Ravinder Goel: Steering Indian Furniture Industry to A Promising Future
Ravinder Goel
Founder & Director
Engaging in a one-to-one interaction with the team of CEO Insights magazine, Ravinder Goel shares his journey and success story within Indian Furniture industry, and how he turned his passion into profession.
Throw some light on your professional background and experience. How has this helped in molding strategic business modules to enhance Little Nap Recliners.
Like most people from the 90s, I pursued my BBA and MBA from Welingkar Institute of Management, Mumbai, and later made my way into the retail industry. Having learnt a lot during the first seven years of my professional journey between 2004-2011, my knowledge and grip within the retail sector was quite convincing. Then, early opportunities enabled me to travel across India, and this is what gave me a lot of insight on what today's customers require from the various segments across India. While there was a gap that needed to be addressed, this encouraged me to learn more about consumer behaviour in the retail industry. Hence, today, with my in depth learning during my academic and professional career, I have been able to successfully implement enhancing strategic business modules for Little Nap Recliners.
Tell us about the inception story of Little Nap Recliners? How has the growth of the firm been since its inception?
Since the early days of my graduation and then masters, I have always been inspired by the idea of running a business, hence entrepreneurship was always the passion that I wanted to turn into profession. Each time when I used to travel, all big and fancy factories used to take all attention of mine, and I had always dreamt of owning one during my life; this is when I became determined to work towards this and be an entrepreneur. Prior to this, I invested few years working so I could learn the process and operations before getting into entrepreneurship.
During the early days, I was not sure about which business idea I should vest my efforts on hence, I came down to three things about business it should be a valuable & lifestyle brand, should have our own manufacturing in India, and should have high acceptance of product in market. Taking note of all these, I cashed on the opportunity and worked with similar companies during my seven years of Job career.
Tell us about the inception story of Little Nap Recliners? How has the growth of the firm been since its inception?
Since the early days of my graduation and then masters, I have always been inspired by the idea of running a business, hence entrepreneurship was always the passion that I wanted to turn into profession. Each time when I used to travel,all big and fancy factories used to take all attention of mine, and I had always dreamt of owning one during my life; this is when I became determined to work towards this and be an entrepreneur. Prior to this,I invested few years working so I could learn the process and operations before getting into entrepreneurship.
During the early days, I was not sure about which business idea I should vest my efforts on hence, I came down to three things about business it should be a valuable & lifestyle brand, should have our own manufacturing in India, and should have high acceptance of product in market. Taking note of all these, I cashed on the opportunity and worked with similar companies during my seven years of Job career.
Once I had gained enough experience, in 2011, I turned my ideas into reality and established Little Nap. This venture is a blend of all the above 3 things, it is a brand, Manufacturing of own, and has high acceptance in market. We started with a team of just two members and a display space of around 600 square feet on M.G. Road, Ghitorni, where we created our first display center with just 10 recliners on display. With our small yet unique team, we have been able to control everything right from sales to operations to dispatch, which was done by me. I even used to take care of the installation or any service concern for our esteemed customers. With the efforts putin by our team,god's grace and blessings of every one,we have slowly started expanding, and today, we have 12 showrooms across India and two manufacturing units with 75,000 square feet production area at IMT Manesar, Haryana.
How do you leverage your industry experience and leadership skills to generate great ideas for the success of Little Nap?
At Little Nap, we always believe and follow a tag line 'One Team, One Dream'. Hence, we believe, structured way of communication in the organization both digitally and in person is very important to discuss all strategies and new ideas, and through this way, we stay aligned with our vision & mission. Our aim is to reach every home in India. Hence, to achieve this, we have always worked hard on our marketing and distribution strategies.
Additionally, all our great and innovative ideas come from our consumers, which is why we take regular feedbacks from our customers on the overall experience in dealing with us and their suggestions on futuristic products. The same is reviewed by our Innovation Team and implemented in the organization to achieve sustainable growth. We are highly customer centric organization, and this is instilled in each & every team member of Little Nap.
From opening various COCO (Company Owned, Company Operated) showrooms in Delhi, Hyderabad, Mumbai and Haryana to adopting news strategies to open franchise stores across India and opening stores in locations like Bangalore, Jaipur, Indore, and more, we have come a long way. Our upcoming approach is to open Shop-in-Shop (SIS) to capture India's smaller cities so that customers can 'Touch & Feel' our products before making a final decision of purchase. With respect to marketing, we have participated in various exhibitions like ACETECH, What Hi-Fi, Big Cine Expo and MENA Cinema (Dubai) to capture our target clients (like Audio Video partners and cinema clients).
