The article is contributed by S Shriram, Former VP Marketing and Sales, Levista Coffee.
I stayed home for 150 days straight from March 23, 2020, onwards, when the first one-day lockdown began followed by multiple lockdowns. It was the first time perhaps I stayed at home, ever since I joined LKG four decades back. During the five months, I was on WFH mode, a first for me in my retail career spanning 23 years before when I first scooped Ice-Cream at India’s second and Chennai’s first Baskin Robbins outlet in 1997.
All these years, I had a strong belief that Sales and Marketing professionals can simply not work from home, especially for this long. I was made to revise my thought process all these months even as we sold one more cup of coffee (or more) every hour, every day from April 2020 onwards until now. While thousands of people worldwide have been displaced or retrenched from their jobs, many have chosen alternate professions and have fared well, perhaps better than their previous jobs or businesses.
Our friendly neighbourhood grocer is one such example. Many others too, but what’s striking is the resilience with which these entrepreneurs have risen to the occasion and have not only served customers but also made money, well.
During Unlock 1.0, the Union Government laid down restrictions on shop opening times and the Kirana Shopkeepers took the opportunity on their head, something that established Modern Trade Retailers, as well as the cash-rich Online Retailers, couldn’t live up to. The Kirana opened her / his shop by 6 am every day rain or shine, served customers with glee until 11 am (and later up to 2 pm, followed by 6 pm and eventually till 8 pm) and in the meanwhile, managed their staff and family, store inventory, daily cash flows, spread positive word of mouth in the local community and experimented with the digital media – from sending WhatsApp Posters to taking orders through the same medium as well as instant home-delivery, especially for the comfort of the Elderly, sick patients and the physically challenged.
Coffee and Tea Vendors, on the other hand, saw this as a great opportunity. Those who ran petty shops ventured early in the day and served those who were working on the roads and streets while the more smart ones offered to sell add-ons to their customers as well as cater to those who were in the line of duty such as Conservancy workers, the Police Force and others.
All this time, while a section of people was complaining of job losses, another set of people started their Entrepreneurial journeys and the most fancied product category this time was health and hygiene. From liquid soaps to sanitisers, floor cleaners to disinfectants, there was a sudden rush in this category, especially and there was no stopping for their efforts as this market is about to explode sooner than later.
While FMCG giants like ITC, HUL among others launched revolutionary products in this segment, what took me by surprise was that the secondary, unorganized and unbranded market grew and expanded beyond seams.
Those who have never tried the concept of washing hands before a meal were washing hands (and all exposed parts to sun and air) multiple times every day. Similarly, the “Mask Movement” has gained unparalleled popularity and opportunity. I have seen so many roadside vendors who were earlier selling various products now focusing on this segment.
Coming to Coffee, we at Levista have appointed dozens of new Distributors during H1 FY 20-21 and all this is because we have seen a huge surge of coffee consumption at home. With a high prevalence of WFH or rather SAH – “Stay At Home”, it is but natural to witness consumers drink more hot beverages. And in the process, we have seen many of our partners double or treble business during this period. I reckon that we have just begun. The making of “Corona Millionaires” has only started now and we shall see results over the years.
The COVID-19 pandemic has effectively brought normal life to a halt in the whole world. So, Indian government has used the formula “break the chain” to stop the spread of this disease. Indian government has ordered for lockdown and 1.3 billion residents of country to stay home. As a result, employees of many companies are working from home. But they need to follow best practices for working from home to be productive.
But, it’s not easy for the company to let all employees to work from home. Company has to take permission from its client if employee can work on client’s information at home. Employees need laptop, a good internet connection, communication gear, work-related hardware & software. Of course, technology has made it easy as you can do everything online like meetings, attendance, etc. But, all companies have to make plans how they can make it efficient.
We talked to few companies about their planning to have “Work from Home” and effective best practices for working from home which they have applied for maximum output in the time.
Founded in early 2015, upGrad offers online programs for working professionals. We talked to Mr. Mayank Kumar, Co-founder & MD of upGrad, about their planning to make work from home effective.
At upGrad ever since we have switched to the Work-From-Home model, the leadership team has been on their toes to make sure that their respective teams are communicating enough amongst their colleagues, maintaining the team bonding and synchronization. We have active video/audio calls and group conferencing to make sure that everybody stays updated.
We’ve ensured that remote IT infrastructure (hardware and software) are made available as much as possible. To ensure that the work stays uninterrupted, employees can discuss with their manager and mail to IT help for support anytime.
We will be using hangouts, zoom or other software for official meetings or calls.
Employees are encouraged not to step out of home for a meeting, event, public gathering etc. unless absolutely necessary.
We suggest them to exercise caution while using public transport for travelling inside the city and minimize your inter-city and intra city travels.
At upGrad, we will be monitoring the spread, taking inputs from industry and govt. bodies and take appropriate decisions keeping your safety and business continuity in mind. We will keep employees posted from time to time about relevant updates.
Casa Exotique
Casa Exotique has been exploring the depth of Interior Designing and Styling with the help of a remarkable team of professionals who takes each and every turn to make your vision come to life. We talked to Ms. Bhawana Bhatnagar, Interior Stylist and Founder, about the plans to make work from home effective.
Ms. Bhawana Bhatnagar- Founder, Casa Exotique:
Given that we’re currently at stage two of the infection, we are actively separating sick employees and contractors from the healthy ones to prevent the infection from spreading any further. Also, sick employees have been given the Flexi leave benefits as well. As of now, we are waiting for the government directives and updates on the situation. If there is any indication that we are moving towards stage 3, then work from home will definitely be implemented.
121 Experiences
121 Experiences specializes in experiential brand communicating solutions to drive behaviour changing consumer habits. We talked to Aniket Sharma, Co-founder & CEO, about their planning to make work from home effective.
Aniket Sharma- Co-Founder, 121 Experiences :
We have urged all our employees to work from home during the current crisis unless absolutely necessary to work from office.
