Crafting a Spanish legacy

You could call him a retail rouser, with over 20 years perfecting the art, but Delhi boy Nikhil Lamba, chief operating officer, Lladro India is a storehouse of little bits and bobs of the Indian psyche to shopping. The Punjabi lad from South Panchsheel was behind the success of Music World’s fun retail branding before joining the luxury segment and creating his own niche. At his current job, he has been privy to what makes Indians tick, and it’s gods and goddesses, even as Mother Teresa of Calcutta’s special piece recently didn’t find many takers in Kolkata. Among his celebrity clientele are many popular icons like master blaster Sachin Tendulkar who leans towards Ganeshas and horses, and Indian nightingale Lata Mangeshkar’s love for Ganeshas and Lord Krishna idols. Among international clients, there are names like Michael Douglas featuring. What isn’t surprising is the Indian market’s preference to gods and goddesses, with price not a consideration, only religious fervour.

The lover of jazz prefers the strains of Acoustic Alchemy and Spyrogyra when not crunching numbers and perfecting his customer-driven approach. Lamba is credited with successfully expanding sales, and was awarded RPG’s First Top Gear Performance Award for outstanding managerial performance in the retail sector for 2002–03. But that didn’t in anyway keep his desire to excel satiated. In his current job, he went on to study Strategic Retail Management at the Indian School of Business, Hyderabad in 2011. “The company sent me for the course and it was a great learning and a fantastic experience where professors from the US classrooms also had sessions with us,” says Nikhil who has quite an arty bent of mind.

Lamba started his professional career in 1996 as a marketing manager with a Russian trading company after completing his MBA, he had stints at Taj Khazana and Music World before art caught up with him. He now has a bird’s eye view of how Indians connect with luxury, and he himself is a man who has cultivated many a passion, among which is jazz music, and photography.

The father of a six-year-old daughter and a five-year-old son says he enjoys his time with them. With his mother’s Indian classical vocalist background, his love for music has always been dear to him, “No music, no life,” Nikhil declares, adding. “I visit Valencia once a year, and it’s truly a wonderful peek into legendary craftsmanship and a family-run business. Amidst timeless classics, I still marvel at the laborious and painstaking process to making the final pieces, how master sculptures start with replicas in plaster of paris, which are perfected, and decoration teams come in to make moulds that are made into replicas,” he says. The Queen of the Nile took five years to develop, and it gives one an idea of the sheer perfection at play, though the price for an ordinary Indian might be a bit of an ask. “Retail is the best thing to happen to India. We have a customer driven methodology. Of course, one needs to be passionate about work, then it’s fun. And if you’ve got sparks, add those to the team to flouri sh,” is Nikhil’s philosophy,” Given his leaning towards Spain, his best travel destinations are, predictably, in the South of Spain, “The art, colour, beaches and weather are excellent. Malaga and Barcelona apart from Valencia are my favourite cities to visit. There’s so much to explore and learn,” Nikhil adds.

Getting to see retired pieces from the 50s and 60 at the family museum and pieces from the collection and private paintings is a cherished memory of his. “In 1953, Juan, José and Vicente made their first creations in a Moorish furnace built in their own home in Almassera (Valencia). They took lessons from the Valencia School of Arts and Crafts. Juan, who is 90-plus now, is still a mastermind at work, and his daughters Rose and Angeles (a sculpture), have taken the legacy forward,” he concludes.