Picking up pieces as firms struggle to fight pandemic

Chennai

KE Ranganathan, MD, Roca Parryware Bathroom Products, sees it as a hit by a meteoroid. “It destroyed the consumer demand, knocking us out with one big punch,” he said. Though leaders are trained to handle VUCA (volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity), it is only one at a time. “COVID is an amalgam of VUCA. As scientists hurry for a vaccine to save humans, leaders are hurrying for a capsule to ‘cure’ companies. Most of us are hit hard and we need to find quick ways to get up and fight again,” he added.

The first half of the 100 days into COVID left one reeling under shock, leaving everyone in disbelief, angry and clueless. Ranganathan said, “We drew upon our global experience and worked on safety measures quickly, teaching us to drop inefficient costs. Priorities were safety and survival. We did a lot of communication via digital mode. Zero Sales was unheard off in our lifetime.”

But, in the next 50 days, it gathered strength as markets opened up. “Sales engine re-started. We got our acts together on demand-pull activities. We created a digital platform for consumer buying and held daily digital meetings, launched new products and took care of plumbing technicians. We learnt to WFH.”

Round 1 of COVID ‘punched’ the company down but Ranganthan exudes confidence “We are bruised. But now we are up and running. Days are not far when we will knock COVID out of the ring.”

Shanmugha Raja (Raj) of Turiyatree said, “As a start-up co-founder, addressing energy-efficiency improvements for the proptech and hospitality industry, 100 days of lockdown has completely disrupted our plans. When the markets and customers are shut, it puts us in a stalemate. We have no clear direction to go-ahead and the future is uncertain. Our cashflow and runway cannot stretch for more than six months.”

The new normal -- low occupancy rates, physical distancing, contactless at workplace drive most organisations for cost-cutting measures. “We are focused to uncover the new opportunities arising, pivot the business model, or explore the scope of expanding to new market segments,” he added.

Urging for more ease of doing business interventions from the policymakers, Raj says “While the long-term fundamentals look great, how we survive and sustain the next four to six quarters decides our fate to live or die!”

Senthil Natarajan, Open Tap, said, “It’s all here and going to be with us for some time, with no reliable answers from anyone on when and what will the end look like. None of us is used to this level of uncertainty in our lifetimes. As a business/startup looking for growth in the fintech space, this is the perfect storm. We have no other option other than to take it head-on and transform ourselves. Becoming a full digital player is the most reliable answer at this time we could come up with.”

Lionel Charles, founder-CEO, Indiafiling.com, said it did not feel the impact as various long-term and short-term strategies were in place. “Being purely digital first, cloud-based business, we had an advantage compared to traditional offline businesses. But, as the numbers started climbing in March, we began mock drills for WFH in batches.

So, when the lockdown notice was issued, we were ready. In April, we understood the fight was a long-term one. Thus our completely virtual cloud office became a reality by April-end. So, in May, we had better control over operations and sales started to recover. We fine-tuned to get back to almost pre-COVID numbers.”