We also understand not all employees can work from home due to their respective reasons, for them we are following a rotational policy. If there is a team of 4 then only 2 people have been asked to come on a single day.
Further we have encouraged car pooling amongst our employees instead of taking the local transport to and fro to work.
We have also relaxed office hours from 11-4 to ensure those who have to take public transport can avoid peak hours both ways.
My Star Hub
To create the most authentic and memorable fan experiences across the world, My Star Hub came up with the platform where fans can book personalized video shootouts from their favorite celebrities. We talked to Swapnil Mahajan, Founder & CEO, about their planning to make work from home effective.
Swapnil Mahajan- Founder, My Star Hub :
We have chalked out a comprehensive guideline to keep remote working effective.
Besides maintaining a focus on clear communication, we have kept things flexible as we know that the one-size-fits-all formula doesn’t work when people are working in different settings.
We are relying on online tools and digital meeting platforms for discussions, clarifications, and progress tracking.
We have full trust in our people and are working on creating a support structure for effective remote working.
Co-founded by Swati Nathani and Ranjeet Kumar, Team Pumpkin, a 360 Degrees Marketing & PR agency commenced its operations in 2012 with a clear mission to help brands win in the Marketing and PR space. We talked to Ranjeet Kumar, Co-founder, about their planning to make work from home effective.
Ranjeet Kumar- Co-Founder, Team Pumpkin :
As a precautionary measure, we have rolled out remote working directives for all our employees across regions until the situation settles down.
Team Pumpkin has always been a flexible organization, even before Coronavirus forced people to work-from-home, we had implemented the policy in our company. With our long-tested policy and a supportive environment for remote working, we are effectively maintaining our productivity levels.
With daily work reports and progress updates, we are making sure that the deliverables are not affected and business continuity is maintained as normal.
We are connecting with the teams and clients through teleconferencing and video conferencing on a need basis.
To manage daily attendance, employees have been advised to download the app and do remote clock-in and clock-out throughout the remote working period.
For those who need to visit the office for any urgent requirement, we are ensuring complete hygiene within the premises.
Headquartered in Hyderabad and Singapore, Ozonetel has several industry firsts to its credit in the area of Cloud Communication. We talked to Chaitanya Chokkareddy, Co-founder & Chief Innovative Officer, about their planning to make work from home effective.
Chaitanya Chokkareddy-Co-Founder, Ozonetel
Ozonetel Communications is a pioneer of cloud communication solutions and as per Dept. of Telecom (DoT) regulations, calls can be converted to VOIP (Voice Over Internet Protocol) and connected to agents’ phones within the OSP sites’ local network. This will allow organizations with OSP license to extend the call from OSP site to be connected to agents’ phones at their home over VPN.
VPN will allow access of all applications that are accessible to an agent at OSP site. Since Cloud Agent delivers all agent tools including a phone call in browser, it’s a seamless transition.
We are helping all our clients/customers to set up this model of WFH. All those running IP based contact center like Cloud Agent can implement this, but for now it is limited by DoT for only who has the OSP license.
Dineout is India’s largest Dining out and Restaurant tech platform, helping more than 17 million diners monthly discover new restaurants, reserve a table, pay for their bills and get offers and discounts combined with a SaaS product offering to its restaurant partners manage their operations. We talked to Ankit Mehrotra, Co-founder & CEO, about their planning to make work from home effective.
Ankit Mehrotra-Co-Founder, Dineout :
Work from home as a policy is commonly followed by our teams in times of personal need but when we implemented self quarantine policy for the necessary folks, it seemed almost difficult to function. And a time like this where the entire office across all cities, including our Sales team who are majorly on field, to work from home is something we never imagined!
We are leveraging on technologies like Google Hangouts, Slack and Zoomfor work from home arrangements and ensuring continuity of the work.
The start and end to our day is just like before with regular communication and synergy within teams and with clients via video conferencing.
It continues to be challenging and we’re learning on the go, one day at a time with effective and ethical work practices virtually.
Bridged
Bridged uses a combination of AI and 13,000 strong highly skilled workforce to develop unique and vast data at scale significantly improving the quality of data models. We talked to Ashwin Chalam, Founder and CEO, about their planning to make work from home effective.
Ashwin Chalam-Founder, Bridged :
Employees at Bridged have recently started working from home, and we’ve put measures in place to ensure productivity does not decrease. We made sure that all employees have access to requirements such as a laptop, an internet connection, communication gear, work-related hardware & software, etc.
Concerning best practices, employees need to prioritize communication. This involves multiple video chats and protocols for communication and escalation.
Employees should update their teammates on the status of tasks at hand and inform them when they won’t be available during lunch breaks, casual rests, etc.
CarveNiche
CarveNiche is an innovative edtech startup, which is using latest technologies such as machine learning and advanced data analytics to personalise learning for K-12 education. We talked to Avneet Makkar, Founder & CEO, about their planning to make work from home effective.
Avneet Makkar-Founder, CarveNiche :
Have dedicated Work Space while working from home and setting a work schedule and sticking to it.
It is very important to not get distracted and be disciplined about your work as this way, one would be able to finish tasks at hand effectively and efficiently.
Docttocare allows the users to schedule their surgery appointment with the right doctor or hospital, which is best for their health and which is cost-effective. We talked to Sugandha, Founder of Docttocare, about what advice/suggestions she has for effective work from home.
Sugandha-Founder, Docttocare :
Hit the shower- To set the tempo, prepare as if it’s a normal day at work. Take a bath and get dressed.
Communication: Video call is must.
Never work where you sleep.
Set up a workplace at home.
Don’t forget to log off- When the day ends, log off completely and take rest.
Work for 6 hours, that are more productive when WFH.
NowPurchase
NowPurchase offers a curated B2B e-commerce platform with over 50,000 industrial goods. The company has also developed a unique NowPaaS (Purchasing as a Service) for regular buyers where it combines its e-Commerce offering with a purchase management SaaS platform. We talked to Naman Shah, Co-founder, about their planning to make work from home effective.
