MMA Business Mandate (Nov 2021) by Madras Management Association

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CONTENTS

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EDITORIAL

Gp Capt R Vijayakumar (Retd), VSM

Opening Up the Country...

ndia and Indian companies have adapted well, putting the first and second waves of the Pandemic behind. Nowhere is it more evident than in the booming stock market and healthy corporate results despite the debilitating and ferocious wave that hit the country. The Covid-19 first and the second waves came as a jolt from the blue for the Indian companies and individuals. Little did anyone expect something that could bring the country to a virtual halt with extended periods of lockdown, disturbing businesses and supplychain. The disruption made Indian companies and entrepreneurs realise the need for being prepared for all eventualities and tighten their functioning while preserving cash for a rainy day. It has also brought to the fore the need to upgrade technology and embrace the digital world. The pandemic also brought about a new reality where both employers and employees adjust to an era where working from home has become the new normal. In this context, MMA organised a seminar on the theme “Reinventing Human Experience and Technology in the Post-Pandemic World.” The seminar focussed on understanding human experience

from one’s online and offline travels to social interactions, group affiliations and thought processes. Technology has also changed the space with automation and AI. Whether tech works in this arena depends on how people conceive its purpose and adapt to it. The seminar was a grand success addressed by a galaxy of eminent speakers. Click to view the recording of the seminar….

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It is a spectacular and remarkable achievement that India has crossed the one billion mark as far as Covid‐19 vaccine doses are concerned.

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The future is electric Pollution has been an environmental issue ever since the industrial revolution, with emission rates now so high that it is causing a disastrous effect on climate of the planet. Carbon emission has been the one of the main reasons for this significant climate change. To control these emissions all over the world, the Paris agreement was signed. India has been working towards this goal by adopting and driving people towards the adoption of sustainable technology. Electric vehicles are one such option. Policy shifts, new technology and a change in consumer mindset have propelled the EV ecosystem to grow. In this regard, we are delighted to present a conversation led by Mr Shankar with Mr Tarun Mehta, co-founder and CEO, Ather Energy, which is an Indian electric company, to share his insights on his entrepreneurial journey, future of EVs, sustainable development and much more. Click to watch the hybrid event live on 22 November 2021.

The CavinKare‐MMA Chinnikrishnan Innovation Award 2021 Creativity is a trait that all humans have. A few use it more than others. Creativity not only allows you to find solutions, but it also allows you to find solutions to problems that no one ever recognized. Creative startups showcase that they have the zeal to find solutions to the problem that most people thought never existed. The CavinKare-MMA Chinnikrishnan Innovation Award 2021 this year recognized three such entrepreneurs who went on to use their creativity to find solutions to problems efficiently. The award function was telecast on Republic TV and we present to you the video recording of the ceremony. Watch and get inspired by the creative work of outstanding innovators. Click to watch…

The world's power centres The world is today at crossroads: We are neither in a bipolar cold war nor in a multipolar world, though perhaps tending towards a world of several power centres. 6

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After one‐and‐a‐half years of being shut, schools are re‐ opening in most states. It is imperative to focus on the practical approaches required, including learning difficulties that children will face...

The first in-person summit of the quad powers —Australia, Japan, India and the United States—has clearly advanced. The September meeting hosted by Biden drew global attention both for its symbolism and substance. However, the current ruckus over AUKUS —the trilateral security pact between Australia, UK and USA, which was announced on 15th September has revealed the hazards of group diplomacy. The proliferation of alliances and groups will be a matter of close scrutiny by many countries in the light of the new trends initiated by the US. Collective bargaining is the strength of great diplomacy but it cannot be effective without commitment to a common cause. In this context, MMA with the support of KAS is organising a conclave on the theme, “Positioning India in the New World Order” on 29th November 2021 at Hotel Leela Palace. A galaxy of thought leaders from Germany along with Indian think-tanks will provide insights on what does it mean for the world. Block your diary on 29 November 2021 to watch the conclave live. It is a spectacular and remarkable achievement that India has crossed the one billion mark as far as Covid19 vaccine doses are concerned. It is a feather in the cap of the Indian government, scientists, healthcare workers and citizens in this exercise of equitable vaccine distribution. It is also important not to lose sight of the bigger goal of vaccinating all eligible adults. Easing restrictions and increasing coverage of vaccinations are likely to boost private spending on goods and services, including travel, tourism and recreational activities, propelling the growth which is good for the country.

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Students’ convention This year’s management students’ convention is scheduled to be held online on the theme “Future-Proof Your Career for Success” on Thursday, 18th November 2021. Distinguished speakers have confirmed their acceptance to address a large number of students from all over India during the convention. The students’ convention provides insights into strategies of winners and draws lessons for young aspiring managers, who are on the threshold of an exciting management career to understand the determinants of success and the road ahead for young Indians. Mr Mahalingam K (Mali), Convention Chairman, and Mr V Shankar, Vice Chairman, and other members of the Convention Committee have put in tremendous efforts not only in conceptualizing the theme but also in identifying a galaxy of distinguished speakers to address the management students during the convention. Click here to view the Management Students Convention live.

Cyber security National security concepts have in the past decade undergone fundamental changes. The size of population and GDP of a country will not deter any. Cyber warfare has vastly reduced the deterrent value, since cyber weaponry and the capacity to cause devastation to large nations by cyber warfare is within the reach of small and poor nations. Cyber security will remain a top priority for nations and businesses this year. Driven by the mounting urgency of securing their

•EDITOR •Gp Capt R Vijayakumar ﴾Retd﴿, VSM

hybrid work forces and data, most enterprises are expected to ramp up investments in staff awareness training, data protection, threat, vulnerability detection and response measures. Keeping this in mind, MMA with the support of KAS organized a conclave on the theme “Securing India in Cyber Space,” which was very well attended and appreciated by the participants. Click to view the recording.

Back to school After one-and-a-half years of being shut, schools are re-opening in most states. It is imperative to focus on the practical approaches required, including learning difficulties that children will face, to ensure that every child going to school is happy to go there. MMA CSR initiative with the support of ACSYS Investments Pvt. Ltd., focussed on equity to ensure that the children from disadvantaged backgrounds, who were disconnected during the pandemic, go to school in an environment that fosters belongingness. We will be happy to take the support of volunteers from management professionals who would like to commit their time for this endeavour of MMA: It’s our moral responsibility. Stay safe and stay healthy and keep learning!

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The fascinating journey of a woman who has fought all odds to succeed in a very difficult environment, to build and run an organization with over 4000 employees.

ife, they say, is never going to be a smooth ride on a smooth setting but I never imagined that the terrain was going to be so rocky and that I would always be trekking. I started the trekking journey very early in life. I was just 26 when I became a single parent and a mother of two girl children. I didn't know whether I should live or just move on and do something, feeling that my life had come to an end and that was what destiny had in store for me. But I was always a tough person mentally. Even as a child, I would go and play with my brother's friends, the games that generally boys would play, like playing with wooden tops and flying kites. I learned cycling also very early in life. On the flip side, probably that made my parents treat me like another boy in the house and the errands my brother was supposed to do had to be shared by me.

In search of a job I was leading a very cosy life till I was left high and dry with the bare world staring at me, with girl children at hand. The younger one was just two years. I started going from place to place and to entire rows of offices in Chennai seeking a job for me as a receptionist. I couldn't think beyond that because all I knew was to speak in English and I was just a basic undergraduate. I had not qualified myself

beyond that because I got married very early. I knew that life was not going to be easy for me and having brought the children into the world, I owed a lot to them. I joined a private hospital in their sales division. I didn't know what to do but somehow, I started learning while I was working in the sales department of the hospital.

The mentor who transformed my life Subsequently I had a mentor. He was Dr Ravindra Padmanabhan and he always had a lateral thinking towards life, women, jobs and professions. He advised me about how I should move forward. One led to the other. He was running a small company for his staff's son who had not gone to school. It was into masonry, carpentry and services related to the domestic segment. Dr Ravindra asked me if I would be interested in joining him and taking the domestic services company to the next level. He told me that even the major multinationals are into this space. As this was just a small group of about 30 people offering domestic services, I was apprehensive. By then, I was in a comfortable senior position in a private hospital at Adyar, Chennai. I didn't want to leave that comfort zone of mine. As a youngster, I also thought that it was important to have vanity

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around you—a plush office and a beautiful place. I also started thinking that it was going to be a stagnant place for me and I could not grow beyond a certain point.

MBA and a surgery Meanwhile, I started doing my MBA from Indira Gandhi National Open University. I was earning about 1200 rupees. I used to put hundred rupees away every month to pay my semester fees of Rs 400 at the end of each quarter. I knew that qualification would strengthen whatever I envisaged for myself and the kids. So I started studying. I would go to the workplace. I would change two buses, leaving the kids in a creche, go to the workplace, come back, cook and get dinner ready for the kids. I couldn't afford three square meals those days but my children were of prime importance. There were times when I would go to bed without eating anything in the night. After putting my kids to sleep, I would sit and start studying for my exams.

Dr Ravindra, who operated on me said, "Listen, I have not done a cardiac surgery on you. It's just an appendicitis. You have a long way to go in your life. Therefore, just get moving." The hospital was kind enough to put me in an ambulance and send me to the examination hall. The rest, as they say, is history. I came out in flying colours. The testing times were always there but my determination and the grace from God kept me moving.

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As luck would have it, during my first semester, two days away from my exams, I had an emergency appendicitis surgery. I was in the recovery room after the surgery. My professor came there as I had not attended the contact classes. He started telling me concisely all the management principles and asked me to conceive those concepts and write the exams. As it was an open surgery, I was advised not to move out of the recovery room. However, my mentor 11

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I would finish the household works, go to the office, come back and go on wireless. Like that, we completed one order, two orders and three orders. God was kind and I could take on a lot of orders.