Share the key milestones from your journey that have bestowed you with utmost satisfaction both as an individual and a professional?
Since the early days of my graduation and then masters, I have always been inspired by the idea of running a business, hence entrepreneurship was always the passion that I wanted to turn into profession. Each time when I used to travel,all big and fancy factories used to take all attention of mine, and I had always dreamt of owning one during my life; this is when I became determined to work towards this and be an entrepreneur. Prior to this,I invested few years working so I could learn the process and operations before getting into entrepreneurship.
At our firm, everyone is equally important and each one holds a special place in the company, hence the credit of all the milestones is not just mine, it is ours
During the early days, I was not sure about which business idea I should vest my efforts on hence, I came down to three things about business it should be a valuable & lifestyle brand, should have our own manufacturing in India, and should have high acceptance of product in market. Taking note of all these, I cashed on the opportunity and worked with similar companies during my seven years of Job career.
Once I had gained enough experience, in 2011, I turned my ideas into reality and established Little Nap. This venture is a blend of all the above 3 things, it is a brand, Manufacturing of own, and has high acceptance in market. We started with a team of just two members and a display space of around 600 square feet on M.G. Road, Ghitorni, where we created our first display center with just 10 recliners on display. With our small yet unique team, we have been able to control everything right from sales to operations to dispatch, which was done by me. I even used to take care of the installation or any service concern for our esteemed customers. With the efforts putin by our team,god's grace and blessings of every one,we have slowly started expanding, and today, we have 12 showrooms across India and two manufacturing units with 75,000 square feet production area at IMT Manesar, Haryana.
How do you leverage your industry experience and leadership skills to generate great ideas for the success of Little Nap?
At Little Nap, we always believe and follow a tag line 'One Team, One Dream'. Hence, we believe, structured way of communication in the organization both digitally and in person is very important to discuss all strategies and new ideas, and through this way, we stay aligned with our vision & mission. Our aim is to reach every home in India. Hence, to achieve this, we have always worked hard on our marketing and distribution strategies.
Additionally, all our great and innovative ideas come from our consumers, which is why we take regular feedbacks from our customers on the overall experience in dealing with us and their suggestions on futuristic products. The same is reviewed by our Innovation Team and implemented in the organization to achieve sustainable growth. We are highly customer centric organization, and this is instilled in each & every team member of Little Nap.
From opening various COCO (Company Owned, Company Operated) showrooms in Delhi, Hyderabad, Mumbai and Haryana to adopting news strategies to open franchise stores across India and opening stores in locations like Bangalore, Jaipur, Indore, and more, we have come a long way. Our upcoming approach is to open Shop-in-Shop (SIS) to capture India's smaller cities so that customers can 'Touch & Feel' our products before making a final decision of purchase. With respect to marketing, we have participated in various exhibitions like ACETECH, What Hi-Fi, Big Cine Expo and MENA Cinema (Dubai) to capture our target clients (like Audio Video partners and cinema clients).
Share the key milestones from your journey that have bestowed you with utmost satisfaction both as an individual and a professional?
Being the founder of the organization, learning has never stopped for me. I am still a student and all the best learnings are passed on to my team formally and informally. We conduct 'Advance Knowledge Session' every month wherein the best practices are discussed and how and what can be implemented at Little Nap. At our firm, everyone is equally important and each one holds a special place in the company, hence the credit of all the milestones is not just mine, it is ours.
Some of the major corporate milestones of Little Nap include 'PVR A Dream Client', that is when we closed our first order with PVR after a lot of hardship, then we crossed our 10,000 Happy Customer benchmark, and our third major milestone was when we ledout our first cinema export order of Europe, where we successfully manufactured a large quantity of recliners with all European standards in the record time of 18 days. Adding to this, La-Z-Boy, one of the biggest recliner brands in the world, had selected Little Nap as their authorized partner in India on the basis of our business ethics and core values, our team and our growth in the last ten years.
At personal front, today, I have reached this pinnacle in my life because of the blessings and support of my parents and brothers. My brother Naveen Goel has been instrumental in this journey since the onset of this business. He has helped build this brand. He is also the Director of Little Nap and has stood by me in the thick and thin moments that I have been through. He has been partnering with me all this while, especially for the successful marketing strategies and campaigns done by our company. My life partner, Aruna is my pillar of strength who has also been with me in every high and low of life. She keeps motivating me to reach out to my dreams through whatever the challenges are. I would also like to say a few words about Amitabh Vardhan, Director &CEO of Cine Grand Entertainment, a cinema chain in Europe since last 11 years. I consider him as my Business Guru, Mentor and Guide. Amitabh sir has shaped our organization focus. He always keeps me focused on my goals. Whenever I am upset or sad, he is my hot dialed number to discuss matters and sort them out. Without his guidance and support, Little Nap wouldn't have reached this stage. And I feel so good throughout as I practice his teachings. I am blessed in my life to be surrounded with such great people. My sincere gratitude to them and I will always be indebted to them.
