Sooraj Bhat
Chief Executive Officer - Ethnic Business @ Aditya Birla Fashion and Retail Ltd.
About
“If you don’t build a tomorrow, there’s no day after tomorrow.” This mantra has kept me going and helped me grow myself, my teams, and my businesses. Starting with ABFRL in 2002 as a Brand Operations Manager, I have traveled a long way to play the current role of heading the Ethnic Business. I was fortunate to work with leaders who had strong leadership skills, varying from empowering and nurturing teams to the ability to strategize and execute with an excellent mix of macro and micro viewpoints. This journey has helped me with opportunities to manage leaders and teams of multiple business functions – Design, Product, Buying, Retail Operations, Visual Merchandising, Planning, Sourcing, Business Development, and Sales. I also led supporting functions in the likes of Human Resources, Information Technology, and Finance. While I cherish many moments in my career, the one closest to my heart is turning around the Allen Solly business, which was recognized through the Chairman’s Award for Exceptional Contributor to Business in 2014. In my current role, I lead multiple teams that work together to create the strategy, execute it, and ensure that the physical stores and online businesses run smoothly. Building teams and executing strategies keep me ticking and I enjoy every bit of this. Staying invested in people, spotting the right set of problems to solve, and relentlessly going around with the execution of strategy are the elements that have worked for me thus far. I believe that honest discernments and fearless expressions, even when they don’t look politically correct, are necessary to build businesses and grow brands. It is important to follow the technological and sustainability advancements in fashion and I am certain that organizations that survive and thrive will be the ones who adopt technology, keep sustainability at the core, and hold an agile mindset. I am excited about the prospects of a growing economy and have a deep desire to enable the development of an ecosystem that helps Indian artisans find the place they deserve on the fashion map of the world. Looking forward to connecting with thought leaders and like-minded individuals to exchange notes and ideas on the trends in fashion.
India
New Delhi
Apparel & Fashion
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Experience
Chief Executive Officer - Ethnic Business
Aditya Birla Fashion and Retail Ltd.
Mumbai, Maharashtra, India
Lead a large part of ABFRL's Ethnic Portfolio - Jaypore, Tasva, Shantanu & Nikhil and House of Masaba I aspire to fulfill the vision of creating a large Indianwear and Indian Couture/Pret porfolio for ABFRL
Deputy Chief Executive Officer
Aditya Birla Fashion and Retail Ltd.
Mumbai, Maharashtra, India
Led the Product Leadership Function - Design, Buying, Sourcing, Planning and External Brands. Tremendous learning experience of leading in an all new environment; different format of business and multiple rounds of covid.
CEO - Fast Fashion Business
Aditya Birla Fashion and Retail Ltd.
Bengaluru, Karnataka, India
Portfolio of 4 brands - Forever 21, People, Skult and Abof April 2019 onwards - Additional Responsibility of International Brand Business - The Collective, Mono Brands ( Hackett, Ted Baker, Polo Ralph Laurent, Fred Perry) and American Eagle Led a set of business leaders who had independent business teams
Chief Operating Officer - Fast Fashion Business
Aditya Birla Fashion and Retail Ltd.
Bengaluru, Karnataka, India
Led the Fast Fashion Business with a portfolio of two brands - Forever 21 and People
Chief Operating Officer - Fashion Brands
Aditya Birla Fashion and Retail Ltd.
Bengaluru, Karnataka, India
Led Design, Product, Marketing and large part of Sales for the three Flagship brands - Louis Philippe, Van Heusen, Allen Solly. First Experience of very high span of control > 12. Necessitated switching styles of leadership and operating from a certain distance.
Chief Operating Officer - Louis Philippe and Allen Solly
Aditya Birla Fashion and Retail Ltd.
Bengaluru, Karnataka, India
Led 2 large brands in an unusual structure of my managing 2 teams with a larger span of control.
Chief Operating Officer - Allen Solly
Aditya Birla Fashion and Retail Ltd.
Bengaluru, Karnataka, India
Led a team of Cross functional leaders; meticulously planned function wise actions and implemented and achieved the strategy for turnaround of Allen Solly. Built leadership pipeline for organization.
Brand Head - Allen Solly
Aditya Birla Fashion and Retail Ltd.
Bengaluru, Karnataka, India
Led a team of Cross functional leaders; meticulously planned function wise actions and implemented and achieved the strategy for turnaround of Allen Solly
Brand Director - Allen Solly
Aditya Birla Fashion and Retail Ltd.
Bengaluru, Karnataka, India
Remained No:2 in the brand - with a change in portfolio. Mandate remained to take firm steps to turn around the brand
Asst. Brand Head - Allen Solly
Aditya Birla Fashion and Retail Ltd.
Bengaluru, Karnataka, India
Moved in as part of a leadership transition of Brand Allen Solly - with a clear mandate to take firm steps to turn around the business.
Brand Head - SF Jeans
Aditya Birla Fashion and Retail Ltd.
Bengaluru, Karnataka, India
Led a startup brand with a team of passionate individuals. One of the stints with tremendous learnings for me.
Brand Marketing Manager - Louis Philippe
Aditya Birla Fashion and Retail Ltd.
Bengaluru, Karnataka, India
Gained experience in a critical function in Marketing Led the launch of an all new creative strategy in Louis Philippe Marketing
Brand Operations Manager - Louis Philippe
Aditya Birla Fashion and Retail Ltd.
Bengaluru, Karnataka, India
My first role in the fashion retail industry and in the country's leading brand - apart from my role; I also developed an understanding of all functions in the industry
Area Sales Manager
Hindustan Coca Cola
Bengaluru, Karnataka, India
This role taught me the fundamentals of distribution management. Also the nature of sales roles.
Management Trainee
B P L Ltd.
The Management trainee stint gave an overview of all management functions of an organisation
Area Specialist
Super Alloys and Fusion
New Delhi, Delhi, India
I continued my journey in Industrial / B2B Sales
Area Specialist
Permaweld
Bengaluru, Karnataka, India
I cut my teeth into Industrial / B2B Sales in this role.
Education
Harvard Business School
Strategy - Bulding and Sustaining Competitive Advantage
Sooraj Bhat's Contact Information
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