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The new innings and a childhood dream I told Dr Ravindra that I could join him as a consultant. It was just a small hundred square feet room upstairs and there were tea stalls downstairs. We had a small plastic table and chair. Apart from me, there was one girl to take care of accounts. I started with contract housekeeping services. I moved on to the corporate segment and clinched my first deal in housekeeping. As I was coming out, I saw some guards standing there. As a child, I always wanted to become an IPS officer, probably because of my weight and height. I was also a basketball player and I always dreamt that I should become a cop. But born in a Carnatic musicians' family, I had to get up early in the morning, practise music, do the household chores, then rush to the school or college, come back and do the same routine every day. I was not allowed to go outside and even for playing basketball, I used to sneak out and play without my father knowing it, because he was very strict. By six o'clock, if we didn't enter the house, we had it. That was the kind of parentage that I had at home. So when I came out and saw these security guards, I thought, "This is the closest that I can get to, because now I'm too old to write IPS." I came back and spoke to my mentor and asked him if we could start providing security services. He said, "If you have the guts and you think you can do it, go ahead. I have no problems about that. But please understand that I am not going to sink in funds. The funds have to come from the operations and it has to become a profit centre on its own."

Breaking into a male bastion I was stuck but then I decided to seek out my first order. Everywhere, given the mentality of people and the texture of Chennai, people were reluctant to entrust security services to a woman. Also, those days, there were not many women in admin sections and so I had to interact with men, and it was a Herculean task to get them to trust that it is my brains and that it's not that the women would come and stand at the gates, although today, we are doing that as well.

other things. My operations team were bringing in the people and we were training and deploying them in a phased manner. I was relentless, working 24/7. I had the wireless in my hand and not to forget, my child was small and she was going to school. But this industry warranted 24/7 attention. I told myself, "If I don't sacrifice something now and if the kids don't participate in the sacrifice, none of us are going to achieve anything." So I just moved on. I would finish the household works, go to the office, come back and go on wireless. Like that, we completed one order, two orders and three orders. God was kind and I could take on a lot of orders. There were people who could trust our company and me. I was the face to the companies and the Doctor was in the background.

The world comes down, once again It was then that a tragedy struck. In 2001, Dr Ravindra, my mentor passed away in an accident while he was travelling to Bangalore. The whole world came down crashing for me. I had no clue what to do with the new born baby of the security services. The only thing I had in mind was that my mentor would often say, "There should be always somebody who must think on his or her feet and say what next?" and, "If there is an eventuality in the company, you should ensure that clients do not feel that the boat is rocking. It should be business as usual." My mentor and guru who was everything to me was not there anymore. I had to be at the funeral and at the same time, respect his word and keep the office open. I got on to the wireless and told my boys not to come

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A senior person in a very big corporate told me that he would try it out with me. That first order itself was a very large order requiring many guards for each shift. The task and the challenge started with it. Now I had to get the team into place. I didn't know how we were going to recruit the guards. Then we looked at a few people who could help us in recruitment and getting the guards. We could get hold of an ex-Service Officer to give us inputs into how we could move forward in this vertical. He helped us groom the boys and prepare the training materials and BUSINESS MANDATE

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to the funeral to pay their respects to the founder. It was business as usual. I had to assure my staff that nothing was going to be wrong. We would move forward and I would be there, standing rock-solid behind them, though I myself had no clue about how I was going to take it forward. On the home front, by then my aged father had moved in with me. I had just too many things on my hand and it was such a grind mentally and I was not very far from breaking down. As Doc said, I knew I should be the person to think 'what next,' and move on. My prayers got me moving. When somebody asks me, "How can you tell who's an entrepreneur?" I always say, "Don't worry. They'll tell you who they are." I also know that an entrepreneur is a person who is bothered by customers, the core team, employees, investors and sometimes spouse. I didn't have the spouse problem, at least. I was free enough to do my work and I got into this entrepreneurial journey.

We were making a decent progress. Then came the next challenge—making the staff accepting a woman, especially in a male bastion, as their boss. This, despite the fact that I had recruited all of them. Our competitors were having a field day because they knew that when my ship was rocking slightly, they could bring it down fully. Being probably the only lady heading a security services company in India, I became a soft target for my counterparts in the industry. They were spreading rumours that we were going to shut down the place. All our major accounts were being eyed by my competitors.

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The founder's family wanted to bring the shutters down. I was totally against it and bought out the company from them in three years’ time. So from 2001, I was the captain of the ship and that was a huge responsibility. It is a very lonely and unenviable place to be in. But I decided to pull up my socks. "I'm a marathon runner. I am not a sprinter. Let me see till it falls on its own," I thought. 14

of the clients whose behaviour I could not take lying down. I did lose a few orders because

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I also started retaliating to some

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of that but I couldn't pawn my self‐respect and I was not chasing money.

The power of music as therapy It was a battle mentally. I had no time or space for myself. That was the only time I thought I was fortunate to be born to musician-parents. I banked on music. I was always on music. I would sing along the music. I would play music while I was driving from one place to the other. I would be driving to take on a very unhappy client or a disgruntled person but this music would keep me going. I would say, "Let me reach there and start worrying. Why start worrying on the road itself?” It was a tall order for me because basically I'm a person who is very tough and I don't like anybody saying things that is not acceptable to anyone—not just a lady—for that matter. I have heard harsh words. Innuendoes were thrown at me by my own immediate circle. If a lady comes up in life, in any field, and especially if she's single, then her character is being questioned. They fire unguided missiles. All of these hurt and stress you out. The children were small. I couldn't go and cry to them. I couldn't cry to my colleagues either. There was a lot of demand on my time, so I could not socialise much. I had to swallow everything and keep pushing myself. I didn't know that I had so much of inner strength in me.

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I also strongly believe that we all need a little bit of relationship, friendship, affection, love and a little bit of everything. But at the end of the day, we are all alone in our journey of life. This is the philosophy that has gone into me over the years.

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I also started retaliating to some of the clients whose behaviour I could not take lying down. I did lose a few orders because of that but I couldn't pawn my self-respect and I was not chasing money. Money was incidental and I was chasing a passion. This baby—the entrepreneurship—that was thrown to me by the grace of God, became everything to me. On the home front, I wanted my child to look at a very strong mom because I had to wear both the hats —I had to be the dad and mom. I also had to ensure that my aged father did not get unduly worried. I had to be the load bearer, whether I liked it or not. I started praying strong. I am a very strong devotee of Krishna and I think that He has been always with me, holding my hand. I have done well for myself and as I started my new innings, the first thing that I did was putting all the unkind remarks behind me. The best thing you can do is just move away from people who are mean to you and have your peace of mind and place, because ignorance is bliss. When you go up the ranks and you're visible, you cannot avoid these innuendoes.

All alone in our journey I also strongly believe that we all need a little bit of relationship, friendship, affection, love and a little bit of everything. But at the end of the day, we are all alone in our journey of life. This is the philosophy that has gone into me over the years. Today my kids are married. I have grandchildren. I live on my own. I've learned to be alone in a crowd. I had practiced this thanks to the industry I am in, thanks to entrepreneurship and thanks to being the captain of the ship. I have planned for my old age and retirement. I am not going to retire fast and as long as I'm active, I would like to go on, because we are making a difference to about 4,000 families. We are also into labour supplies. The children of our 4000 families are being educated till college. The children of some of my security officers and guards have already graduated from engineering and other professional colleges and we have found them placements in multiple places. They are all happily settled. That is most gratifying. I have lovely children. They say, "Amma, just go ahead and do what you want. Don't save a penny for us. You have given us education and we are all well settled. Enjoy your life. If you want to do anything for your employees, just go ahead and do it." I am really blessed with such a lovely family. I don't think I can ask anything more from God! 

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Dr Harpreet A De Singh, ED‐HQ, Air India and Former CEO, Alliance Air, talked on aerospace and aeronautical domain at the 8th Dr K C G Verghese Endowment Lecture, in Chennai.

hat drew me to aviation when I was very young was the open sky, the feeling of connecting with the Almighty and the freedom of being close to nature. These are the things which attracted me when I wanted to be a pilot. I realised that the skies are one part of the world which don't have physical boundaries in the rigid sense. We do have corridors of airspace and traffic management guidelines but there is no physical boundary.

IQ, EQ and PSQ When we talk about management, it is about taking important decisions and using people’s skill sets correctly. Most people focus on IQ. They look if someone is from IIM, IIT or such branded institutions. I agree that students of these institutions are brilliant and they have secured their seats in a highly competitive environment. For leadership, it is not essential that you have to be branded in a certain way. What is important is how you use that IQ and put it into action. The emotional quotient or EQ becomes very important for leaders to connect to their people and to make sure that they deliver whatever they intend to deliver in the organisations they lead. Scoring high in compassion, honesty and integrity is their real life exam. So we have to blend IQ, EQ and a word that I have coined–PSQ, 18

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which is the Pure Soul Quotient. When you combine IQ, a basic intellect, logical thinking and reasoning capability to get a productive result and match it with an emotional connection with your colleagues in your team, everyone achieves more—and you do it with purity and good intention, looking at everyone around you; not as man or woman, or somebody high or low, but just as your equal, and, connecting with them as pure souls, you will be able to derive maximum results.

International rules and regulations Aviation has taught me many big lessons. It is the only industry that is so internationally focussed. The rules and regulations that we follow are common throughout the world. All other industries are focussed within countries and meeting the regulations of the countries in which they operate. In aviation and aerospace, we consistently follow the international norms and practices. Because when we fly from A to B, we cross countries and oceans that don't really belong to one specific nation. We have the ICAO—International Civil Aviation Organization—which has come out with various annexes. We had 18 annexes for many years. Recently, the 19th one on safety management system has come and these are followed in aviation across the globe. Thus

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aviation gives a bonding to all the countries which no other industry can match. Though shipping comes very close, aviation is newer than shipping and it is faster as a mode. Shipping has its own place as certain kinds of cargo can be handled only through ships.

When business goals blend with CSR I'll give you my example as the CEO of Alliance Air, which is a subsidiary of Air India. It runs its own ATR 72 type of aircrafts. It functions with a very different kind of a corporate social responsibility function mixed with business goals. I was in the key seat where I was given the task of separation from Air India, making sure that all the platforms are separated.