Naman Shah-Co-founder, NowPurchase :
Understanding this and also the fact that with Work From Home employees can only spare 3-4 hours/day, we decided to start an initiative to complete the ignored but important work- CRM and Management Software implementation.
AppViewX
AppViewX is a modular, low-code software application that enables Certificate Management as well as Network Infrastructure Automation and Orchestration using an intuitive, context-aware, visual workflow. We asked Anand Purusothaman, Founder, about their planning to make work from home effective.
Anand Purusothaman- Founder, AppViewX :
Giving our team the flexibility to define work hours based on their family priorities, especially in this situation, has helped immensely. With kids off from schools and the mounting household chores, we made it clear that we understood this unique situation and supported it. This has gone a long way. We also conduct frequent virtual connects with leaders, informal coffee chats with the team, wellness initiatives and business updates to keep the team reassured that the business is on track, to ensure that they stay connected.
LegalWiz
LegalWiz is focussed on helping early-stage startups and small businesses stay compliant and maintain legal hygiene while maintaining the highest transparency on deliverables. We asked Shrijay Sheth, Founder, about their planning to make work from home effective.
We had planned well and hence were prepared. Team leads were giving full responsibility to ensure that operations and work protocols are maintained. That said, a team of 3 has been deployed to assist any team-member with any problems they may face. I am personally available to any team member who wants to connect and we have frequent discussions on coping with confinement and making work easier.
Tips for Managing Remote Teams effectively
Excess2sell
Excess2sell is India’s Premier and leading b2b excess inventory marketplace which covers multiple verticals. We talked with Mr Rajan Sharma, Founder & CEO, on about their planning to make work from home effective.
Fortunately, we are a tech based start-up and are fully geared to take our work home. So in terms of technology WFH is not much of a problem area for us. However, the complete lockdown has ensured that there is no movement of goods and hence not many fresh deals will happen during this period. We will definitely see the effect on our bottom line this quarter and probably in the next quarter too.
ZingHR
ZingHR is one of the oldest HRM providers. ZingHR is one of the few global ventures which offers almost all web/mobile-based modules from Hire to Retire Solutions with state of the art tech supporting those applications. We talked with Prasad Rajappan, Founder and CEO, about their planning to make work from home effective.
Prasad Rajappan-Founder, ZingHR :
Work from home is an unavoidable situation which we think can be utilised to focus on performance and achieve outcome-oriented results. “Results are the only true sign of excellence.” We think the best part right now that everyone can do irrespective who they are as follows:
Inspire people
Ask them to stay indoors
Practice hygiene
Unlearn and Relearn
Support peers and family
Not to spread Fake News
Pray
Primus Co-Work
We are a hyperlocal, proptech, consumer business which partners with restaurants, that open only during the night, to convert them into co-working places from Mon-Fri/10am-6pm, and have an mobile app using which the customers can look up a co-working place across multiple pincodes, make payment online and book a seat. We talked with Shardul Bayas, Founder, about their planning to make work from home effective.
Shardul Bayas-Founder, Primus Co-Work :
Talk to the team members over a call 2-3 times a day, do a zoom call every alternate day, checking with the team to ensure things are normal, doing followups on the work and preparedness.
Mamaearth
Mamaearth is Asia’s first Madesafe certified brand that offers 100% toxin free & natural baby and mama care products. We talked with Ghazal Alagh, C0-founder, about their planning to make work from home effective.
The first thing we did was to define a tiered policy. We figured out how much of each job role could be done from home (if at all). We then defined goals and deliverables— first as an organization, then on a team level, and finally at the individual level. We continue to do break this down on a monthly, weekly, and even daily basis. This helps everyone at the organization become much more aligned with their goals as we work from home.
Other than that, we realize this is a time of a lot of panic and fear. As a parent myself, I know that having children at home constantly, and not having access to domestic help, can also interfere with productivity at work. So we’re enabling more flexibility within the organization.
We’ve also allowing space for people to articulate their issues – we’ve defined a specific time when people can just talk about what they’re going through. At the same time, we’ve also made space for coming together as a community and sharing positivity — whether it’s through online games, contests, or just sharing photos and videos of our home office, and the small joys of coming together in this challenging time.
Metro and Metro
Metro & Metro is one of the leading manufactures of shoes and allied product in india. We talked with Meenakshi Kalsi, Business Partner, about their planning to make work from home effective.
Meenakshi Kalsi- Business Partner, Metro & Metro :
We can only handle the communication with the customers and the suppliers. But the manufacturing part is totally at the standstill as that requires labour to be present. To assist my team we are supporting them financially and taking care of their needs. There’s a regular meeting done through zoom video calls to check up on them.
Simply Fresh India
Simply fresh AI technology in farming for growing, nourishing, picking and processing. We talked with Sachin Darbarwar, Founder & CEO, about their planning to make work from home effective.
Sachin Darbarwar- Founder, Simply Fresh :
Almost all our corporate employees are working from home which includes teams like – HR, finance, IT, marketing, sales and legal. All our department heads are doing a wonderful job of connecting with their teams virtually and making sure the workflow is smooth as much as possible. We are making use of technology to stay connected and have video calls and group conference calls to maintain the business continuity. It is important during these time that we stay connected virtually and make sure we adhere to needs of our team as required.
Cosmo Films
Cosmo Films is a global leader in specialty films for packaging, lamination and labeling applications. We talked with Mr. Pankaj Poddar, CEO, about their planning to make work from home effective.
Pankaj Poddar-CEO, Cosmo Films :
We being a continuous process plant and also film suppliers to the food packaging industry; come under essential services and hence we have obtained permission to run operations with minimal manpower. Our remaining functions like Sales, Marketing, IT, Finance, Purchase, and HR are working from home to provide backend support to the plant for smooth operations.
As employees are working from home due to COVID 19, we have made necessary arrangements for our employees like the availability of laptops and systems, printers, required stationary and internet connectivity.