What are the steps that you take to stay industry ready and how are you gearing up for your future road map? What is your success mantra?
We believe to grow through Emergence & Adoption, and that's our Mantra for future roadmap. As mentioned earlier, our future strategies is to expand through M&A which will help us in forward & backward integration. At Little Nap, we are also investing a lot in Innovation and keep upgrading our products & services keeping customer centricity in mind. Technology adoption is another way to put ourselves ahead in the industry. We have implemented several systems & processes to get our company into automation mode, and this has elevated Little Nap from a practice based company to a Process & Principle based company.
I strongly believe that there are no shortcuts to success, and hard work is the only key to it. Moving ahead with a good vision in life, I emphasize on 'Keep learning and implementing throughout your life'. Always take well informed risk. After all, 'risk hai to Ishq hai'. So I can safely say that ‘Ye Dil Maange More' would be my go-to mantra. With this phrase, I would like to express that I would want to achieve more and more in the areas of Business, where I want to get our company listed in the BSE/NSE in the near future. We wish to make Little Nap Recliners a 'Billion Dollar Brand' in the years to come. I would want to achieve more in terms of Learning, because I believe that learning is a continuous process, and it should go on. Little Nap has been a change bringer when it comes to Transforming Lives. Started with two members firm, today, we have a team of more than 200 employees, and our goal is to reach the threshold of 10,000+ employees mark in coming times.
Some of the major corporate milestones of Little Nap include 'PVR A Dream Client', that is when we closed our first order with PVR after a lot of hardship, then we crossed our 10,000 Happy Customer benchmark, and our third major milestone was when we ledout our first cinema export order of Europe, where we successfully manufactured a large quantity of recliners with all European standards in the record time of 18 days. Adding to this, La-Z-Boy, one of the biggest recliner brands in the world, had selected Little Nap as their authorized partner in India on the basis of our business ethics and core values, our team and our growth in the last ten years.
At personal front, today, I have reached this pinnacle in my life because of the blessings and support of my parents and brothers. My brother Naveen Goel has been instrumental in this journey since the onset of this business. He has helped build this brand. He is also the Director of Little Nap and has stood by me in the thick and thin moments that I have been through. He has been partnering with me all this while, especially for the successful marketing strategies and campaigns done by our company. My life partner, Aruna is my pillar of strength who has also been with me in every high and low of life. She keeps motivating me to reach out to my dreams through whatever the challenges are. I would also like to say a few words about Amitabh Vardhan, Director &CEO of Cine Grand Entertainment, a cinema chain in Europe since last 11 years. I consider him as my Business Guru, Mentor and Guide. Amitabh sir has shaped our organization focus. He always keeps me focused on my goals. Whenever I am upset or sad, he is my hot dialed number to discuss matters and sort them out. Without his guidance and support, Little Nap wouldn't have reached this stage. And I feel so good throughout as I practice his teachings. I am blessed in my life to be surrounded with such great people. My sincere gratitude to them and I will always be indebted to them.
What are the steps that you take to stay industry ready and how are you gearing up for your future road map? What is your success mantra?
We believe to grow through Emergence & Adoption, and that's our Mantra for future roadmap. As mentioned earlier, our future strategies is to expand through M&A which will help us in forward & backward integration. At Little Nap, we are also investing a lot in Innovation and keep upgrading our products & services keeping customer centricity in mind. Technology adoption is another way to put ourselves ahead in the industry. We have implemented several systems & processes to get our company into automation mode, and this has elevated Little Nap from a practice based company to a Process & Principle based company.
I strongly believe that there are no shortcuts to success, and hard work is the only key to it. Moving ahead with a good vision in life, I emphasize on 'Keep learning and implementing throughout your life'. Always take well informed risk. After all, 'risk hai to Ishq hai'. So I can safely say that ‘Ye Dil Maange More' would be my go-to mantra. With this phrase, I would like to express that I would want to achieve more and more in the areas of Business, where I want to get our company listed in the BSE/NSE in the near future. We wish to make Little Nap Recliners a 'Billion Dollar Brand' in the years to come. I would want to achieve more in terms of Learning, because I believe that learning is a continuous process, and it should go on. Little Nap has been a change bringer when it comes to Transforming Lives. Started with two members firm, today, we have a team of more than 200 employees, and our goal is to reach the threshold of 10,000+ employees mark in coming times.