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It is good to be fearful at times to a limited extent and take all precautions. But it is my belief

I took great pride in being the CEO of Alliance Air, simply because it was close to my heart as a subject. Through our airways, the remotest person in a small village could be delivered vaccines when he/she needed them during the Covid times. When we can ensure that our flights can connect to the smallest two tier and three tier cities and help them to get what they require, then the business goals are met along with social responsibility goals. It is like a mind-body-soul connection. Profit should not be our only vision. We have to look at the bigger picture. I used to say that Alliance Air is Alliance of Hearts. In a flight, we have 200 to 300 people sitting together in a confined space—you can do magic if you like, interacting with pure souls, but typically, it doesn't happen anymore. In fact, the world has changed so much that what was a natural way of communication between humans is looked now with a big question mark. They ask, “Why are you talking to me?” People say that they feel lonely in a flight. Our mindset has changed. We don't trust anyone around us, we don't think they are our fellow human beings and we stop thinking with the universal consciousness.

that excessive fear draws

The Wuhan operation

diseases and troubles.

During Covid first wave, I was Chief of Flight Safety. I was writing the SOPs, trying to put procedures in place so that people are safe. We did the Wuhan operation —the first flight that went into China in 2020 and I had done all the planning for that in such a way that not a BUSINESS MANDATE

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single person should catch the contagious disease. We had to be well prepared for any kind of exigency and risk management. We assessed the severity and probability and put risk mitigation procedures in place. We did that successfully for Wuhan and evacuated so many Indians from China. Then we did hundreds of Vande Bharat flights and could rise to the occasion.

willing to do before. It taught me a big lesson in life and gave me a first-hand experience of how to combine spirituality with leadership functions; how to use your inner spiritual strength to achieve higher productive goals.

In such operations, you would find some people who are willing and happy to be part of them and there will be others who will find every reason not to be part of. You can easily discern that when you talk to people. The other thing which I observed was the fear psychosis. It is good to be fearful at times to a limited extent and take all precautions. But it is my belief that excessive fear draws diseases and troubles.

Today, we have become so focused on money and position but have lost the big picture. The strengthening from inside helps you to be a good decision maker, for better team management, conflict resolution and in getting everyone to work in a more compatible manner without any arguments, without people pulling down each other. In fact, people who would be fighting earlier requested for meditation. It was fun to see people using simple values and delivering good content.

Drawing on spiritual strength

From India’s first woman pilot to a trainer

With a ravaging pandemic, people had lost their inner strength and their ability to cope. I started a group called Universal Prayers Channel. I was the CEO of Alliance Air at that time and, of course, it was not mandatory, but voluntary. It was a multi-faith meditation group without any religious tone but just a spiritual exercise. We started these prayers every morning from 4.30 to 5. We would pick up any prayer, meditate on that and get our inner strength back.

In Aviation, I was fortunate to get a full 360-degree experience in my organisation. I started off as a pilot (India’s first woman pilot in Air India in 1988) but God had other plans for me. I had a medical issue so I could not continue with active flying. Instead of sitting and crying, I dusted my clothes and told myself, ‘I have to find something else to do. I'm not going to be a defeatist.’ I had taken a lot of loans to be a pilot. But I was sure that there had to be a higher purpose in this setback and God would show me a new direction.

People who were hesitant, weak and who needed a little motivation and strengthening were all changing within a week. It was like a magic happening. Suddenly they were willing to do things which they were not 20

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I went to the US, got my license revalidated there and started all over again in aviation, but in a slightly different direction. I became a trainer.

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I have also observed in organisations that the biggest block comes from the middle management. Because they are in the middle, they know the frontline issues and also what the top management wants them to do.

I have been training for many years. I was a ground instructor and a fixed-base simulator instructor for the pilots for a long time. After getting my qualifications from the US, I made a second re-entry into Air India as a trainer. I was also into navigation, meteorology, performance management, crew resource management and so on. I loved that journey because I learnt a lot. If you want to learn something, teach it. This is a golden rule. If you really want to learn something, catch your friend, teach him and you will realise how much you don't know. A lot of questions will come and you have to read again. Then you gradually evolve.

Tests and more tests The other thing I love in Aviation is that this is one industry where people are tested and tested and tested. This is the only industry where, every six months till retirement, the pilot has to repeat his ground exams refresher and qualify again. He has to repeat the medical checks and simulator tests because of the safety requirements. Even a surgeon, once he gets his degree, is not going to be tested again. The pilots get used to the pressure of updating themselves, appearing for the exams and always living on tenterhooks. While you see the glamorous side of the pilots walking to the cockpit and coming out, there is a lot that goes on behind the scene. Since I am from Air India, I can say that flying longhaul operations like the 777 and 747, where we do 14 to 16 hours of flights, can be challenging. We have a bunk for the pilots as they can't operate for so many hours at a stretch. We have to mitigate the safety risk. We have two pilots who take off and the same two pilots that land. But in the middle, we have two pilots who are the cruise pilots while the others rest. There is a lot of risk mitigation things that we do all along.

Opt for the No‐Go zone After the training requirements, I was fortunate that I started with a role in Quality department. In

aviation, we never had a quality department earlier. I got thick volume of quality standards on my table. There were some new standards and international requirements and we had to have a quality management in place. No one was interested in this and I sensed an opportunity. This is another management lesson I have learned. ‘When everybody says no, it is time to jump in.’ People want to do safe things and don't want to take a risk or dive into new knowledge. It took me a lot of work to institute the quality management system. I am certified as a lead auditor. I audit airports and airlines on behalf of international agencies. Audit, like teaching, taught me immensely. If you are a true seeker, you will seek knowledge and not money. That is what has eventually made me a CEO. When you are in the open-minded zone of a seeker of knowledge, you will acquire more knowledge and you will be able to outshine others. You don't have to pull them down. I have observed that some people are so insecure about themselves that they are not willing to share their knowledge. If you do not share knowledge and allow the team to come up and replace you, you cannot go to higher levels.

The challenge at the middle I have also observed in organisations that the biggest block comes from the middle management. Because they are in the middle, they know the frontline issues and also what the top management wants them to do. But, looking for stability and promotions, they prefer to be ‘yes men,’ at the cost of undermining the organisational vision and goals. They are hesitant to communicate the frontline issues to the top and, therefore, the top management may not be aware of the ground realities. They may also miscarry the management’s message to the frontline. I am not saying everyone is like that. There are exceptions and there are many people in middle levels who are very good and deliver excellent results. To overcome this problem, you have to strategize without offending the middle management. A leader must learn how to engage with them and ensure that they do not misquote the top management and also give real feedback about the front line to the top management, so the decision making at the top happens adequately and appropriately.

Be proactive As Chief of Flight Safety, the one thing that I realised was that we must drop our ego and our position. It doesn't matter if you are a CEO—man or woman. You have to go into the hangar, check the parts

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yourself, go and watch what the cabin crew are doing or sit and interact with the pilots. Interact with frontline workers, have a cup of tea with them, feel the pulse and plug the gaps. If you just sit in an office and think that everything is going to be perfect, you will go wrong. It is very difficult to manage safety in an organization. We have a lot of rules and regulations. Though we make sure that everything is hundred percent safe, once in a while, things can go wrong, because we are all human beings. We have to be prepared for Murphy’s Law: ‘Anything that will go wrong, will go wrong.’ But in safety, we need to be proactive. We introduced a voluntary safety reporting system. If people see a hazard, they should report it. Accident investigation is reactive. We have to focus on hazard reporting for proactive safety management. During the five years I spent as Chief of Flight Safety, I learnt a lot, understood the mindset and about what triggers people to commit mistakes.

Awake for 4 days I was the emergency response director for almost 15 years. I had the unfortunate experience of handling two accidents. In 30 minutes of knowing about the accident, I reached the emergency command centre. I was awake for four days and nights at a stretch and I was still very fresh. I realised the energy that we are all blessed with. We knew we had a job to do. This is the resilience that we all have. I am nothing special and we have this capability and strength in us. We had to help 22

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so many people who were in hospitals. That intention and pure thought about helping others is what prevented us from getting tired. It gives positive energy and vibes. If as a leader you have that, you can automatically spread those vibrations around you and you can develop a good team. People make loose statements that without corruption and sucking up to people, you can't rise. I don’t believe it and I am a standing example. I don’t know anyone in the ministry. I know God and I keep doing my job. It is as simple as that. Do your work with devotion and sincerity and keep moving. You will have good times and bad times. Life is a game of snakes and ladders.

Growth in adversity In Alliance Air, during Covid, we started a new sector and new flights. We started to come out of the red. We started cargo flights. There was a lot of focus on cargo operations during Covid because it was always under-served earlier. The management lesson here is that when everything is down, you can find business opportunities and avenues for growth. We learned hybrid modes of functioning and about how to work from home at lower costs, with our flight planning and other things happening from home and which we would have never dreamt of. We have evolved into a new way of doing things. Thus, every adversity can be an opportunity. 

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Vishakha is ranked among the Top 50 of Fortune India’s ‘Most Powerful Women’ in business three times in a row ﴾2017, 2018 and 2019﴿. In this excerpt from her talk, she guides and mentors an upcoming generation of women thinkers and leaders on making choices and owning it all up.

et me ask a couple of questions to young women. First, “Do you have complete clarity on why you want to work?” Second, “Do you know why you want to choose a particular field and what motivates you to stay there?” The answer that I often get is, “I want to make money. I am young and I have needs, so I have to make money.” My advice to everybody is that money is very obvious. Money is the recognition and reward for the effort you put in. If money becomes the prime reason for what you do, then your focus is not on what you do. There is a very fine distinction between wanting to work versus wanting to earn money. Nobody says that you must work for free. But what you earn is directly commensurate to what you can give and do. I would like to illustrate with my personal example. I come from a very middle-class family. I was born in Hyderabad in 1964. I finished my graduation and started working in 1987. It was pre-privatisation days. As money was scarce, the desire to work was very high. It was a challenge for young women to stay the course, not just entering the workforce. I was working in New India Assurance as AAO accounts, qualifying as a chartered accountant. I joined as an accountant and could have chosen to stay there in Accounts. I had

just moved to Delhi around 91-92 and had to take care of my child. Because we had gone into computerisation, I realised that my role in Accounts was merely data entry verification.

