The Pretty Graceful Rocker

With an increase in per capita income and growing aspirations, people are eventually taking shine to beautiful homes and better living. Nowadays consumers prefer customized furniture and recliners are becoming their favourite pick. Any room filled with recliners automatically attracts eye-balls as they are a perfect amalgamation of class and comfort. As more and more people are looking for relaxation and a stress free living, they are turning to comfortable recliners as an easy solution for either home or office use. These beauties not only add splendor to your house, but also serve as a solution to all your mild body pains. Besides allowing you to put your feet up, recliners have many add-on health benefits such as improving blood circulation, relieving back pain and easing muscle stress.

Though you may feel like picking a recliner that spoils you completely lounging and size and space must be taken care of.

Lounging

While the chair slides back into a more comfortable position and makes you feel comfortable, it also relieves the weight and stress from the muscles in your legs.

Size and Shape

Moreover, with limited space in the newly constructed houses one must consider not only the space available in one’s living room, but also the size of the recliner that would fit one’s shape as well.

Longevity and Usage

Be sure that your investment is worth the cost of the recliner. Cross-check if the quality of fabric, leather, wood and metal from each recliner is crafted within the parameters of the chair or sofa.

Ergonomic Value

Sometimes getting up from a seated position is an extremely difficult thing to do, and when we look at the physical process of doing so anatomically, there is always a revelation.

Customize to Your Choice

There is an array of leather and fabric to pick from.

List of Must-Have Features

Recliners offer a varied range of features, so it is always better to shortlist the must have features before getting it home. New stress-less recliners offer added comfort features such as an articulating earnest, which cradles the head and neck in the reclining position.

Blending Style and Comfort

Ravinder Goel and Naveen Goel talk to AsiaOne about their brain child; Little NAP, the luxury furniture market in India and their target audience

Little-Nap-1How did you conceive the idea of Little NAP?

We felt a vacuum in recliner industry in India and that’s what attracted us the most. Drawing inspiration from Akio Morita Founder of Sony, we conceptualized a range of recliners that comfort you enough to induce sleep, thus finalizing the name as Little NAP.
Four years back we started with a small showroom of around 1000 sft and a small room for production of these marvel pieces, which has now grown up to 10,000 sft of retail touch point. We have production units combined of 22,000 sft, 350 dealers and online presence with all major furniture websites in the industry.
We have been awarded as one of the India’s best SME 2015 by the Skoch Group.

Can you tell us about your major clients?

Some of our prestigious clientele includes Cinegrand India Pvt. Ltd, Movietime Cinemas Pvt. Ltd, Suncity Cinemas, Fabfurnish.com, Pepperfry.com, Evok (Hindware), Aricent Software Company and Supertech Builders.

What are the waves of the luxury furniture market that Little NAP is currently working on?

We are trying to provide maximum comfort in lesser space. People these days appreciate colourful furniture at homes. We offer around 300 different colour options in each of our pieces.

We are focusing on shifting the luxury furniture market from being an unbranded industry to a branded one. Now with so much awareness and publicity, customers are looking to buy only branded furniture.

We are spoiling our consumers by giving them the best after sales services in the industry.

We focus on the personalized approach, where our executives visit consumers’ place and help them decide through 3D drawings for our recliners.

What is the range of target audience Little NAP caters to?

Our target audience is anyone who would like to sit for a movie marathon over the weekend, from all ages. It also varies from a celebrity who wants to rest in his/her vanity to an old-age man who wants to grab a Little NAP in the afternoon. Our consumer base is anyone above the age of 15 years and from all the walks of life.

How is Little NAP different from its competitors?

We strongly believe in selling a concept and not a product to our consumers. We purely act as consultants and not salesmen to our clients, which help us understand their needs properly and hence serve them better. We strive to build consumers’ trust in our brand followed by an aspiration to pick one of the recliners from our vast range. When the industry was pitching black and brown recliners to consumers all around the region, we came up with a wide colour palette of 300+ colours and that’s what we call innovation. It is an ongoing process at Little NAP and with the help of our research and development team we are able to be the trend-setter instead of a mere trend follower.