Ecolab Digital Centre
Ecolab Digital Centre focuses on finding solutions to real-world problems around water safety, energy conservation, food security, and healthy environments. We talked with Malahar Pinnelli, MD, about their planning to make work from home effective.
Malahar Pinnelli- MD, Ecolab Digital Centre :
We have always been using Video Conferencing to work with the US team, now we have started using those with the team here. Each manager connects with their team every day and that rolls up to the Managing Director. We have every 2 days a week, a mandatory video call to make sure people are still visually connected.
Surmount Business
Surmount Business practices targets to become a strategic partner to entrepreneurs and enterprises to help expand businesses beyond their existing roots, professionalize their operations and enhance their Capital Efficiency. We talked with Niraj Bora, Founder, about their planning to make work from home effective.
Niraj Bora-Founder, Surmount Business :
We organize long video calls instead of just audios, play some games online weekly with the team, and keep in touch more often in order to keep the enthusiasm alive. We have also increased training sessions online in order to keep learning ongoing. People also get more negative be reading and hearing daily cases and hardships on media, so I have tried sharing cover-19 recovery stories discussion with teams as well. A piece in last Sunday’s ET covered that very well and sharing with everyone gave positivity to the team mindset.
For some out of office chats, we have WhatsApp group where team posts any new thing they do like cooking, new indoor game, etc.
FAQs
What is a work from home model?
The Work From Home model allows employees to work remotely. Employees get the flexibility to work from anywhere. It is location-independent.
What essentials do you need to work from home?
Computer/Laptop with webcam and mic
Proper Internet Connection
Essential Software/Tools as per the work/business requirement
How do you connect with employees working from home?
In the WFH model, a virtual office for employees is set up. Offices use the best video conferencing and team collaboration tools to connect with employees. A shared portal for employees is created to share personal as well as professional updates.
The vaccination drive for Covid 19 has been started across the globe. Vaccines have been developed and manufactured by a lot of companies around the world. Below are the top companies which are involved in the development and manufacturing of Covid vaccines.
Pfizer is an American based pharmaceutical company. It was founded in the year 1984 and has its headquarters in New York. Pfizer is one of the world’s largest pharmaceutical company. The company develops and manufactures vaccines and medicines for a wide range of medical disciplines.
Pfizer is in the process of development and manufacturing of mRNA vaccine for Covid 19.
Astra Zeneca
Astra Zeneca is a British-Swedish multinational biotechnology and pharmaceutical company. The company has its headquarters in Cambridge, England and was founded in the year 1999. Astra Zeneca has a portfolio of products for major diseases in areas such as oncology, cardiovascular, infection, respiratory, etc.
Astra Zeneca is well known for its involvement in developing the Oxford-Astra Zeneca Covid 19 vaccines.
Serum Institute of India
Serum Institute of India is an Indian Pharmaceuticals and Biotechnology company. It is the largest manufacturer of Vaccines around the globe. The company was founded in 1966 by Cyrus Poonawalla and is based in Pune, India. Adar Poonawalla is the Chairman, President, and CEO of the company.
Serum Institute of India has tied up with Astra Zeneca which is a pharmaceutical company. The company has released a vaccine called Covishield.
Bharath Biotech
Bharath Biotech International Limited is an Indian company which deals with biotechnology. The company has its headquarters in Hyderabad, India. The company is involved in drug development, manufacture of vaccines, drug discovery, bio-therapeutics, healthcare products, and pharmaceuticals.
It has partnered with the state-run Indian Council of Medical research in developing a vaccine against Covid-19 called as COVAXIN.
Moderna is a an American-based biotechnology and pharmaceutical company. The company has its headquarters in Cambridge. The company focuses on discovery of drugs, development of drugs and vaccine technologies.
Moderna is in the process of developing mRNA vaccine for Covid 19.
BioNTech
BioNTech is the short form for Biopharmaceutical New Technologies. It is a German based biotechnology company which has its headquarters in Mainz Germany. The company was founded in the year 2008.
BioNTech is also in the process of developing mRNA vaccine for Covid 19.
Novavax
Novavax is an American based Pharmaceutical company which is involved in the manufacturing of vaccines. The company was founded in the year 1987 and is located in Gaithersburg United States.
Novavax is in the process of development and manufacturing NVX-CoV2373 which is a vaccine for Covid 19.
Sinovac
Sinovac Biotech Ltd is a Chinese based biotechnology company. The company was founded in the year 1999 which is located in Beijing, China. The company focuses in the research and development, commercialization and manufacturing of vaccines which will protect against human infectious diseases.
Sinovac Biotech Ltd is in the process of development and manufacturing of CoronaVac which is a vaccine for Covid 19.
CanSino Biologics
CanSino Biologics is a Chinese vaccine company. The company was founded in the year 2009 and is headquartered in Tianjin, China. The company is in the process of development and manufacturing of Ad5-nCOV which is a vaccine for Covid 19.
Rate of COVID-19 vaccination worldwide as of April 10, 2021
Johnson & Johnson is an American multinational corporation. The company was founded in the year 1886 and has its headquarters in New Jersey, New York. It focuses on developing medical devices, consumer packaged goods and pharmaceuticals.
Johnson & Johnson is in the process of developing Ad26.COV2.S which is a type of vaccine for Covid 19.
Inovio
Inovio Pharmaceuticals is an American based biotechnology company. It was found in the year 1983 and has its headquarters in Pennsylvania. It focuses on the development, discovery and commercialization of synthetic DNA products. The products are used for treating Cancer and infectious diseases.
Inovio Pharmaceuticals is in the process of developing INO-4800 which is a DNA based plasmid Covid 19 vaccine.
R-Pharm
R-Pharm is an international pharmaceutical company. It has its headquarters in Russia. The company was founded in the year 2001 by Alexey Repik. The company concentrates on areas which include research, development, production and marketing of drugs which is primarily on inpatient and medical care.
Their main focus is on activities such as production of finished dosage forms, research and development of drugs and technologies, introduction to Russian market of pharmaceuticals, etc.