A job that can challenge me I went to my regional manager and told him, “I manage a one-and-a-half year-old baby at home and come to work. I need to be able to contribute, so I can justify not contributing enough as a mother. Can you please give me a job which can utilise my talents and challenge me?” The manager advised me to take it easy and have a relaxed life getting salary. I pointed out to him about the lack of utilisation of my skills and the opportunity cost of my time. He then advised me to apply for the branch manager’s role. I applied for it, went through the interview process and became a branch manager. The entire trajectory of my career changed with that one move. From being an accounts officer, I became a branch manager in charge of handling sales, claims, people management, client management and P&L management. It was a small branch but suddenly I got an overall exposure to being a profit centre head. I had no idea of the policies we were selling or about our core business. I put in more work with no rise in pay, but importantly, it gave me

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enormous satisfaction. Looking back, I must thank my regional manager for trusting me and giving me an opportunity, which demanded my hundred percent.

Make work your energizer If money is the only reason why you work, then work can start to burn you out. Your work must energize you. If you enjoy the work that you do, work will never tire you. What will tire you is doing things that you don’t want to do. For example, if there is a person who loves coding but she is not a great people manager. If that person is promoted as a manager, she becomes very unhappy because of what is being demanded of her. It is not something that she enjoys doing. It is very important to understand what is it that you are willing to give and what is it that you want to get. I have challenged myself to do jobs that I disliked too, because I just wanted a challenge. I would say to every job, “Bring it on. Let me see. What is so difficult about it? Let me figure it out.” The jobs that give you pain are the jobs that you don't want to do. That is when the joy of working starts becoming a stress of working. So the first thing that I always want to ask is, “Why do you want to work?”

and money as a motivator at a particular stage. My suggestion is: Find your own mojo. Why do you want to work? What gives you joy and pleasure? Remember, you want to work for 25 to 30 years at 8 to 10 hours a day. That is almost two-thirds of your waking hours. Your motivators have to be intrinsic—something that gives you motivation from inside. Your extrinsic motivators can give you joy but then, intrinsic motivation is what is really going to make you go back to work every day. During the Covid lockdowns, I saw people saying that they were working because they wanted the money to travel and spend on holidays. Now that they can't even travel, they don’t want to work any longer.

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Next comes your motivators. We all consider external rewards and recognition being our motivators, 26

you have been exposed to and as much as you are willing to expand your mind. When you choose, always be very clear of why you choose what you

Intrinsic vs. extrinsic motivators

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You can grow only as much as

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choose.

Think about it. “Are you really working just to go on foreign holidays? Is it for your pride? Is it for you to utilise your own talent and knowledge? Is it for you to have an individuality?”

The power of conditioning The next important aspect is conditioning. More often than not, we choose what we have been taught to choose. Conditioning is different from bias. For example, someone may be biased against North Indians and they may or may not be aware of their bias. Conditioning is much deeper. It is ingrained in us and we may not even be aware of it. Our judgments and choices can be governed by conditioning. I am a born South Indian married to a North Indian. My morning drink changed from coffee to tea. I have a choice to switch between both and I have a preference. Conditioning does not give you choice. Rather, it dictates what you want. Your conditioning will stop you from even trying out different things because it makes you believe that is what you want. Only when you have tried out something else, you will be able to make a conscious choice between the various options available. Why you work must be one of those conscious choices. For me, the reason for taking up a job was to challenge myself. It was a conscious choice. When I got married and went to Delhi, I prepared the south Indian ‘upma’ for breakfast. The whole family looked at it and they were unable to understand what it was. As there was no Internet then, they were not exposed to south Indian dishes. They simply called it, ‘namkeen halwa.’ That is a classic example of how we need an anchor of something that we know to understand something that is new to us or something that we don’t know. This is a great lesson for one’s progress in life. You can grow only as much as you have been exposed to and as much as you are willing to expand your mind. When you choose, always be very clear of why you choose what you choose. Let me give another example from my personal life.

An accident and a dilemma My son, when he was very small, had an accident and had a cut at the back of his neck. It was a small cut but there was lot of blood. Everybody in the family panicked. We took him to the doctor who treated him and put two stitches. The doc said that my son was fine with those stitches and there was nothing to worry. I had a very important meeting in office and had to make a presentation. I desperately wanted to attend that meeting because this was an important part of my career journey towards being a branch manager.

After leaving my son in a day care centre, I went to my office. Everyone in my family criticized me for taking that option. If you analyse my decision, I chose that option of going to office on three data points: 1) I had taken my son to the doctor; 2) He treated him and said he was perfectly fine; 3) I was leaving him at a day care centre which I knew and they had told me that it was not a problem at all for them to handle my son. On the other side, I wanted to make an important change in my career and if I had skipped the meeting, it would have gone against my image. They would have said that a woman, more so a mother would never be able to prioritise her work. If I had skipped office, I would have strengthened that conditioning. So I had to go and I wanted to go. Luckily, things worked out well. My son was fine and he recovered. We didn't have any problem. Had something happened, that would have been linked to my being an irresponsible mother. Luckily, my job interview too went on well and I got the position of branch manager. But what if things had not turned out well? The only way you would know is when you have made a conscious choice. My recommendation to everybody is that when you make a difficult decision, please write down the factors available to you at that point of time, on the basis of which you made a decision. What is the information that you had? What thoughts and beliefs did you have? What were the drivers for your decision? Retrospectively, you have a 360-degree view and you can compare with what you have written down. You can analyse the information that was available to you at that point of time when you took the decision, information that was available to you at a future point and revisit a decision made in the past. So, whenever you face a dilemma, write down the information that you have. If someone turns back and says that you should have known this or that, you can tell them, like, “Listen. These are the things I considered. I checked my son’s temperature. I left his temperature and the doctor's phone number behind with the day care centre. I took all precautions. I had considered all these data points and that's why I made my decision.” If things don't go well, you will be your first critic. That is why a conscious choice is very important. When you make a conscious choice, you know the circumstances under which you made that choice and accept it.

Call it out The third point that I want to make is about empowering and enabling more women to come to the workplace. My request to everybody is to call it out. Gender biases and prejudices build because people

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allow them to build, rather than calling them out. Micro transgressions at multiple levels can lead to a very big transgression. I will give an example of one case we had in our office. A woman who joined us was an under-performer and was not doing her work. She always kept asking for time extension. We put her on performance improvement plans and finally, at the end of six months, nothing clicked and we told her, “Look. This is not going to work,” and we relieved her. She filed a case against us because she was six months pregnant by that time. She was just biding her time, because as per law you can't terminate someone after certain months of pregnancy. So we were forced to keep her. She went on three months maternity leave. She came back and after that again, we kept her for three months. We ended up paying her nine months of salary for doing nothing. Out of this experience, her manager told me, “Ma’am. Please don't ask me to hire any woman,” I asked him, “Tell me how many women you have hired. How many people have done like this? Tell me how many men you have hired, who have not been performers.” When it comes down to hard facts, because we have a low base among women, percentages look obnoxious. If you have totally three women in your team and if one out of them behaves badly, that makes

Babita Baruah: With many hats that women wear, can you give some tips for women to stay energised?

Vishaka: The burnout starts the moment we want to do something to other people’s standards. In my journey, it took a long me for me to realise that I tried to be a perfect daughter‐in‐law for my mother‐in‐ law, a perfect wife for my husband, a perfect mother for my son and a perfect employee for my boss. One day, I collapsed and started asking me, “What are my own standards? Why should I live up to others’ standards?” Then things fell into place. So, have your own standards. Mythili Chandrasekar: A lot of women take up jobs to get ﬁnancial independence, which in itself is not a bad thing. But what 28

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it 33%. If there are ten men and two behave badly, then we will say that 20% of men are bad. On a comparison, they will look at 20% men vs. 33% women. But that is not the way you must look at it. We must figure out where absolutes are to be used and where relative comparisons are to be used. Where are the trends and where are the anecdotes? Is it just an anecdotal issue with one woman or is it a trend of many women behaving or performing badly? Whenever you come across complaints against women, look if it is just one incident or a general trend? Don’t you have incidents with men and what yardstick do you apply to handle them? Please make a commitment to call it out when there are derogatory remarks or jokes in bad taste passed against women, when women are generalized and when statements are made that women are always like this. No, not all women behave badly. Likewise, all men are not the same. If there is one incident of sexual assault, you cannot say that all men are predators. Similarly, no woman wants to be dumped into one generalisation. Just because there are fewer women at work, the percentages seem high and misleading. By calling it out, we can support and empower women at the workplace. 

is important is—How do you enjoy making that money? Then it helps you to stay the course. What I have observed is that ﬁnding your calling may some mes take a long me. Vishaka has discovered it quite early in her career, which is a very good thing.

How do you ensure that as the lone woman member in the boardroom, your voice is heard?

Vishaka: I never think of my presence as a woman member. I am a person and so are others in the boardroom. There have been mes when I also carried a chip on my shoulder. I have consciously worked on a lot of conﬂic ng inner beliefs which can be your worst enemies. BUSINESS MANDATE

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Another point is that as women, our voices are sharper than male voices. In the boardroom, I concentrate on modula ng my tone. If we don’t modulate, we may sound very screechy. As men are not condi oned to hear such a voice, they may not pay a en on. So I ensure that I modulate my voice. These are some of my ps.

How can we come out of conditioning?

Vishaka: Embrace conscious choice. Every me you take a decision, stop and ask, “Is this what I really want to do?” Also, stop being a vic m. Don’t think that you do not have a choice. You always have a choice if you are willing to pay the price. 

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Bhuvana Rajaram's talk covered simple and doable methods of branding strategies for MSMEs, to differentiate themselves and attract prospects. It addressed how content, brand and marketing are interrelated and how, if blended well, they can unlock a plethora of possibilities for businesses.

randing is a marketing practice that helps businesses differentiate their products or service from that of others. If we take examples from Tamil Nadu, we can say that Hotel Saravana Bhavan, Hatsun, Milky Mist, Aachi and Ramraj are some of the familiar brands that are well registered in customers’ minds, thanks to their focussed branding strategies. How can we grow and nourish powerful brands? There are ten steps to developing successful brands.

