Hemu Ramaiah Managing partner, Landmark

Long before the Crosswords of the world arrived, one lady with sheer determination and perseverance set up India’s first family bookstore ? Landmark in Chennai. That’s Hemu Ramaiah for you. The 49-year-old managing partner who looks after five such stores across the country is also an example of how passion can be turned into a successful business venture.

As a child, Ramaiah was educated in different places since her father was in the Army. While studying literature in Stella Maris College, Chennai, she finally decided what her career would be. “I knew I would be in the book industry though I didn’t know whether it would be in publishing, writing or marketing,” says Ramaiah.

She used to frequent the Danai bookshop at the Taj Coromandel in Chennai where her friend worked and used to help out at times. In 1978, after her graduation, she plunged into the store full-time. “It was a different experience. From bookselling to suggesting books, to identifying what books to buy, I learnt quite a lot,” she says. In her nine-year stint with the bookstore chain, she set up more stores in Chennai at the Park Sheraton, Fisherman’s Cove and at Hotel Sindoori.

But with a lot of targets met and ambitions achieved, Ramaiah began to feel claustrophobic. “How much can you do in a 250-300 sq ft place?” she asks. “There are times when you have to reject books for lack of space. I resolved to do something different.” And so the lady decided to set up a bookstore with no space constraints.

But there were problems. “In Chennai, the popular format of bookstores was one that catered to students and professionals,” explains Ramaiah. “I wanted to build a non-textbook kind of a bookstore. Most people said I would fail.”

After badgering her brother to lend her money, she got a 5,200 sq ft place in the basement of a building in Nungambakkam. In 1987, the store opened and was a hit overnight. “Despite being in a basement and with limited publicity, I was sure that booklovers would find their way to a good bookshop,” says Ramaiah. And she continues to believe in this philosophy.

From Chennai, Ramaiah has expanded to Coimbatore, Bangalore, Calcutta and Mumbai. And every store has been better and bigger. Ramaiah believed that the small format model would not work in India. “It was quite clear in the late 90s that India would go the malls way and I envisioned stores that would be based on this.” Landmark has a 40,000 sq ft store in Chennai and a 45,000 sq ft in Bangalore.

Landmark has grown beyond books and today sells music, home accessories, gift and stationery items, kids wear and toys. The extension according to Ramaiah is due to big multinational brands that are already in India. If one has to compete with them, you have to provide global standards in retail.

Today, Ramaiah has 700 people working for her. In the beginning, there were just 25. Ramaiah reminisces how they worked collectively from packing the books to billing and cataloguing and ordering. There are more people and systems in place now.

With the expansion, Ramaiah is an operations person but looks back with gratitude to her shopfloor days. “It does not matter what degrees you earn. A stint on a shopfloor in any sector stands in good stead,” she believes.

Ramaiah admits management styles have changed as the company has expanded. Managing people has been the main problem. One of the biggest challenges for the book retailing industry is getting the right people, feels Ramaiah. “Earlier, people who were smart and intelligent and had a knowledge of books would not enter this sector as there were more lucrative offers elsewhere,” she says. “But now with the retail boom, many people have realised that selling books is more fun.”

When she is not selling books to others, she makes it a point to read them or listen to music and watch a lot of movies. Today, she is a satisfied woman. Last year the Tatas secured a majority stake in the company and she is confident of its survival. “When I set up Landmark, I was already thinking what will happen to it 20 years later. Now I know the brand will survive, even if I don’t,” she says.

Ramaiah has indeed created a landmark, in more senses than one.

As told to Aparna Harish in Calcutta