In December 2020, the company had got into a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with Astra Zeneca in the manufacturing of Oxford Astra Zeneca Covid-19 Vaccine.
BIOCAD is a Russian based pharmaceutical company. The company has its headquarters in Saint Petersburg, Russia. The company has offices in Belarus, India, China, Brazil and even United States. It is said that 40% of the company’s employees are scientists.
The company focuses on discovering, developing and manufacturing vertically integrated drugs. The company has around 50 products in its portfolio. BIOCAD is currently developing a mRNA vaccine for Covid-19.
Pharmasyntez
Pharmasyntez is a Russian based Pharmaceutical company. The company was founded in the year 1997 in Irkutsk. The first factory of the company was opened in the year 1999.
The company has more than 50 products in its portfolio. The company also supplies medicines to the largest pharmaceutical distributors in Russia. It is one of the top 3 fastest growing pharmaceutical companies in Russia.
Pharmasyntez is expected to start the production of Covid-19 vaccine Sputnik V.
FAQ
Is India exporting Covid vaccine?
Indian government has decided not to ban the commercial export of Covid-19 vaccines by the two manufacturers based in India, for now.
Who issued the official name of COVID-19?
The official names COVID-19 and SARS-CoV-2 were issued by the WHO on 11 February 2020.
Is the US using AstraZeneca vaccine?
AstraZeneca’s Covid-19 vaccine has not yet been rolled out in the U.S. as the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has only authorized the use of vaccines developed by Pfizer, Moderna and Johnson & Johnson.
Conclusion
These are the top companies in the world that is involved in the manufacturing and development of Covid 19 vaccines.
Needless to mention, Coronavirus has affected every aspect of human life. To contain the spread of the virus, many precautions are being taken at different levels. Many countries like India have declared lockdown to cope with the situation. While the delivery of essential services has been allowed, the supply chain is still struggling to cope with the security measures. India’s 21-day lockdown may have thrown up an opportunity for online grocers to shine, but the rest of the industry sectors is drowning in the Covid-19 tsunami.
But beyond this, the real economic impact from the coronavirus pandemic will come in the weeks and months to come. Many large companies are also helpless in this time, yet they are trying to manage things. But this pandemic has left small businesses & startups with no more option but to downsize & layoff.
Layoffs and downsizing in the startup ecosystem are set to accelerate as businesses take a hard look at high operational costs and dipping demand in an uncertain environment made worse by the Covid-19 pandemic. Also, India has banned entry of all foreign nationals till May 17 with exceptions, such as diplomatic visa. This means that international firms have to put their business plans on hold.
Coronavirus have some far-reaching consequences – besides killing human beings, this deadly virus can result into unprecedented economic recession. However this will have more impact on startups than on bigger firms. Last couple of quarters has seen startups laying off thousands of employees.
Indian startups and SMEs(small and medium-sized enterprises) have begun evaluating their options to cut spending as demand for their products and services has taken a massive hit due to the Covid-19 outbreak as startups are finding it difficult to raise funds.
Nearly, 71% of businesses have seen reduced demand. The firms are also looking to cut spending on marketing and advertising, tech infrastructure, commercial rentals and employee costs to survive during this tough time.
Layoffs increased in Startups since COVID-19 Outbreak
Many sectors are greatly affected due to COVID-19. The sector, especially startups, is likely to see more layoffs if the virus outbreak continues to cause havoc. In this, travel industry, startups, IT firms seem to be the first casualty. For India’s venture capital industry, 2019 was a milestone year with $10 billion deployed into overall startups, that saw a 55% jump from 2018, according to Bain & Company, highlighting how the industry grew amid global economic uncertainty.
But now this situation is taking another turn; layoffs have already started happening. Rituparna Charkraborty, co-founder, Teamlease Services, a staffing firm, told that as demand slows down, it will impact startups and might result in layoff. She explained that unlike bigger firms, they don’t have deep pockets and have to be frugal.
Travel Startups
India’s biggest travel portal: MakeMyTrip has decided to lay off 350 employees as its business has been affected severely due to the Covid-19 pandemic. MakeMyTrip has told employees that MMT has analysed impact closely and has spent considerable time figuring out the path to business recovery. Founder Deep Kalra and CEO Rajesh Magow sent out a letter to all employees informing them about the layoff.
Kalra and Magow have writtten in their letter, “What’s evident is that the impact of COVID-19 crisis is going to be long drawn for us. It’s unclear when traveling will become a way of life, as it was pre-COVID-19. We are living through extraordinary times that have impacted individuals, communities, businesses, countries and our world at a magnitude unknown before and there is no let-up in sight.”
MakeMyTrip promised to offer support to laid-off employees compensation including Mediclaim coverage for individuals and their families till the end of the year, leave encashment, gratuity, retaining the right to exercise part of RSUs as applicable. Employees can keep the company laptops and will be provided outplacement support apart from salary payments as per their notice periods.
At the same time, MakeMyTrip’s associated companies like GoIbibo and Redbus can fire 60% of their contractual employees due to decreasing demand. There are 650 such contractual employees in these three companies. Majority of them are working in customer service and backend support.
Travel & Hospitality service Startups
Airbnb also plans to lay off nearly one-fourth of its employees. The 25% of the company includes nearly 1,900 employees who will be laid off. According sources, the news would be broken to employees by CEO Brian Chesky.
CEO of Airbnb,Brian Chesky stated in his memo, “Airbnb’s business has been hit hard due to COVID-19, with revenue this year forecasted to be less than half of what we earned in 2019. We are collectively living through the most harrowing crisis of our lifetime, and as it began to unfold, global travel came to a standstill.”
Chesky told that prior to the layoffs, Airbnb had 7,500 employees. Airbnb will halt projects related to hotels, a transportation division and luxury stays for some time. But Chesky has assured that laid off employees would get some facilities from company’s side.