Step 1: Business strategy Once you decide to start a business, you must be clear about what you want to do, where you want to go and what type of firm you want. You must also decide if you want to grow organically or by acquiring other companies. A clear business strategy gives a direction and a long-term plan for the company.

Step 2: Establish your target segment The next important step is to identify your target customers. Segment them geographically, sociographically, psychographically, demographically and behaviourally. The more you are aware of the pulse of the audience, the more will be the growth of your organisation. Brand is not just a cosmetic thing; it goes deep into the minds of the audience. 30

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You must be aware of your audience, their age group, location, their likes and dislikes and also if you have correctly mapped your product or service to the chosen target group.

Step 3: Market research Once you have established a strategy and identified the target audience, then it is time to do market research. You must do extensive research to find out your customers’ preferences and also anticipate their needs. Find out how they view your brand and what matters most to them. For example, people need masks and hand sanitizers now. It is not possible for everyone to start making masks and sanitizers. But you can think of how you can use these products in your business, like giving a free mask or sanitizer to your customers. A jewellery dealer recently told me that there will always be demand for ladies’ toe ring (metti) and anklet. You must identify such facts through constant research.

Step 4: Position your brand Your brand must be differentiated from others. If you want to set up a cycle shop in an area where there are already four such shops, you need to be unique and different from

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others in some aspects. The audience must have a clear reason to choose your offering. There has to be a promise that you make to them. It must be genuine and real and you must be able to deliver on that promise, better than your competition. For instance, you can offer a product that is reasonably priced or a phenomenal customer experience. You can differentiate by offering many varieties or by offering less variety but with each of them being very distinct and appealing.

going by their personal likes and preferences in selecting the logo. Conduct a random survey and have your target segment look at your logo. Understand what they feel and get their honest feedback.

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It is not enough that as a business owner, you know your target segment and their

Step 5: Messaging approach

preferences and that you offer

It is not enough that as a business owner, you know your target segment and their preferences and that you offer great value to them. Your customers should be aware of what you do, whom you do it for and why you do it. You can have a custom-made messaging app. You must know to communicate your USPs and differentiators with a suitable and appealing content. Unless you communicate these to your audience, they may not be aware of your key specialties. Have your client list and references.

Step 6: Logo, name and slogan The logos, name, slogan or tag line must be simple, self-explanatory and catchy. The audience must be able to relate to them and to the brand identity. As people are starved of time, the logos and taglines must be crisp. You must be able to live up to the brand identity and promise. Many entrepreneurs make the mistake of

great value to them. Your customers should be aware of what you do, whom you do it for and why you do it.

Step 7: Content Marketing Content marketing is the future of marketing. It gives visibility and brings reputation to your brand. You must be able to tap the digital sources to do it most economically. What is important is that you must do it consistently. You must have online presence and must be active on social media platforms. You can make use of webinars, blogs, infographics, newsletters,

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video content, apps and many other options available today to do content marketing. What you do must be suited to your business and target segment. For example, pictures and infographics will be appealing to children. They may not be interested in reading blogs.

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Your toolkit must include website, videos, press releases, fliers, brochures, case studies, client videos and validations and other things that are ideal for your target segment.

Do you have a website? If so, anyone from around the world can know about your business and products / services just by browsing and landing on your web page. The website must be constructed professionally with ease of navigation. All your products and services must be listed there. The website need not be a costly affair. There are many screen tools available today to create your website. You can engage a designer or a couple of freelance resources to create and maintain your website. The website must be updated 32

Step 9: Have a marketing toolkit Your toolkit must include website, videos, press releases, fliers, brochures, case studies, client videos and validations and other things that are ideal for your target segment. The toolkit must be always readily available with you. You must highlight all your strengths in the toolkit. If your company is there for over 80 years, it gives a clear and positive message about your company to the customers. Such details must be highlighted in your fliers. The more you collect all your success stories and propagate them to your customers, the more your brand will grow.

Step 10. Tracking and adjusting

Step 8: Launch your website

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periodically. It is not necessary that everyone must have a website. For example, if you run a petrol pump, you don't need a website. But a cycle company that offers many models of cycles definitely needs one.

Whatever you do will be incomplete without tracking the results and calibrating your actions. For instance, a few years ago, Facebook was very popular. Today, Instagram is very popular with the youngsters. We must keep track of the technology and the latest trends. Short videos are ideal for Instagram. Track the response to your posts and analyse the data of how many and who viewed / liked your posts. Based on the analysis, adjust your actions. Renew yourself constantly. 

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33 NOV 2021

It is undeniable that TikTok has been instrumental in shaping our behaviour on social media, but how much do we know about the app or the people behind it? In an online discussion, Mathew Brennan not only tells us the story of TikTok but also demystifies the technology behind the app. ByteDance is TikTok’s parent company. Kiruba Shankar and Naru Radhakrishnan were special invitees for the session.

In the Indian market and elsewhere, people felt that the content was trashy with lots of dancing, singing and silly comedy. But then, the technology behind the platform is so advanced and cutting-edge. TikTok wasn't the first short video application. There was a predecessor to TikTok globally and that was Musical.ly which was used by pre-teeners and teenagers in Europe and North America. Even before musical.ly there was another platform in France. TikTok offers short video in a full screen, vertical and swipe up motion format with music driven content. Mathew Brennan

Why is TikTok’s technology so powerful?

Author & International Speaker

et me address three questions: Why is TikTok coming from a Chinese and not US company? Why is TikTok’s technology so powerful? Why is TikTok so popular? ByteDance is the company behind TikTok. It is a Chinese company. Globally, famous apps and Internet services come from companies based in the Silicon Valley, like Facebook and Google. Zhang Yiming, the founder of TikTok, at the beginning of the company, knew the power of AI and recommendation engine. ByteDance is essentially an AI company whose core competency is the recommendation engine.

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The term ‘user experience’ was actually invented in France. Short video is very powerful and it is something that is going to be with us for a long time. Why is that such a powerful format? Short videos help in learning about the user’s content preferences. On Netflix, you might spend 45 minutes watching ‘A Game of Thrones.’ In those 45 minutes, Netflix isn't learning much about you. It offers a very passive experience long-form content. If you do something on YouTube, in the same 45 minutes, you might watch ten videos and you have allowed YouTube to learn about your content preferences ten times more and understand you

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better. On a platform like TikTok with short form video, in that same time period, you can consume perhaps over 100 or 200 unique pieces of content. So they get 200 opportunities to learn about you and understand what you like and what you don't like. In the full screen vertical format, you either watch it or swipe it and sometimes comment about it. For each individual piece of content, there are very strong signals from the users which the user experience algorithms pick up and discover content preferences.

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Lots of people want to be famous online. A big barrier is creativity and not most people have creativity. They can be intimidated by the process. Well, in TikTok, it is very easy.

Why is TikTok Popular? The content ecosystem is very dynamic. As a creator, you are encouraged to copy and imitate others and that's a very different psychology from other platforms that want originality and where you might be looked down upon if you start copying others. On TikTok, it's okay to do that. A lot of people end up jumping on the trend, re-mixing other people's content or doing their own version of a challenge or something that's trending on the platform. So TikTok has lowered the barriers to content creation. This is such an important thing to understand why it is so successful. If you want to be a YouTube creator, the barriers are pretty high. You will need a professional editing software to do that and you'll have to create high quality content. It is a very mature platform. Whereas on TikTok, you don't need any editing software. Everything's built into the app. Lots of people want to be famous online. A big barrier is creativity and not most people have creativity. They can be intimidated by the process. Well, in TikTok, it is very easy. Every day, it comes up with new filters and the filters completely solve the problem of creating an engaging video. The filter itself is engaging. There are things that are trending on the platform with a challenge. All you need to do is copy and do your own version. If it's a dance, you just mimic the dance and put your own twist on it. That completely solves the creativity problem. There's motivation problem as well. Because the speed at which a content trends on

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the platform goes up, but the next day something else is popular. As a creator, you need to jump on the trend. That solves the motivation problem as well. So all of these issues have been solved by TikTok. The content side and the technology side combine together to offer a powerful platform. This is something Silicon Valley companies don't do. They are very data-driven, technical and sort of hands-off with management of ecosystems. Whereas Chinese companies are much more hands-on. They don't mind getting their hands dirty and doing things that they don't like. That is definitely a lesson for Indian or any companies around the world that are looking to build internet products.

Lack of stamina The second aspect this VC friend of mine talked about was ‘stamina.’ The Chinese are all about going global, not just in business, but every walk of life. For example, I personally feel that Flipkart sold out too early and I'll tell you why. In 2010 or 11, Yahoo was a significant shareholder in Alibaba. It made an offer to Jack Ma to buy out Alibaba. Those days, Alibaba had not grown to what it is today. But Jack Ma fought it tooth and nail. The government stood firmly behind him and he made a reverse offer to buy Yahoo globally, from China; and that was unthinkable those days. He went ahead and did it and finally Yahoo's attempt to take over Alibaba did not materialize. It is one of the reasons why Alibaba is where it is today. From this perspective, Flipkart was a very early sell out and we probably had something much bigger. Indian entrepreneurs tend to sell out early. Similarly, they have reluctance to go global. I have travelled all over the world in many airlines. I think Jet Airways is a fantastic Airline. We have built such brands with a global character but we don’t have the ability to support them big. I don’t want to go into the reasons. Chinese people, wherever they go in the world, use WeChat not WhatsApp. They also get systemic support.

Naru Radhakrishnan Independent Consultant

am a former employee of ByteDance. I lived in China from 2006 all the way to 2018. I have a fairly decent, ringside view of how these companies operate. Recently, I had a conversation with a senior partner from one of the VC firms that have operations both in India and China. This leader made a couple of interesting observations, comparing the entrepreneurs in India and China.

