Tuesday, August 12, 2014
Formals to Smart Casuals- Corporate India Is Witnessing a Rapid Change
For the B-School grads and
other executives who gave up their wardrobe of casual wears, India’s corporate
culture is giving way to the smart casual wears!
Pictured below- Nadella who
is Microsoft's CEO, often wears a shirt topped with a semi-formal jacket & a
pair of denims for important business presentations. The CEO of Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg
also rarely bothers about formal attires & always wears his trademark black
hoodie. The founder of Apple, Steve Jobs was the one who single-handedly started
the trend of wearing black St.Croix turtlenecks & denims for all his presentations
thus making formal wears acceptable outfits for corporate world.
 |
| The head honchos of the corporate world in casuals! |
Cleared
the interview in denims!
Smart casual wears like
T-shirts, branded denims & chinos are witnessing great demand. A 25-year-old
management trainee, after getting a B-school degree in IIM-Lucknow, gave a job
interview for Godrej. He wore a Ducati T-shirt & smart denims. And guess
what? The person was hired!
Godrej expressed, “We don’t
force candidates to come in stiff, formal attires.”
Formal wear prevents
out-of-the box thinking?
One employee at Godrej said,
"We are allowed wearing smart casuals during office hours. It displays the
openness in work culture.”
Adi Godrej says, "Formal
wears prevent out-of-the box thinking during certain times. This happens as the
attire makes the entire setting seem formal & serious."
Being Casual-Setting a swift
corporate trend
The president group HR of Mahindra
& Mahindra says" Being casual aids people to be more
relaxed. It promotes an environment which is not bureaucratic.”
#Casual
wears are said to promote equality in business
Being Casual does not give
the feeling that a certain person is more important hierarchically due to
his/her style of formal attire. As a result, equality prevails. This breeds
greater co-operation & equal opportunities amongst all gender & age
groups.
Does this mean that casual
wear segment will impact formal wear segment?
Yes, it will. Mr. Ashok
Sharma, President of Indian Academy of Management (IAM) says, “Casual wear
segment at present contributes to more than 50% of retailer's sales. This is up
from 25% in just a few years. Also the casual wear category is growing at double
the rate of formal wear category. Hence, it may affect the sales of formal wears.
However, the formal wear culture won’t end. The senior management still and almost
everywhere suits up for big company occasions. The sectors of banking, finance &
consultancy advise wearing conservative office attires even for the young. Having
said that I feel that this is unlikely to prevent the spread of casual wears
like pricey tees & branded denims across India Inc's offices.”
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