Chesky said that U.S. employees laid off will receive 14 weeks of base pay plus an additional week for every year they worked at Airbnb. The company will also provide 12 months of healthcare for laid off U.S. employees. He also mentioned that May 11 will be the last work day for impacted Airbnb employees in the U.S. and Canada.
Similarly, around 5000 Oyo employees will be laid off across the world due to coronavirus outbreak. Oyo Hotels is laying off staff in the U.S., China and India as the company tries to find its way to profitability in turbulent times.
Oyo expanded rapidly after its founding in 2013 and reached a valuation of $10 billion but investors have soured on money-losing businesses after WeWork’s meltdown and SoftBank has pushed portfolio companies to prioritise profitability.
The travel and hospitality service company TravelTriangle has laid off about 50% of its workforce in the past 10 days. “TravelTriangle has fired about 250-300 people since March 20,” said one of the sources. Impacted employees are from operations, marketing, customer support and business development functions.
In addition to this list, corporate travel planning company TripActions, that was valued at $4 billion last year, laid off 350 employees via Zoom. The reports state the layoffs consist of about one-quarter to one-fifth of the total company. The company said in a statement, “We’ve cut back on all non-essential spend and made the very difficult decision to reduce our global workforce due to pandemic.”
Online Food Delivery startups
On May 18, Bengaluru-based food delivery startup Swiggy announced that it will lay off 1,100 employees and shut down some of its businesses as the coronavirus continues to take its toll. The core food delivery business has been severely impacted and will stay impacted over the short term.
Co-founder & CEO of Swiggy, Sriharsha Majety stated, “While we are very fortunate to have raised capital just before Covid-19 hit and have sufficient runway today, it is incredibly important to prepare for worse scenarios in the macro environment and make sure we are protected.”
Swiggy will give at least three months of salary to all impacted employees. For every year spent by the employee, they will be paid an additional month’s salary. Along with this, Swiggy plans to provide medical insurance for impacted employees until 31 December, 2020, as well as career transition and access to free learning on Linkedin for upskilling. Moreover, it has allowed the staff to retain office laptops and communication allowance for the next three months.
Similarly, Gurugram based Food delivery platform Zomato decided to layoff 520 employees which is 13% of its workforce. Also it will temporarily cut salaries of the rest as the Covid-19 pandemic and resultant nationwide lockdown has hit its businesses, Zomato’s Founder & CEO Deepinder Goyal said in the email on May 15.
Deepinder Goyal said in his mail, “Our business has been severely affected by the COVID lockdowns. A large number of restaurants have already shut down permanently, and we know that this is just the tip of the iceberg. I expect the number of restaurants to shrink by 25-40% over the next 6-12 months.”
As compensation, the laid-off employees will receive half of their salaries along with health insurance for the next six months or till they find another job. Goyal also said that the company will provide impacted employees outplacement support to find jobs.
Cab Services Startups
Uber, American ride-hailing Mnc, announced on May 6, that it will lay off 3,700 employees which is about 14% of its total workforce. Also CEO Dara Khosrowshahi will forgo his base salary for the rest of the year as COVID-19 has crushed the travel industry because of lockdowns to stop the spread of the virus.
Uber has been hit hard by the coronavirus pandemic. Uber’s global gross bookings are down by 80%, according to reports. The company is set to lay off up to 700 people that is about 25-30% of its overall workforce in India as per sources. Uber has over 2,000 employees in India. The decision has been almost final and likely to be announced when lockdown will get lifted.
On May 18, Uber’s CEO, Khosrowshahi told employees Uber will lay off an additional 3,000 employees and close 45 offices globally. As part of the layoffs, Uber is expected to pay up to $145 million to employees via severance and other benefits, and up to $80 million in order to shut down offices, according to a filing with the SEC.
CEO of Uber, Dara Khosrowshahi said, “We are looking at many scenarios and at each and every cost, both variable and fixed, across the company. We want to be smart, to move fast, to retain as many of our great people as we can, and treat everyone with dignity, support and respect.”
On May 20, Indian ride hailing unicorn Ola said that it will lay off 1,400 staff which makes about 35 % of its workforce due to the uncertainty caused by the coronavirus pandemic. Ola’s CEO Bhavish Aggarwal said in a note to employees that COVID-19 has led to a drop of 95 per cent in Ola’s revenues in two months. The impact of the crisis will be long-drawn for Ola. Every affected employee will receive a minimum financial pay of 3 months of their fixed salary.
Similarly, other Cab service companies are also facing the heat as more people avoid taking public transport and cabs and have started working from home. Pravin Agarwala, co-founder of The Better Place, a blue-collar management firm, said cab aggregators are already witnessing drop in demand and this drop would go up to 30-40 % if the same situation continues.
Drivezy, a self-drive car rentals platform, has also cut part of its workforce to stay afloat, according ET’s report. Moreover, B2B platform Udaan has cut back on ground staff over the last few months at its pharmaceuticals and fresh division, according to four employees at the firm.
Scooter Rental Startups
Electric-scooter startup Bird said it is laying off nearly a third of its workforce to survive damage done to its service by the coronavirus pandemic. Bird has already paused shared scooter operations in many markets around the world and drastically cut spending and is now “laying off” 30 % of its workforce, founder and chief executive Travis VanderZanden said in a memo to employees.
In the same way, scooter sharing app Bounce has begun laying off hundreds of employees across functions and levels. At Bounce, the job cuts are across verticals and levels, operations staff, call centre, and technology and product according to reports.
Number of Layoffs is likely to Increase more due to Covid-19
Startups are Terminating the Hiring plans
Apart of layoffs, some of India’s top companies have also stopped hiring plans and are moving talent internally. Meanwhile recruitment firms have announced that processes of hiring have dropped by 50%, as interviews are being cancelled. Meanwhile recruitment agencies are informing that Indian startups also have cancelled upto 50% of all hiring and interviews with layoffs going on parallel.
