One can?t visualise this soft-spoken Kannadiga Brahmin as a tough-talking army officer. But if the admission to a management course at Benares Hindu University had come two days later, he would have been well on his way to the Officers Training Academy in Chennai for a career in the army.

But life had other plans for him. B.S. Nagesh is now managing director and CEO of Shopper?s Stop, one of the earliest retail chains in India. Nagesh has steered Shopper?s Stop, promoted by the K. Raheja family, from its inception in 1991, when retailing through a huge chain of stores was yet to be born.

In the 13 years he has spent with the company, he has helped it grow into a huge, Rs 404 crore operation spanning nine metros. From his student days when he first undertook a retail project for footwear company Corona, to shaping retail into an organised, professionally-run industry, it has been an exhilarating journey for 45-year-old Nagesh. ?I have had good days and bad days, but never a boring day,? he says.

Born in a middle-class family in Bangalore, Nagesh grew up in Gorakhpur and Bareily in Uttar Pradesh. His father was a railway engineer and moved to Gorakhpur in the Sixties to work with the North Eastern Railway. He completed his schooling in Gorakhpur and his BSc from a Bareily college. He also did a one-year course in materials management from Allahabad Polytechnic before completing his Masters in Management Studies.

?We were a family of engineers. My father always worked with the railways. After my schooling, I spent a lot of time in hostels and played badminton, table tennis and billiards at various levels. Sometime during those hostel days, I caught this bug of joining the defence services,? recalls Nagesh.

He cleared the short service commission exams, but his parents opposed his decision to take up a services career. ?It was kind of unthinkable in a Kannada Brahmin family. My parents asked me to apply for a management course instead. I was sure I wouldn?t get in. So, I kept my cadet kit ready. But, to my surprise, I got admission to the management course and here I am,? says Nagesh.

Armed with a MMS degree, Nagesh joined Blowplast as a sales officer. After working in difficult sales territories like Chandni Chowk in Delhi, he moved to Orson Electronics as its branch manager. His big break came when Corona offered him the zonal manager?s post for the eastern and south region. Nagesh helped the company set up 128 stores.

?After helping Corona expand, some amount of stagnation came. During a chat with a friend and colleague, Rajeev Sahay, I talked about how it would be much more exciting to manage a 50,000 sq ft retail space. Sahay remembered this casual remark and suggested my name when he met a Raheja headhunter,? Nagesh recalls.

The Raheja family had purchased a 2,800 sq ft property in Mumbai?s Andheri suburb, but there was little else planned. ?I joined in July 1991 and by Diwali they wanted to set up a retail outlet. It was a big challenge to set it all up within four months,? says Nagesh. Shopper?s Stop opened in October 1991 to huge response.

By 1995, it set up a second store in Bangalore and moved to Hyderabad in 1998. Between 1999 and 2004, Shopper?s Stop outlets opened in six other cities ? Chennai, Pune, Calcutta, New Delhi, Jaipur, and Gurgaon. The store set up new processes to make the retail experience more pleasurable and convenient for customers. It was one of the first stores to be open 365 days, introduce computerised billing and barcodes, sell products on minimum retail prices, and provide an air-conditioned environment.

?One of the conscious decisions we took was we hired fresh graduates with no background in retail. So, our young team had no baggage that comes with experience and there was nothing called impossible. There was a lot of positive energy and we just went ahead and did things. Today we have close to 2,000 employees,? says Nagesh.

The biggest hurdle Nagesh faced was when the company expanded its operations to other cities. ?During the period of change, many staffers left us. People were writing us off. But, we have managed the expansion well,? says Nagesh.

His next big challenge is to take the company through an Initial Public Offer (IPO) which will generate funds for further expansion. If he gets as many investors as he has shoppers, his shares should quote a hefty premium.