a destination that breathes and demonstrates creativity, such a destination had to be metaphorically expressed as much larger than just a mall or a shopping centre, we had to be Creaticity.
Within Creaticity, we have sub-cities such as ‘Homecity’, ‘Food city’, ‘Event city’, ‘Sportscity’, ‘Design city’, ‘Culturecity each of them focussing on the range and depth of the category and purposefully driven to foster communities with common interests. The vision since our inception as Ishanya and now Creaticity is to inspire the joy of creation in every customer we serve.”
With time, we have evolved into co-creation mode since customers are also progressive, willing to express themselves and wanting their homes to be a reflection of their own personality and style. That’s the journey at Creaticity which is exciting because democratising creativity (no longer elitist)is a mission by itself and we are attempting to evoke the creative spirit followed by the expression. Think about it, creativity unless expressed is emptiness.
During this COVID-19 crisis, what are the measures you have undertaken to continue your business without disruption?
I can think of five specific initiatives that we undertook during the pandemic times, but will highlight two of them here. At Creaticity, we recently launched our e-commerce website making it convenient to shop from the comfort of the home.
With a “phygital’ journey – the choice to visit the creative campus as we love to call it to touch and feel the products and visit the online platform digital www.creaticityonline.com where you can shop from the comfort of home, it just doubled our chances to actively engage with our customers and equally provides a seamless experience to our customers while shopping for furniture and home decor needs.
While we had this on the anvil at a later date, the pandemic just accelerated it. The second initiative has been the deployment of Beagle, our customer lead and relationship management tool that helps us to keep in touch with our customers and service their requirements. Of course, technology deployment to offer zero contact shopping experience, on-ground safety and hygiene measures etc have been part of our preparedness for the new normal.
How do you manage to keep going despite the challenges? What drives the team?
Active and authentic conversations – that’s the way we have been at it, every day of the lockdown and beyond. For me, it is all about CHAT, COLLABORATE, CREATE, my simple mantra that helps me to drive myself and of course the desire and drive of each team member that is constantly emphasised through the seven values that we live by.
We are pretty flat as an organisation, everyone knows their accountability, purpose-led circles or CFTs are formed for every project or ongoing assignments and lastly, we keep recognising and rewarding good work as a way of life. For instance, the Marketing head sends a Shabash card to the accounts executive for timely issuance of payment or the Ops head gives a pat on the back to the VM executive for a Diwali décor done well.
There is a strong belief in action (rather than thoughts) which we have been inculcating year on year as part of our DNA. As a result, our team held hands and we stayed positive throughout the stressful period. We were agile and as part of our techno malling journey that commenced two years back with the launch of Creaticity App, interactive kiosks, beacons and much more in the physical space, we launched our e-commerce platform creaticityonline.com and the Central CRM program named Beagle.
The team is driven to adapt and deliver results during this time and testimony is that we launched our online platforms in a record time of 55 days with nearly 50 brands on-board. I think ownership is the cornerstone on which our team works together as individuals.
What has worked well for you so far?
I assume you are asking from the larger perspective and not specifically the covid impact. Three things have been shaping our progress.
1 – We believe in the adage, fast is the enemy of perfect and hence we do rapid prototyping of new ideas, get proof of concept, accept failure or progress and move ahead.
2 – Strong emphasis on belief in Action. Hence we work with purpose-led circles which have clear objectives and equally clear accountabilities for the members.
3 – Our core value ‘Creative thinking’ has helped us to innovate, think new and act fast with a bias for action to ensure differentiation, with strides taken in knowledge and thought leadership initiatives like Home and Home + conclave or launching an experiential e-commerce portal, arguably the first for a furniture mall in our country hence combining the best of physical and online retail.
What is one strategy that you guys believe has helped you grow as a team/business?
START TO END SHOPABILITY is what has kept us scripting the Creaticity story. This strategy is bed rocked on four pillars
a) Knowledge leadership which needs to be separating us from a typical commoditised centre.
b) Range and depth of products and brands, simply put smart choice which we have been curating for over a decade now.
c) Conversion Enablers such as finance schemes, digital commerce and payments, CRM tool
d) Services straddling the products at both ends, interior design and product support services during the pre-sales journey and product upkeep and maintenance services at the post-sales end stand as differentiators. Combined, these bring a strength that gives us motivation and inspiration to provide a distinct customer experience.
In your opinion what is more necessary: Idea or a good team for a successful business?
I am again compelled to paraphrase an oft-repeated quote, Success is determined by 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration. So, in my view, it is the team who drives the idea.
The best of spaceships needs amazing astronauts to defy gravity. We have always believed and witnessed that for an inspiring idea to transform from a spark to an ordinary flame or a bright fire, the execution makes the difference and who else but the team can stoke a flame into this bright fire that gives warmth and light aka business and growth.
We would love to know your advice for all those starting out?
I am forced to share my recent self-learning after a series of webinars that we hosted and interacted with dozens of industry captains-learn to embrace the vowels of the new voyage.
Adaptability, empathy, innovation, ownership and understanding. Each of these words reflects profound meaning in the new normal more than ever. Not that they didn’t exist, their role has just multiplied 10X for any entrepreneur to remain relevant, survive and then sustain.
BrilliantRead is committed to bringing stories from the startup ecosystem, stories that reshape our perspective, add value to our community and be a constant source of motivation not just for our community but also for the whole ecosystem of entrepreneurs and aspiring individuals.
Note: If you have a similar story to share with our audience and would like to be featured on our online magazine, then please write to us at [email protected], we will review your story and extend an invitation to feature if it is worth publishing.
