Captains of Industry unveil post-COVID-19 agenda tinged with hope

EE News Desk Apr 07, 2020

Long-term planning, adaptability, and keeping alive team's hope were the ideas thrown up and vigorously tackled by a panel of management experts and corporate leaders at the second day of CorpGini-organised India's biggest virtual corporate innovation gathering which concluded on April 7.

The session was conducted by Mahavir Lunawat, Founder and CEO, Pantomath Group, and was attended by Harshal Kamdar, CFO Sequoia India, Mukund Vasudevan, MD, Ecolab India, Dr Ramakrishna Sonde, EVP, Thermax, Jyotsna Sharma, CFO and head -IT, Bridgestone India, Sanjeev Pendharkar, MD, Vicco Laboratories and Amba Timblo, Promoter and MD, Fomento Group. The conclave's theme was post-crisis scenarios and planning for the same. In this, 5000+ Corporates and 100+ Startups participated to fight against COVID-19 to solve corporate sustainability and growth challenges.

While admitting that the economy faced a grave crisis, most experts, however, struck an optimistic note, saying that the present situation could be an opportunity to evolve in the longer run.

Mukund Vasudevan, MD, Ecolab India, said adaptability in different segments would be a crucial component in the long term. "You have to plan for various scenarios. Planning for the long term needs to be done by keeping hope alive for the team," Vasudevan added.

"The country was set to witness a paradigm shift in the way businesses are run," Mahavir Lunawat, Founder and CEO, Pantomath Group, said.

Stating that the pressure will always be on value creation and profit creation, Ambar Timblo, Promoter and MD, Fomento Group, said, "The focus should be on creating goodwill. Try and hold on to your team to the best of your ability and it will give great results in the long term."

Sanjeev Pendharkar, MD, Vicco Laboratories, said, "Focus on both short-term and long-term. For the short term, reduce the products that are not earning well. Long term, planning should include improving business models."

Harshal Kamdar, CFO Sequoia India, said this is the right time to cut the fat and not the muscle. "I hope for the next 10 years, we human beings invest more in research and make the world a better place," Kamdar added.

Jyotsna Sharma, CFO and head -IT, Bridgestone India, said, "Invest in relationships with your suppliers, customers, etc and also invest in new technologies. Large companies are going to outsource more and more so they need to create capacities so that they become long term partners."

Ramakrishna Sonde, EVP, Thermax, said, a business can do a lot of design optimisation to bring down costs. "We are going to wake up in a whole different world, we need to build step by step," Sonde added.

In the discussion, experts voiced similar opinions on the importance of social responsibility. We should also think about the short term as well as long term goals and there needs to be disciplined, teamwork and communication with all channels.

Apart from the discussion, several start-up companies such as Ajna Lens, Markets N, Senseforth.ai, Propstack, Etta.ai and Clean Slate Technologies presented innovative solutions to tackle the crisis with the services offered by their respective companies. Through this virtual corporate innovation gathering, Q&A session was open to the audience as well.