The retail industry today needs innovative and out of box solutions to cater to the ever growing demands of the customer. These solutions needs to be quick , adaptable and futuristic keeping in trend with the times and technology. Pathfinder Enterprise Solutions Pvt Ltd is providing the industry what it needs to win over the consumers.
In an interview with Insights Success, Sadique Ahmed, Founder and CEO, narrates the story of Pathfinder.
- From an Entrepreneur to a business tycoon, kindly brief us about Mr Sadique Ahmed and share a glimpse of his professional journey to our readers.
Mr. Sadique has been an Entrepreneur, Product Evangelist, Mentor, and a domain Leader in retail who helped the company to continuously innovate solutions with experience in building innovative technologies helping maximize the potential for Airports, Shopping Centres, Retail, Governments, and Aviation. He Started the company providing POS Solutions to small and medium businesses then reinvented itself to provide enterprise solutions to large businesses and now oversees the transformation of “Pathfinder” from a technology platform to a knowledge platform with an experienced team of veteran subject matter experts supported by a large Data Science team, the combination that is adding tremendous value to clients globally.
- Kindly brief us about your company and its inception story.
Founded in 1994, started offering IT Solutions ranging from Business process management to infrastructure, security and networking. In the year 2000, we forayed into retail domain to offer POS solutions, then we innovated, the much renowned “XtreMe Imperium Solution” for Shopping Centers & Airports in 2008, which became the foundation for the huge success of Pathfinder. We got recognized by the shopping centres and Airports and received an award in 2012 for executing the best EPOS solution in Rajiv Gandhi International Airport ,Hyderabad India. As an organization, we are 25 years old and about 10 years back we pivoted to providing data solutions. Our journey began with solutions for Airports helping them with capturing sales data and then running analytics on it. We realized that shopping centres would also benefit immensely from a solution like this. We are now present in over 100 shopping centres in India and are leaders in revenue assurance for shopping centres and airports. With our solutions being used in over 15 Indian airports, 3 International airports, we are now acquiring international airports as our clients. Our latest innovation “RAPPO – Customer Engagement Platform” is no less than a disruption in the retail world. Currently we have direct global offices in India, Dubai, Singapore and Portugal. We work through partners in other countries who help us expand and penetrate new markets.
- What are the distinct products and services provided by the company?
Our product suite consists of our “P+ Platform” which consists of our Enterprise Applications (Revenue Assurance, Lease & Contract Management, Facility Management), Data Sciences (Customer Engagement, Footfall & People Analytics, Blended Insights) and Consulting & Advisory services.
- What is your view about the current opportunities and challenges in the Retail Industry?
There has been a shift in consumer behavior owing to the new channels of retail spoiling customers for choice. Brick and mortar retail are evolving and innovating to catch up with the consumer’s aspiration and cater to the modern customer. Consumers need an uplifting sensory experience which revolves around brick and mortar retail. In the next few years we will see technology blending seamlessly between online and offline stores. If you notice many successful online brands are now adopting offline channels and the reason is simple, they need to be there, where the customer is and give them a real-time experience of the brand and the products being offered.
While this transformation occurs, the need for retail to adopt new technologies in Data Science is what will give them an edge over competition. From communication to engagement, data science is going to drive consumers to retail and focus on what the consumers want.
- How is the company incorporating technological advancement for offering better solutions? Please mention awards received, if any.
We recently won the International Airport Review Awards for the “Revenue Generation” category. This was a great achievement for us as we won against large global competitors. With our data science being offered as a platform along with our enterprise solutions, clients realize the potential they gain from having data & insights ona single platform. Imagine a shopping centre, where decisions on new stores, trading density, sales performance etc., which took 100’s of man hours is now available in real-time. When customers can look at forecast of future revenues, this helps them gear up to run the appropriate campaigns on our platform itself. The data on conversions, ROI is all available on our platform, making it simple for management, operation and marketing teams to run, manage profitably.
- How does the company keep employees motivated and handles it’s societal responsibility?
When you see a customer delighted with our offerings, being able to quickly realize business outcomes, make decisions on the fly, our employees know the feeling of a satisfied customer and that’s what motivates us all. Our HR team runs programs internally to keep employees participating in events, knowledge sharing sessions from senior leadership, so that everyone is on the same page. While having multiple offices is an advantage, we offer our employees the choice to work from locations that is closer to them to reduce the carbon footprint of their travel and saving time for all of us.
- What would be your advice for the budding startups and entrepreneurs in the industry?
Find a market where your offerings could have an impact and focus on solving customer problems from day 1. Find partners or gain the domain expertise and figure out the value proposition that makes it essential for your target customers. Be ready to pivot when you know you have taken a wrong turn.
- Brief us about the company’s future perspectives.
We are driven on solving customer challenges with data sciences. This has led us to expand our data sciences offerings for global markets. With our focus on working with airports, shopping centres and, retailers we see a future where intelligent customer engagement drives business growth.
