Kinjal Shah, with more than 12 years of book retailing experience, has an in-depth understanding of both the Indian as well as international book retail environment. He has been the CO of Crossword Bookstores Limited since May 2014. Having served as the Chief Operating Officer before being elevated to the position, he is responsible for developing the business, ensuring world class service, building new strategies and innovating. Recently Kinjal was awarded the Most Talented Retail Professional of the Year (2014) by the Asia Retail Congress. During his tenure over the last 12 years, Crossword Bookstores has grown from strength to strength under his leadership, and has won numerous awards and accolades, the most recent being the Indian Retail Awards 2014 in the ‘Best Book Retailer’ category, and the National Award For Marketing Excellence In Retail Sector, in July 2015.
Kinjal has an entrepreneurial approach to business and credits his passion to whatever he has achieved till now. He believes that book retail, being a content-driven business, cannot be managed like a commodity business, that it is important to have a realistic view of the business and not work on the basis of superficial data of target audience, market size and their implied business potential. He also believes that relationships with partners are crucial for the long term success of an organization, and that Customer is really the King as he knows most about the product. Thus, it follows, that the support staff at the store must be the forefront of any company strategy.