Business for China; Product for India The first thing he said was that Chinese entrepreneurs start with the business plan. Whereas, Indian entrepreneurs come with product ideas. It makes a huge difference between the two. He said that the quality of ideas that come out of India is very good but therein lies the problem. We get fixated with the idea. If the idea fails, your business fails. In China, people come up with a business plan and they broadly know what to do. Even ByteDance had 12 app ideas before they decided which one to go with. This is one area where we, as Indians, need to learn.

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Kiruba Shankar CEO, Business Blogging & Founder Director, F5ive Technologies

G is going to be a massive game changer. Video is already the king of content. It is the most consumed one and for all practical purposes, it is really the internet speed that has helped companies like ByteDance or Flipkart. They have all grown massively because the infrastructure has already been built for these companies to piggyback and to have a massive hockey stick growth.

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When TikTok was banned last year, there was a flurry of TikTok-ish apps that came in with a strong Indian flavour wanting to occupy the massive space left by TikTok. I created one of them. I co-founded a company called 60Seconds to be in the short format game. The world's largest search engine is Google. The second largest is YouTube. So videos are already out there to win and the Internet speed is only going to quicken that pace.

Alarming attention span The second aspect I want to touch is the attention span. I have two teenage daughters and I can tell you that their attention span is insanely short. I don't think they ever enjoy watching a feature film of two hours duration. They just don't have the patience. They are attuned to watching short-format videos. At best, they may watch Netflix series of half an hour or 45 minutes duration. Every time these kids watch the short format videos, they get dopamine shots and become addicted. The companies know what sort of video has caught the fancy of the viewers. How long they watch the videos and if they comment—all these provide valuable analytics feedback to the company. It is very easy for them to dissect and find out viewers’ interest. Then accordingly, in real time, they start changing the algorithm and line up videos that capture their attention. The app decides what you want to watch, and because they keep giving you content, you continue to keep watching that. It is just shocking.

Recent reports say that the attention span of youngsters is down to eight seconds. With such short attention span, the average time that an Indian spends on the mobile is 4.6 hours in a day. How ridiculous this is! Mobile phones have become a part of human anatomy. If you don't find your phone out there, you almost get a heart attack! We prefer watching vertical videos. The biggest muscles that we use is in fact, our thumb muscles. Entrepreneurs, product heads and marketers have to understand this.

The dark side However, there's a dark side to this. If there has ever been a biggest proponent of digital, it's me. In 1995, I graduated in engineering; It was also the year when the Internet was introduced. I fell head over heels over the Internet; and over the last two decades plus, I have made it my passion and profession. I've been a professor, teaching digital to B-Schools. I truly believe that short video apps like TikTok dull your brain like crazy. Many of us have fallen victim to that as well. The greatest and the most successful people that we admire are all creators. They sit down for long hours, think and create. But sadly, many of us become zombies staring into our screens and consuming content mindlessly. We should encourage our kids to become creators and not just turn out to be mute spectators and brain-dead consumers. 

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Breaking away from the shackles of family‐run, Harsh Mariwala founded Marico in 1987. Today, it is a leading international FMCG giant. In a freewheeling interaction, Harsh Mariwala sheds light on his book and on what went into making Marico a household name.

Shankar: In a family business with pedigree and heritage, your desire to do something different carries the weight of family expectations on your shoulders. It can be a dampener. You have managed to come out of it and build your business. Can you explain how that happened? Harsh: There is no one right answer. It all

depends on the family itself. How complex the family is; whether it is the first generation, the next generation or the third generation; and the kind of business one is in. Different families have managed internal issues differently. You have to manage it proactively and build consensus within the family. It is very important because if you don't do it, it could lead to conflict. People would be frustrated if they're not allowed to express their opinion. I think the starting point is a family council. Ideally, it can be with an outsider who is trusted by all the family members and who can play a neutral role. The objective of the family council is to address all the issues which the family is facing. Questions like: If a youngster wants to start a business, should he be given the freedom? Should it be a part of the family business? What kind of capital should he or she get? – these can be threshed out in the family council. It can also address the entry of family members into the business and exit from the business. It can bring in openness by getting feedback. There is hesitation to give feedback

to the elder generation as they are not willing to accept feedback. Normally, small issues lead to big conflicts-for example, who will get to appear in the media or what kind of car each person should have? All these issues must be proactively handled. Else, it can lead to a long-winded battle. It is not just the family members who are in the thick of the business but those who are sitting at home too matter. If my spouse feels that I'm not treated fairly by the family or some family members misuse whatever they get, then it becomes a hotbed of differences. A neutral person can bring in clarity and some degree of objectivity. The family council can have a constitution and it can meet once a month or once in 3 months. You stressed the importance of setting value systems in stone. You decided to put Human Resources as a function to be professionalised and emphasised in the early stages of the company. This is important not only to people who are in a joint family business but to any entrepreneur. Can you talk about that?

It is unfortunate that many CEOs don't regard HR as a key source of competitive advantage. The war for talent is as important as the war for financial resources or market share. Because, ultimately, talent is going to drive marketing and financials. So it is very important to create an atmosphere where the

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company has a good image in the marketplace. What is the unique thing that you offer to your potential employees which will make them join you? What kind of culture do you have, which will make them stay with you? Joining an organisation is just one part. If the employees do not enjoy their journey in your organization, they will leave very quickly. They need to get empowerment. They need to have a challenge. They require job rotation, openness and trust. Good professionals do not want to be part of an organisation that has a lot of backbiting and gossiping. To retain talent, you must be fair and meritocracy based. Without any investment in capital assets, I was able to turn the whole business from unbranded to

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We located our factory in Kerala in spite of advice given to me by my friends and relatives. I decided to back my HR team.

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branded, only because of good quality talent. In my formative years, I got a very good experience in dealing with good talent and leadership style and that reinforced a belief in me that talent and culture are very important for any CEO. My first recruit was Head of HR. I feel HR has to be on the same level as any CXO. HR is a very strategic area and can add a lot to the financial profitability of the company. We located our factory in Kerala in spite of advice given to me by my friends and relatives. I decided to back my HR team. Thanks to the HR, we dealt with the issues proactively and reaped huge financial benefits. Any business talent has to be nurtured. You have to create an employee value proposition to attract talent and you need to have a right culture so that that talent is engaged and highly motivated to perform.

In the initial stages, you have a countable number of senior professionals. But when the company reaches a stage of rapid growth and you have many lateral hires, how do you keep the value systems unchanged and propagated?

Maintaining a culture over a longer period of time is a challenge. We have done that in Marico for over 30 years, since 1990. First of all, we have to have a defined set of values. As soon as a person joins, as part of the induction, we spend one full day explaining our values and culture and why they are important. BUSINESS MANDATE

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Even before recruitment, we take them through some tests to assess their leadership style. If the style does not fit into our way of doing things, we may not select that person. A person with a highly autocratic leadership style will never be able to exist in Marico because we want our leaders to be participative, open and listen to dissent. After recruitment, we send them to a six-day leadership program teaching them about the leadership style that we want them to exhibit. If the leaders don't take values and culture seriously, then people down the line also will take it lightly. We also do a value study within the organization every year. It has about 30 to 40 questions. We segment it based on different grades, levels, functions, locations and so on. If we find that in a certain location, the value scores are low, then HR steps in and works on improving it.

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When HLL entered the segment, their objective was not just to gain market share but there was a hidden agenda of acquisition of Parachute brand. I evaluated internally with my own team and also discussed with Professor Ram Charan.

The ability to let go by leader is a very important part of professionalisation. You have to give the people coming in the adequate space to operate it. Tell us how that was achieved and what advice you would give to people.

In a start-up, when you start, you are doing things on your own, which is fine because you want to have a good grip. You are capable. You are the founder, so you are doing it on your own. But as business expands, you start recruiting talent as there is a limit to which you can work and you have limited hours to work. If you are ambitious and you want to grow, you will have to recruit a team. Then there is a big shift from doing things to getting things done. You are looking at issues like selecting the right talent, team building and inter functional coordination.

While making that happen, it is very important that you select the right talent. If you delegate and the quality of the talent is poor, then they may not be able to perform and it may reflect negatively on the performance of the organization. Then the normal tendency is to say that delegation didn't work and to go back to centralised working. But that's not right because you made a wrong decision of selecting wrong talent. Delegation is not abdication. When you delegate, you are accountable. The key thing is to have a good quality talent and allow it to go. When you have recruited and groomed a talent that is better than what you are, that person may be able to deliver results that will be far better. Sometimes you may go wrong but that's okay. As your options and time are limited, you have to delegate and empower people. Many entrepreneurs are getting caught into a kind of a track where they are not able to delegate. They're not able to attract talent and then they don't grow.

Kavitha: Tell us how you took on the big bully, HUL. and eventually bought out their coconut oil business. Also, can you tell us about the war room that you set up to tackle this challenge?

‘Parachute coconut oil’ is our resource generating engine. It’s our star business and the most important product that contributes to the turnover as well as profits. It was much higher in 1996 when we went public. Now it has come down because other brands have grown but it is very important to us. This is one brand which I built from bottom up as brand new and which I am very passionate about. In 1993, Hindustan Lever (now HUL) had acquired TATA Oil Mills Company. (TOMCO) and as part of the acquisition, they got TATA Nihar oil brand. They also acquired one more brand–Cococare. At that time, they were doing extremely well in the oral care segment, taking on Colgate and Signal brands of toothpaste and they felt that if they were able to impact a very strong brand such as Colgate, they would definitely be able to impact Parachute. When HLL entered the segment, their objective was not just to gain market share but there was a hidden agenda of acquisition of Parachute brand. I evaluated internally with my own team and also discussed with Professor Ram Charan. His viewpoint was that we had to protect our resource generating engine. I also met Karsanbhai Patel, the founder of Nirma, because he had halted Hindustan’s Lever’s attempt at taking over Nirma brand. After a lot of research, I came to the conclusion that we would be strong enough to take HLL on. I was convinced that we had a very good quality product

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which they may not be able to beat. Our brand was strong and had been there for many years. There was also a very strong, emotional connect with the brand by the users. One area we were weak was in distribution. Hindustan Lever was much deeper in distribution, especially in rural areas. We appointed super distributors, went into rural areas and tried to match them. The last aspect was boosting the morale of our team when we take on a big giant. We had to look at the morale of our own distributors and field force. We had regular conferences and set up a war room through which we gave our team a lot of ammunition, viz. empowerment. We focussed on marketing and came up with a new advertising campaign. We improved the quality of the product further.

taking it lightly and the market share started falling. At some stage, we were able to convince them that they sell off this brand. They decided to do that and put the brand up for auction. Many players participated in that auction. We were very keen to acquire it. So we were very aggressive in our offer and we got the brand. We acquired the brand which we were fighting with. It was a great feeling within the organization.