Bengaluru-based firm Rupeek, which operates an online marketplace for gold loans, has terminated a human resource contract with Aasaanjobs, a recruitment marketplace for blue and grey-collar jobs. This will allegedly indirectly impact 600 jobs. Rupeek told it won’t renew the contract with the human resource contractors and reduce the number of outsourced staff in the current economic environment.
Rupeek said in a statement. “Considering current business and economic environment, we had to take the unfortunate decision of not renewing our contract with our human resource contractors & the consequent reduction in the number of outsourced staff. We regret the unfortunate timing of this event. To protect their interests, we are offering a generous severance package over and above contractual dues.”
Kamal Karanth, co-founder of Xpheno, a staffing agency said, “Almost 50% of ongoing interviews, new requirements, on-boardings have stopped for the last two weeks now, particularly in the IT sector.” He also added that close to 25 captives opened in India last year and hired close to 5,000 people. However, this number is likely to come down as the coronavirus has made the execution a challenge.
According to experts, most firms have delayed the hiring process by 4-6 weeks. Appraisal hikes may also see a 2-3 % drop as well this year. In addition, with sectors across under stress, performance pressure will also be high, leading to more layoffs, said the experts.
Due to this laying off process going on all over the world, the United States, Europe, China and India are experiencing slowing economic activity that analysts predict will likely last through at least two quarters. India’s stock market has already taken a beating over the last week, and the pressure has now trickled down to private markets as well. India’s GDP growth slowed from 2.5% to 5.3% since the crisis began.
To add to that, the coronavirus outbreak has emerged as a new threat to the global economy and Indian manufacturing. India is currently in its fourth week since the first batch of Covid-19 positive cases were identified. The startup ecosystem in India has taken a major hit and entrepreneurs are trying to figure out how to run their operations by cutting costs in trying to stay afloat.
Today almost every country in the world is under lockdown due to COVID-19 pandemic to contain the coronavirus outbreak. Small businesses, startups & entrepreneurs are wondering how to survive lockdown. On one hand, you want to keep the operations going as long as possible but on the other hand, the health of yourself and your workforce is the top priority. There are survival tips that must be followed to protect your company to avoid closure of business.
The business has surely been slow since the last few months and with the coronavirus pandemic rapidly spreading around the world, the economies are falling down drastically. Now, as over a Billion Indians are under lockdown due to the novel Coronavirus. It has created many hurdles for many established business, startups and their employees to survive in markets.
Humankind has never witnessed anything like this before. Companies are complaining about stranded supplies and non-uniform implementation of orders by law-enforcing authorities. In addition to this; the ever-changing government rules and notifications that are putting restrictions on transport, gatherings, etc.
Due to COVID-19, there is a huge cloud of uncertainty and darkness but as an entrepreneur needs to deal smartly with the circumstances and understand what can be done differently to get over this crisis. Many are looking for business survival tips in lockdown.
While people are locked inside their houses for safety concerns,many major companies have adopted new ways to operate like asking employees to work-from-home, safely shutting down facilities, etc. As the markets have witnessed record falls, it is more difficult for startups to survive in this situation. So here are some strategies to help startups survive during lockdown.
Be Open and Honest with your Customers
Right now we are all facing uncertainty, may it be self-employed, business owners, stay-at-home parents or working a full-time job. It is important to keep our relationship with existing clients alive. Empathize because they are as badly hit as we are. So be honest with your customers and tell them what actions your business is taking.
Experts say, company’s website must be designed well as many customers can visit it during lockdown. Adding an FAQ section to your website is the easiest way to give your customers the info they need. Consider creating a pipeline of business through digital outreach. It is necessary to connect with older customers.
Work from Home Efficiently
Working from home is not a new strategy anymore but how to work efficiently from home is the question before many employees. In almost all affected countries, the advice is to work from home if you possibly can. According to a research, 86% of people feel less stressed working remotely.
To work efficiently, employees need to use the right kind of tools. Thus, startups must ask their employees to use video conferencing tools like Zoom, Google Meet, Skype, Slack, etc. Apart from this, one must ask employees to maintain strict hygiene while working remotely also. One must ask teams to have regular communication to inform about progress and updates.
Manage the Expenses
At this point, the only thing startups should focus on is staying afloat and come out of this situation diligently. This can only be done by managing the expenses in a proper way. Question every expense, get rid of everything that is not important, re-negotiate agreements with suppliers, take a hard look at team costs, chase every single receivable, and do not sell without advances. In times like this, the single focus is to keep the business afloat at all costs, which may need founders to be very careful.
Find out what Help Government is offering
Many governments across the world, are just putting measures to fight COVID-19 but they are also rendering financial help to startups and SMEs to restore falling economy. For instance, the UK has announced plans to offer various grants, loan schemes, reduced business rates, and statutory sick pay relief for SMEs.
The US Government recently announced a $2 trillion relief package for its citizens and businesses, impacted by Covid-19 pandemic. New Zealand’s measures include wage subsidies for small businesses. So, it’s your responsibility as entrepreneur to keep yourself updated with any such help offered. It is advised to check your local city or state website to find out what steps officials are taking or what is available in your area.
If you haven’t got one yet, it is advisable to claim your Google My Business listing now. It’s free and it will help customers find your business online. If you already have Google My Business page, log in to your account and you’ll see a new option on the homepage called “Coronavirus (COVID-19) ” option that has been added recently.
By following the link, you will reach a page where one can make suggested changes to their business information. There one can update their business hours, adding extra services they are offering to customers or their local community or informing them about delays to normal service and so on.
It is necessary to communicate with Suppliers and devise plans accordingly
Move your Sales to Online Shop
Now, selling your products one-to-one is impossible due to lockdown but selling online is still an option. Selling online has never been easier and now is the perfect time to start an online shop to earn extra revenue. Depending on your country, postal services and couriers might still be running, otherwise, lots of companies are starting to offer “doorstep deliveries.”
It is totally safe as the business owner drops the parcel on the doorstep and the customer collects it from there, so there’s no contact involved. This is also a great way to help the people in your community get the goods they need. This may help the operations keep going due to continuous cashflow.
