Case-in-Point: The Promotion Trade-Off

Company: RetailVerse India (fictitious), an omnichannel retail brand with 200+ stores and a rapidly-growing e-commerce arm.

Background
RetailVerse is fighting a two-front war. Online, it faces Amazon and Flipkart’s relentless expansion. Offline, it must defend 200+ stores that still drive most of its profits. The company is restructuring its regional leadership, and the stakes could not be higher.

A new role has opened: Regional Head – North India. It oversees Delhi, Punjab, Haryana, and Uttar Pradesh—territories that generate 35 per cent of the company’s revenue. Whoever gets this job will not merely manage a region. They will signal what RetailVerse values as it hurtles toward an uncertain future.

The Candidates

Sonia Verma has spent 15 years building RetailVerse’s backbone. She knows which vendors deliver on time during Diwali, which landlords will renegotiate leases, and which bureaucrats can expedite approvals. Store managers trust her instinctively. When a store in Ludhiana was struggling, Sonia spent three days on the floor, watching customers, tweaking displays, retraining staff. Sales jumped 22 per cent.

But she is allergic to dashboards. She prefers printed reports. Analytics platforms baffle her. Her team has learned to “translate” data into formats she understands—a workaround that works until it doesn’t. In strategy meetings, when executives discuss customer lifetime value or conversion funnels, Sonia goes quiet.

Kabir Mehta joined five years ago and rewired RetailVerse’s digital nervous system. When covid-19 shut stores, he pivoted the company online in six weeks. In 18 months, he drove e-commerce sales up 80 per cent. He speaks the language of algorithms, A/B tests, and attribution models. Investors love him.

But he has never run a store. Regional managers view him as “the online guy”—brilliant in Bangalore, clueless in Chandigarh. When a warehouse strike threatened to derail festive season deliveries last year, Kabir proposed algorithmic solutions. It was Sonia who called the union leader, negotiated over chai, and got trucks moving within hours.

The Dilemma
Should RetailVerse reward loyalty and instinct—betting on Sonia’s ability to learn digital tools? Or embrace the future and promote Kabir—accepting that he may stumble on the ground realities that Sonia navigates effortlessly?

What’s really at stake:
This is not about two people. It is about what kind of company RetailVerse wants to become. Choose Sonia, and you signal that relationships, intuition, and hard-won experience still matter—but risk falling behind digitally in your most important region. Choose Kabir, and you announce that the future has arrived—but alienate veterans who built the company and may lose the operational excellence that keeps stores humming.

Every promotion is a prophecy. This one will be remembered.

What HR leaders said:

Vivek Tripathi, VP-HR, NewGen Software

The temptation to chase digital at all costs is strong—but dangerous. RetailVerse’s true asset is not its app or its algorithm. It is trust, built store by store, conversation by conversation. That cannot be automated.

Sonia understands something Kabir does not: customers do not just buy products, they buy experiences. The in-store moment—the smile, the recommendation, the feeling of being seen—is where brands are made. Technology can scale transactions. Only humans can scale relationships.

Yes, Sonia must evolve. She should learn to read dashboards, understand customer journeys, and embrace data. But digital fluency can be taught. Brand instinct cannot. I would promote Sonia—and invest heavily in her digital upskilling. Because leaders who embody the culture are worth more than leaders who master the tools.

Rajeev Singh, G-CHRO, Epic Group

The real question is not who to choose. It is how to avoid losing either of them.

Promote Kabir, and Sonia walks—taking 15 years of institutional knowledge with her. Promote Sonia, and Kabir starts interviewing with Amazon. RetailVerse cannot afford to lose either.

The solution? Stop thinking in binaries. Create a co-leadership model—even temporarily. Let Sonia handle ground operations, vendor relationships, and store performance. Let Kabir own digital integration, analytics, and omnichannel strategy. Have them report jointly on regional performance.

This is not about avoiding a hard decision. It is about designing a structure that reflects reality: modern retail requires both worlds. The best leaders are not singular heroes. They are complementary pairs.

If you must eventually pick one, then phase it. Give Sonia the title now, with Kabir as deputy—explicitly grooming him to take over in 18 months. During that time, Sonia mentors him on the ground realities. He teaches her digital fluency. Then she transitions to a broader advisory role.

Leadership succession is not an event. It is a process. Treat it as such.

Tanaya Mishra, G-CHRO, InSolutions Global

Every promotion is a message. This one will echo across the entire organisation.

If you promote Sonia, you tell your people: experience and loyalty still count. But you also whisper: digital skills are optional. If you promote Kabir, you announce: the future is here, adapt or leave. But you also risk telling 15-year veterans: your contribution is obsolete.

The mistake is framing this as Sonia or Kabir. The real answer is Sonia and Kabir—not in the same role, but in complementary ones.

Retail is no longer offline or online. It is omnichannel—a seamless blend. Your leadership structure should reflect that. Create two roles: one for physical retail excellence, one for digital commerce. Let each leader own what they do best. Then hold them jointly accountable for the region’s overall performance.

This is not compromise. It is strategy. Modern leadership is hybrid—it requires emotional intelligence and data fluency, intuition and analytics, legacy and innovation. Stop trying to find one person who has it all. Build a team that does.

Your Turn: What would you do? Share your response in the comment box or or share on LinkedIn with #HRKathaCaseInPoint