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We knew that for one or two years, we might not be able to show growth in profits. HLL made overtures to me, for buying the brand from us, through merchant bankers as well as direct phone calls but I was quite clear that we would not sell it. It went on for four or five years. They invested a lot into the brand and gained market share. At one stage, they had almost 12% market share. Then they started losing interest as the company had leadership change at the top. It was getting more and more integrated with Unilever in UK. They started 42

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Looking back, that has been one of our best acquisitions because that brand is relatively strong in the east. It complemented our range.

Looking back, that has been one of our best acquisitions because that brand is relatively strong in the east. It complemented our range. The strategy worked out extremely well and the gains from our strategy were much more than what we had imagined.

Shankar: Your story gives me a sense of deja vu. We had a similar story in the history of my own company. In Marico, you have started brands and acquired brands. You also decided to sell a brand. What was the driving force in deciding that you were not the best custodian of that brand?

It was a rational decision and had nothing to do with custodianship. We sold a brand called ‘Sweekar.’ It was not growing either in top line or bottom line. At that time, it had a turnover of 100 crores but the gross margins were very low and it was diluting our overall gross margin. It was a non-FMCG segment and was not fitting into our growth plans. We didn't have any differentiator and by design, we want to be market leaders in whatever we do. But we didn't see ourselves becoming market leader in that segment. Because, if we had to become market leader, then we had to be more aggressive in pricing. With already low margins, it didn't make sense for us to have that brand in our portfolio.

Tell us about your overseas business and how you got into it. What are your future plans?

markets of the world. What are the things that we need to do to make that happen?

The key thing is that you must have a differentiator. If you offer a me-too product in an existing category, your chance of becoming a global brand will be very low. You must leverage innovation or technology to make you stand out or you need to leverage something which is Indian like Indian tea, Ayurveda, and Yoga. Some Korean brands have done well in global markets making use of raw materials and R&D. We face big challenges in the area of distribution. In many developed markets, distribution is very different. You must have a very strong brand which will cut ice with consumers. Then you must manage distribution and create a brand with a high cost for advertising. Now things are changing because of the fact that you can create a brand today through D2C, which is Direct to Consumer. You can do social media marketing. Some of the Indian brands in Ayurveda and a few other categories are going global. Yet, it is a long way to being global brands. A global brand would mean generating a turnover of at least one billion plus dollars for that particular brand. As of now, I don't see any brand. This is a big challenge. We should try and do it.

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A global brand would mean generating a turnover of at

In the early days, coconut oil was being smuggled to the Middle East markets. When liberalisation started happening, we got a lot of inquiries from traders. Coconut oil export had been banned by the government. With liberalisation, we were able to convince them to allow us to export coconut oil in small packs. Once that happened, it opened a window of opportunity for us to start our international business. We started off with the Middle East.

least one billion plus dollars for that particular brand. As of now, I don't see any brand. This is a big challenge. We should try and do it.

We saw a big opportunity in Bangladesh: it is a big coconut oil market. We set up our office and factory in Bangladesh. We have done extremely well in that market. Then, we went to emerging markets where there is a distribution similar to India. We acquired a company each in Egypt, Vietnam and South Africa respectively. Bangladesh and Vietnam are large markets for us. 23% of our turnover comes from international markets. We also entered some newer categories through acquisition--like male grooming and ethnic hair care in South Africa.

CK Ranganathan: You stepped into a family business and the family allowed you to become a professional one. You have built Marico to last, in Jim Collins’ parlance. You have created a beautiful system and process. From here, you are spending some time to ensure that the engine is running continuously well and better. How will the succession happen in your company, post-Harsh Mariwala?

There aren't that many Indian brands which are sold in all

I am just a Commerce graduate. I have not studied anything further. It was a family managed organization. Nobody guided me. I have done everything on my own

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and in my initial years, I started working with talent and recruited people and convinced the family the value of talent. At that time, people were regarded as costs. For example, when I converted the whole market from unbranded to branded, we had to recruit people in the sales and marketing function. I had to take one small step and prove that worked out well.

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20 years, I was fully convinced

Once that person showed results, I could take one larger step. I was taking a risk and had to go a little cautiously. In distribution expansion, I went to one state and after seeing the results, went to the next state. So, basically, it was a trial-and-error approach with taking one step, waiting and watching through, and then expanding.

that recruiting talent is the only way forward and it paid dividends for the organization. It took me, almost two to three years to convince my family to

As the business grew over 15 to 20 years, I was fully convinced that recruiting talent is the only way forward and it paid dividends for the organization. It took me, almost two to three years to convince my family to start Marico. It was not a financial separation but a management separation. Regarding succession, I have stepped down and we now have a professional MD. Internal succession plan is very important. The Board’s management role is very critical. We have a defined strategy document which we discuss with the Board every year. The Board must work on three or four areas like: • What is the purpose of the organisation? • Are we working towards the purpose? • Are we taking care of our stakeholders and not just shareholders and employees? The role of the Board is to select the right CEO and make him/her perform better. This has happened in companies like P&G, Cadbury's and Hindustan Lever. I desire to create something like that, where the Board will play an important role. The talent selection will be purely based on merit.

Measuring performance is very important. How do you do that in Marico?

We have a Performance Management System (PMS) where each person has well defined goals--generally 4 goals, starting from the top and up to the CXO level. The goals are reviewed and approved by the Board. Each person writes his/her goal and discusses it with the boss. There are two types of goals - basic and stretch goals. There is a high degree of clarity with the goal sheets. The performance is measured for each goal. The measurement criteria are also identified at the 44

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As the business grew over 15 to

start Marico.

beginning. If the environment changes, the goal sheet gets revised. Who could have predicted something like the pandemic?

Ravichandran Purushothaman: Culture is a very important part of Marico. When you make acquisitions, how do you integrate the different cultures?

Before we acquire a company, we do due diligence of the existing culture in that company. We do a leadership audit to assess the existing leadership talent. Culture building takes three to five years. We need to measure the culture and see how it compares with our culture. We should not be in a rush to change the culture. It has to be done gradually, with a clear roadmap.

Shankar: Companies in the past have taken many years to become highly successful. Entrepreneurs today think that they can become highly successful in 3 to 4 years. Can you address this dichotomy?

I always look at long term. Your success must be sustainable over the long term. You must have a growth mindset within the organisation and the growth mindset must be long-term focussed. If you try to do too many things too early, you may compromise in some of the processes or basic building blocks that are required. Speed is important but there should be no short cuts like, for example, in the area of governance, capability building and developing processes. 

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The month of October is globally marked as National Cyber Security Awareness Month ﴾NCSAM﴿. It is done with a view to educate the public and private sectors to increase their cyber resilience. Dr. Rajendra Kumar, IAS, Additional Secretary, MeitY, spoke on the various initiatives taken on this front by the government.

he past and the current years have been dominated by the Covid-19 pandemic, which brought a lot of distress around the world. However, the pandemic has also led to a significantly higher adoption of digital technologies in almost all aspects of our lives and livelihoods. As most of the activities have shifted to online mode in the post-pandemic world, there is also a surge in cyber-attacks. The cyber incidents will keep on growing as we move towards more and more digitization. The attackers are targeting a wide spectrum of users, from individuals to corporate organizations and government assets. They are devising new strategies to target victims with scams or malware campaigns.

Threat landscape Cyber threat landscapes generally prioritize corporate and governmental network assets as high priorities. However, personal devices and accounts have also come under sophisticated cyber-attacks. This is partly due to the increased adoption of work from home, online education, telemedicine, etc., which have provided bad actors with more opportunities to prey on remote workers, students, patients, etc. Breach or loss of sensitive personal, medical and financial data of the users from both 46

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corporate networks and at individual level has emerged as a big risk due to these increasingly sophisticated cyber-attacks. Therefore, today’s threat landscape must now include personal computing assets as highrisk and high-value targets, due to the sensitive data being accessed outside of the traditional protection of corporate networks. Increasing adoption of the fourth industrial revolution technologies, including the fastexpanding Internet of Things (IoT) and Internet of Systems (IoS) has exposed devices to cyberattacks that a few years ago would not have been included in most threat landscape models. For example, modern farming equipment incorporate large amounts of technologies—including data centers, networks, satellites and even artificial intelligence (AI)—to allow farmers to more efficiently manage agriculture. These are all now vulnerable to cyber-attacks. While some technologies such as social media and wireless technologies have long been incorporated in threat models, the levels of risk have risen in recent times as a greater number of individuals use social media platforms.

Strategies and solutions

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Understanding today’s threat landscape is critical for developing strategies and solutions to establish a strong cybersecurity framework. The adoption of new innovations creates an environment where threat landscapes can change quickly. It is critical for both organizations and individuals to not become complacent and always remain vigilant, regularly defending their threat landscape. While there are multiple threats today for homes and businesses, we must develop strategies to better protect ourselves from these threats while identifying future ones. The digital payments ecosystem of the country has been a striking example of innovations and experimentations. The digital backbone has enabled faster, real time and open payment system in the country. Security of the digital payment systems has become a top priority now.

ML etc., will lead India to emerge as a global innovation hub.