Will Little NAP foresee Tier-II and Tier-III cities in India as its prospect markets?

We are giving out Franchisee of the major brand Little NAP in Tier-II & Tier-III cities like Jaipur, Chandigarh, Ludhiana, etc. These showrooms will be operated through our major showrooms in the Metros like Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Kolkata and Chennai.

For Tier-II and Tier-III cities, we are also coming up with a low-budget brand under Little NAP, which will launch lowpriced recliners and sofa recliners. We are even trying to customize the massage chairs for these markets.

We hear that packaging is another big focus area.

To ensure the safety of our recliners while delivering through PAN India, we do four-layer packaging by using bubble packing, shrink wrap packing, carton paper packing and carton box packing with strapping.

We are also associated with a few logistic partners for safer delivery of recliners at consumer’s disposal as we provide door-to-door delivery and installation of recliners across India.

Where do you place your brand in the next five years?

Our ambition is to lead the recliner industry and to make Little NAP the first place to shop for a wide selection of medium-to-high-end quality recliners. We will remain dedicated to seeking out new, innovative ways to make it available for people from all genres of life. Our ambition is to have at least one recliner in every house.

BRICS Nations Launch New Development Bank in Shanghai

BRICS, the group of emerging economies, has come up with the New Development Bank (NDB) in Shanghai.

Backed by Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa – together known as BRICS countries, the bank aims at lending money to the developing countries, which are seeking financial support in infrastructure development projects.

The bank is seen as an alternative to the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, although the group claims to be a non-rival.

South Korea Records Slow Economic Growth

South Korea’s quarterly growth slowed more than expected. It is considered the lowest in more than two years with consumption battered by an outbreak of Middle East Respiratory Syndrome.

Asia’s fourth-largest economy has recorded a mere 0.3 per cent growth in the last quarter. According to the bank, the private consumption turned sour as spending on services took a dip as an outcome of a severe-drought-hit agriculture. South Korea relies heavily on export and tourism, and has faced poor demand as well as sluggish consumption due to MERS breakdown, which resulted in enormous travel cancellations by foreign countries.

Though South Korea has stepped up its efforts to lure Asian tourists, stability in the economic growth is yet to come.

H.E. SHEIKHA LUBNA KHALID

ROLE MODEL

You ask any young, talented and career-focused Emirati woman about her idol, and there will be a common answer shouting – Sheikha Lubna Khalid. An inspiration to millions of women across the globe, this royal princess of Sharjah is a perfect example of a goal-oriented lady.

Her dedication towards work came into picture in the initial years of her employment as a computer programmer when she worked for 10 complete hours each day. This was a mere stepping stone in her career, she achieved her first milestone when her talent was noticed by the Ruler of Dubai, and he appointed her as the head of Tejori.com (a business-to-business project). From there she never looked back.

Vivacious and ever-smiling, Sheikha Lubna became the first woman to gain a high-ranking job in the UAE Government. She even refused offers from the US, with a view to serve her own land. She realizes her duties towards the society as well, and widely volunteers at the ‘Friends of Cancer Patients’, where she interacts with patients and fills them with hope; she is also a member of the Board of Directors at the Emirates Foundation, Abu Dhabi for Philanthropy.

Sheikha Lubna comes across as a tough woman when it comes to work, and a light-heated, pulsating persona when visiting university campuses or social service centres.

CHEN LIHUA

THE REAL ESTATE MAGNATE

Chen Lihua is one woman who can narrate her success story with élan. A descendent of Manchu royalty, Lihua was born in 1941 at the Summer Palace. It was a violent year of Japanese invasion and by that time Manchu-dominated Qing Dynasty had already fallen; consequently her family became poor. Poverty forced her to quit high school and start a furniture repair business. She moved to Hong Kong in the early 1980s where the furniture business fetched her enough money to buy 12 villas. It seemed hardships had proven to be her best teacher.

