Fab Tales

In the book,Bissell attempts to find answer for an enduring conundrum—what are we doing for a better India? As vague as the question seems,Bissell has some ‘concrete answers’. According to him,the eternal problems plaguing the country—poverty,corruption— is because the way most leaders choose to ignore deeper issues of the country and focus all their attention on winning elections. “I run a successful organization in this country and I can tell you that there is no one way to go about these things. One has to constantly innovate and tackle things according to the situation,” says Bissell.

He should know,for Bissell and has managed to achieve what many would have considered impossible— make Indian handloom popular amongst the Indian elite. Fabindia which primarily focused on exports in its earlier years has now successfully captured the Indian retail market. “We didn’t want to follow the Western retail format. That was way too impersonal. We sourced our materials from the artisans directly and still maintain a personal rapport with all the collectives that work for us. Be it home products or organic food stuff,we ensure that our suppliers come to us with the best stuff,” says Bissell.

And he believes in constant innovation. “We can’t afford to stagnate. Over the years we have introduced a variety of products including organic food stuff and herbal toiletries. Recently,one of our suppliers came to us with this amazing variety of orange from the step hills of the Himalayas in Darjeeling. It was juicy and wonderfully flavourful. Maybe we should start storing fruits too,” he smiles.