Steps taken by MeitY for cybersecurity The Ministry of Electronics and IT (MeitY) and its organisations, such as CERT-IN, STQC, CDAC, etc., have been very proactive in developing and adopting advanced cybersecurity measures to secure the cyber

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Artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) applications are being embedded into the cyber suite of offerings—especially in security intelligence, detection and response (IDR), end point security detection and response (EDR). Capacity building in the cyber security domain is the key to strengthen cyber space. Industry and academia need to join with the government to build a strong cyber security ecosystem in the country. These efforts will help in making India a destination for innovation and act as an investment magnet. Deep technology innovations such as IoT, Blockchain, AI and BUSINESS MANDATE

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MeitY has come out with a scheme called Preferential Market Access ﴾PMA﴿ with the intent to create a conducive environment for the Indian security product companies. I would like to call upon the cybersecurity leaders from the industry to nurture the cybersecurity ecosystem.

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space and digital assets of the government. As a result of these very proactive measures taken by MeitY, India has been ranked at the 10th position in the world in the Global Cybersecurity Index in June 2021 by the ITU under the UN. This is a jump of 37 places from the last year’s ranking. ‘Cyber Surakshit Bharat’ programme initiated by MeitY in partnership with industry consortium is a good example of Public Private Partnership to promote cybersecurity. Initiated in January 2018, more than 800 officials from Central/State Government, PSUs and Government organizations have benefitted from this programme. MeitY is offering awareness training and foundation level online training courses in cybersecurity for officers of the Central Government Ministries/Departments. More than 600 Government officials have completed the foundation level training. MeitY has come out with a scheme called Preferential Market Access (PMA) with the intent to create a conducive environment for the Indian security product companies. I would like to call upon the cybersecurity leaders from the industry to nurture the cybersecurity ecosystem. The National Cyber Security Policy of MeitY caters to the cyber security requirements of the Govt. and non-Govt entities as well as large, medium & small enterprises and home users. The policy recognises the need for objectives and strategies that need to be

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adopted both at the national as well as the state level. This policy aims at facilitating the creation of a secure computing environment and enabling adequate trust and confidence in electronic transactions and also guiding stakeholders’ actions for protecting cyber space. Government is also promoting R & D in cyber security by funding projects to academic and research institutes in the focus areas of cryptography including quantum cryptography, threat intelligence, 5G security, IoT security, cyber forensics, network and systems security, and embedded system security. The Information Technology Act was enacted in the year 2000 and it was amended in the year 2008. With the widespread use of social media platform and with the emergence of IoT, 5G, AI, use of digital platforms such as online news, OTT platforms, etc., a revised Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021 was issued in February 2021. These Rules aim at creating a safe online experience for the users. I hope that the conclave on the theme, ‘Securing India in Cyber Space’ organised by MMA will bring out innovative ideas, concepts and important issues in cybersecurity. Government is collaborating with industry associations to evolve policies and take up capacity building initiatives. I urge all the interested stakeholders to take part in these initiatives to ensure a safe cyberspace for all in the country. 

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MMA and KAS organised a hybrid conclave on the theme, ‘Reinventing Human Experience and Technology in the Post‐Pandemic World,’ at the MMA Management Centre on 19 Oct 2021.

r S Bhanu Kumar, Founder Director, ARRA Associates, spoke about how organisations like MMA and Meesho adapted to the pandemic through the process of using the online mode, learning and moving on. It was technology that enabled Business As Usual situation, he said and added that even people who dreaded technology, started adapting to it. According to him, the lessons learned during the pandemic experience are: • Protect the workforce • Stay connected and look beyond daily needs • Automate, automate, automate • Reskill/upskill through online learning • Enable remote work through conferencing tools • Drive productivity at a distance • Manage risks to ensure business continuity He remarked that there have been positive disruptions because of technology. There is now focus on mental health and increased diversity. Housewives are now able to work and they are no longer bound by the four walls. Mr Bhanu Kumar pointed out that organisations now see a need for speed in digital. “Working remotely is a big enabler. Also, collaboration has started improving,” he remarked. Explaining that technology capability has now become a strategic differentiator, he

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drew reference to a recent McKinsey Digital report that says, "Companies with better overall technology capabilities, talent, leadership and resources are seeing better economic outcomes."

Mr Thameem, ICT Solution Specialist, Datalogics India Pvt Ltd., spoke about the role of technology in industry and education. He said that employees do their best when they have access to the best tools and therefore stressed that we must make use of the today’s tech tools like IOT, Cloud, Big Data/ Analytics, ML, AR, Business, Social media and Security. He explained how Augmented Reality apps can enable education in an immersive way. When coming out with tech tools for business, we must ensure that they are easy to deploy, manage and support; they must have cloud storage, enable mobility, have long battery life and provide out of the box set up for users and best user experience. He summed up saying that the tools must have creativity + simplicity + humanity.

Technology paving the way for growth Mr Sridhar Narayanan, Founder, Grand Alliance for Management Excellence (GAME) spoke about how technology has become part

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of our life, even without our realizing it. Imagination, he said, is more important than knowledge in making use of technology for various applications. He pointed out that today, 94% of students are engaged with technology in the form of smart phone, blue tooth and other smart tools. He focussed on how the future scenario would be, when 5G technology will drive the growth by superior connectivity and download speed. He listed out that 5G will benefit businesses by efficient energy consumption, in remote health care and in space travel and communication. There will be many innovations in healthcare, application of brain computer interface and digital telepathy, he said. According to Prof Sridhar, though there are many benefits of IOT, improved customer experience is the greatest benefit. “Customer astonishment is the next big thing, surpassing customer satisfaction and customer delight,” he predicted.

Mr Prashant Srivastava, CEO & Managing Partner, W.E.-Matter touched upon in his speech, the microelements of technology and explained the relevance of people experience in technology applications. He quoted the findings from a survey done in July 2020 that revealed: • Engagement dropped by 10% triggering uncertainty about business • Leaders had the highest impact on engagement triggering the need for quality decision making. • Women had a challenge with workspace at home • Physical, emotional and social well-being became more important • There has been an increase in emotional health issues.

He advised that employees should be jack of all trades but specialize at least in one area. He quoted Paul Rand who said that ‘Design is the silent ambassador of your brand,’ and said that towards this, technology will help in a big way. He explained the role of technology in Fintech and also cautioned against the risks in fintech. "We have both the angel and devil in hand," he put it tersely.

On the positive side, Technology has helped in attracting and retaining talent, improving productivity, enabling innovation and collaboration, career management and well-being, he said.

He listed out India's strengths as youth power, presence of global Indian leaders, IT power, Indian tradition power, a start-up nation and make-in-india and made-in –india initiatives.

Dr P Ravi, Former Regional Director, NIOS and Dean, DAV Group, explained how technology has helped the underprivileged, contrary to the opinion that technology has alienated them. Technology, he said, is

Technology facilitated underprivileged families’ digitised access to continuous education

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playing a key role in dividing the gap between the rich and the poor. He added: “There has been a massive investment in affordable IT infrastructure and connectivity, a surge in the use of technology in dayto-day activities and more so in education. Self-learning and availability of digital educational content has improved many folds. Big data will help in getting feedback and customising courses in a suitable format.” He listed out many online educational portals / media as some of the welcome initiatives. They are: Swayam, DIKSHA, E-PG Pathshala, Swayam Prabha (32 DTH channels for educational content), NDLI (National Digital Library of India), E-Shodhsindhu (digital library), NPTEL and Virtual Labs.

Mr Kannan Ganesan, CEO, Smartail, focussed on AI solutions for the educational sector. He explained how both the underprivileged families and underprivileged schools face challenges from technology. He also spoke on how the gaps can be closed by technology and constant efforts. The families, he said, suffered from lack of internet / connectivity issues, lack of gadgets, the environment and gaps in parental understanding and support. On the other hand, the underprivileged schools faced shortage in quantity and quality of teachers, poor infrastructure, difficulty in adoption to new trends and lack of standardisation in teaching, evaluation, etc. Some of the digital transformation tools used in education are Learning Management System (LMS), Live Meeting Solutions, VR, AR and Rule-based Chat bots. While digital transformation helps humans to learn technology, AI as a technology is learning about humans, he said. He also said that many AI implementations fail because users are not trained to interpret data. According to Mr Kannan, AI will be used in education for automation of grading, personalised learning and generation of smart content. They have a tool available to grade even handwritten exam papers, he said, hinting at the vast landscape for application of AI in education.

Technology Transformation of Business Post‐ Pandemic Mr Vignesh Raja, Strategic Consultant and mentor, pointed out that in digital penetration, India is the second largest after China and that the penetration is more in rural than urban. India has now more net users in rural than urban, he said. He also remarked that the 52

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average time spent online in India has increased from 4.9 hrs a day before lockdown to 5.2 hrs a day after lockdown. He observed that: • Customer journey now includes both physical and digital touchpoints. • Despite Covid-19, startups draw funding (Eg: meesho, dealshare, unacademy, etc) • B2C brands which were non-existent before Covid, are now prominent, making a splash in the market. He explained the steps in business analytics process as: • Identifying business problem • Identifying data sources • Selecting the data • Cleaning the data • Transforming the data • Analysing the data, • Interpreting, evaluating and deploying the model He quoted Kabeer Biswas, founder of Dunzo, who said that ‘automation does not mean complete elimination of human workforce. Instead, it will help with faster processing and result in higher volumes of orders every day compared to what humans can do.’ Mr Vignesh Raja concluded that technology is not just an enabler but a strategic advantage and a survival skill too, for businesses. Mr Viswanathan, Global Lead-Education and Skilling (CSR) - CTS, spoke about: • How technology enables companies to serve its customers better • How businesses can run in a sustainable manner through technology • How one can personalise usage of technology in CSR activities He narrated how a visually impaired teacher in Maharashtra who could not learn English for 40 years, could learn English in one month, through an online skill building session organised by CTS Outreach. He also explained how during the pandemic, they developed an app called, ‘Assist,’ that helped elderly people living in a county in UK to connect to a CTS volunteer on a one-to-one basis and get their needs fulfilled during the lockdown period. He said that while we are able to replace in-person experiences with carefully crafted digital experiences, the solutions should always be designed with human experience at the centre. 

BUSINESS MANDATE

fountainhead of excellence

BUSINESS MANDATE

fountainhead of excellence

53 NOV 2021

MMA Business Mandate (Nov 2021)

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