In no time, the real estate became her area of expertise. Later, she moved back to Beijing to expand her real estate business, and in the early 1990s she founded Fu Wah International Group. Apart from real estate, the company’s portfolio also includes agriculture, tourism, electronics, hospitality and red sandalwood art production.

Having inherited the red sandalwood furniture from her ancestors, her love for the wood grew with time. She is an avid promoter of the red sandalwood and has built the China Red Sandalwood Museum, the first and the largest privately owned museum that has a huge collection of the red sandalwood furniture.
Today, the lady is one of the few cherished female billionaires in the world.

AMAL CLOONEY

BEAUTY WITH BRAIN

Remember the lady that made George Clooney to believe in the institution of marriage… again! Yes, Amal Ramzi Alamuddin it is. The world witnessed panache when the famous Hollywood actor George Clooney and thriving Lebanese–British attorney Amal Alamuddin got married in 2014. And the magic began!

She currently serves as a Barrister at Doughty Street Chambers, England. Born to an American University professor Ramzi Alamuddin and Baria a veteran journalist, she moved to London to sneak out safe from the Lebanese Civil War.

A bright student that she was, she earned herself a scholarship to attend the Oxford University back in 1996. She started her career in an international law firm based in New York City, and soon became a part of several UN Commissions. Her excellence at work may be judged from the fact that she is the legal adviser of the King of Bahrain.
Despite being engrossed in solving one legal case after another, she never skips to step out in style. George Clooney’s words “Amal, whatever alchemy it is that brought us together, I couldn’t be more proud to be your husband”, sums up Amal Alamuddin’s entire personality as a woman of substance.

AISHWARYA RAI BACHCHAN

BOLD & BEAUTIFUL

It has been a busy year for Aishwarya Rai Bachchan as she is back on celluloid after a five-year sabbatical. Last seen in Guzaarish opposite Hrithik Roshan, this Indian beauty has once again a number of Bollywood blockbusters in her kitty.

One of the leading Bollywood divas for more than a decade performing roles such as an ashy aspiring dancer in Taal or a resilient Queen in Jodha Akbar, this exquisite beauty has raised versatility to another level.

From being a nifty actress to a customary daughter-in-law, she is a perfect blend of talent with tradition. She had smashed a million hearts when she had announced her marriage plans with Abhishek Bachchan. Later, she taught the world how to carry a baby bump in style, and post-delivery she looked graceful even with those extra kilos. And then, just when the world thought that Aishwarya Rai Bachchan had closed her innings, she gave one of her best appearances at Cannes in 2014.
She believes in doing everything in style, so hold your heart guys, the fever is going to grip you again; the stunning beauty is back!

ARUNDHATI BHATTACHARYA

THE COMPASSIONATE CEO

A very few women have reached the top rung of the banking sector in India, and Arundhati Bhattacharya is one such example. She is the Chairperson and MD of India’s largest commercial bank and juggles her responsibilities with panache. The fact that she has been appointed the first woman chairperson of a bank that was established two centuries ago makes her accomplishment all the more noticeable. Having joined the SBI at the age of 22 as a Probationary Officer, Bhattacharya has carved out a niche for herself.

The lady has always worked hard to identify the underlying problems and fix them. And in the present scenario, she considers technology an important fuel on which SBI’s future would rely. Under her leadership, SBI has recently come up with digital branches keeping in mind India’s ever-growing mobile phone users and tech-savvy consumers. However, what takes the cake is the installation of nearly 800 solar power ATMs in the remotest areas of the country.

She has been pivotal in setting afloat several new businesses such as SBI General Insurance, SBI Custodial Services and the SBI Macquarie Infrastructure Fund. Bhattacharya is also famed for her human-resource policies that help retain women workforce efficiently.
Bhattacharya has revolutionised the banking sector with her bold decisions and is one of the most approachable CEOs that country has produced till date!