Keep in touch with your Suppliers
Because of restrictions on transport and meetings, there might be interruptions in the supplies you need to make your products or do your job, depending on your line of work. Knowing this ahead of time and keeping track of inventory can help you prepare and set realistic expectations for your customers.
You can ask the suppliers or vendors how long it will take them to deliver the goods. If it’s going to take you longer to fulfil orders than usual, your customers will be more understanding if you let them know in advance.
Looking at the current scenario, stabilization of inventory and logistics may not be achieved immediately. But businesses should then turn their attention to pre-booking rail and air freight capacity and using after-sales stock ensuring continuity in their supply chain network.
Take Tough calls
According to experts, the need of the hour is to make a impartial analysis of the current state or position of your startup and take tough calls based on that even if it means merging your startup with another venture. Sooner or later, startups will come face to face with the reality-survive at any cost.
To take such calls, entrepreneurs would require support and help to think clearly. A few other options, that founders can explore, are holding on a favourite project or letting go of a resource that might be valuable but not affordable at this hour.
Have Patience
During this tough time, having patience until things restore back is really essential. For this, a team has a valuable role to play. A Team should be strength, motivating and bonding the team is important. A leader must share the situation so that the team can support and help. Sharing the problems can give hope and might find you a solution to deal with the situation.
Each new learning becomes a rule, and each failed attempt becomes new learning. In the matter of just a week, India went from a do-not-panic state to a state of complete lockdown. So during such testing times, there are several financial and legal aspects that all businesses should bear in mind to lower risks and cut down on their losses. By adopting the appropriate strategies, any business can survive this lockdown. And remember it is a matter of time!
The Coronavirus or COVID-19 which started last year in December in Wuhan, China has impacted the global economy and no industry sector has remained immune to it. All businesses, startups and industries across the globe are coming up with safety measures to deal with the virus like asking employees to work from home, avoid social gatherings, etc. Foodtech startups are no exception to this.
Top Indian food delivery platforms Zomato and Swiggy together deliver an estimated 2.6 million orders every day. But they have taken multiple measures to deal with the situation. These measures ensure the safe food delivery considering the safety of delivery executive as well as consumers. The measures are helping these startups to keep operations going and to reduce any negative impact on consumer deliveries
Foodtech Startups to Follow Hygiene Practices
Indian foodtech startups Swiggy and Zomato have announced several safety measures in an effort to combat the novel coronavirus. While the Bengaluru based foodtech unicorn Swiggy already sent an email to all its consumers how they are taking the different measures to cope with the situation. Zomato soon followed suit with safekeeping measures of its own like contact-less delivery.
The main focus of the announcements is to inform people about different measures that food delivery platforms are taking to ensure that their delivery partners follow all the safety and hygiene guidelines approved by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare(MoHFW). They also announced that the consumer will now have the option of choosing to ask the delivery partner to leave the food at their doorstep. Some startups are also offering insurance and financial support to delivery staff in case they are infected with the virus
There are certain directives that these startups are following. They ensure that the crew member who assembles the food, the one who packs food and the delivery executive do not touch the food with bare hands and take all possible precautions to ensure hygiene. The delivery packets are sealed and delivered by a runner who drops the order at a pre-appointed spot usually outside the door and then watches from a safe distance while you pick up your order and go back inside.
Co-founder and CEO of Zomato, Deepinder Goyal explained this through a tweet that “A consumer can now choose for this option through our ‘delivery instructions’ feature.” An app update over the weekend will make this explicitly clear to everyone.” Through this option, the delivery partner will keep the delivery parcel on a clean surface outside the door. When the consumer receives a photo of the delivered food, the consumer can then pick up the package at their convenience.
As India prepares to face the current health crisis, Westlife Development, the company that owns and operates McDonald’s restaurants in West and South India, has launched contactless delivery service to deliver food to the customers’ doorstep. According to the company, McDonald’s India is ensuring that food reaches customers without being touched by bare hands and delivered safely with by following social distancing measures.
“Our customers’ safety has been and will continue to be our top priority. On one hand, we have increased the safety and hygiene processes at our restaurants. On the other hand, we are ensuring contactless delivery to retain consumers’ trust in McDonald’s. Both our consumers and the industry look up to McDonald’s for path-breaking initiatives and contactless delivery,” said Smita Jatia, managing director of Hardcastle Restaurants.
Online Food Deliveries Declining Fast
Unfortunately, even after adopting the hygiene practices, online food delivery has seen huge fall in demand. Online food delivery orders for Zomato and Swiggy have dropped 70% in the last 10 days as customers step back and top restaurants shut shop during lockdown induced by the Covid-19 virus outbreak. The reason behind this is that people do not want to perform any practices, which in any way, can expose them to the virus.
Their investors revealed that even before the lockdown, the orders had started declining. In the first two weeks of March, food delivery orders declined 20%. When lockdown was imposed, Swiggy and Zomato said about 60 to 70% of its cities would be shut for food delivery including few prominent ones. As a result, steady state of 2.5 million deliveries a day, the deliveries have fallen down quickly. In the last 10-15 days, online food delivery orders have dropped 70% to under 1 million a day.
But considering food delivery startups, the Grocery delivery apps are in demand more than ever not only in India but in many countries during this health crisis. As many countries are under lockdown, the governments are asking people to strictly avoid getting out of their houses to maintain social distancing. Hence, majority of the people are relying on the Grocery delivery apps to avoid social gatherings.
As the COVID-19 pandemic spreads across the countries, grocery delivery apps have begun seeing record numbers of daily downloads, according to new data from app store intelligence firm Apptopia. The firm said that online grocery apps like Instacart, Walmart Grocery and Shipt hit yet another new record for daily downloads for their respective apps.
Typically, these apps see tens of thousands to as many as 20,000+ downloads per day. But on April 12, Instacart saw more than 38,500 downloads and Walmart Grocery saw nearly 54,000 downloads. Experts told the delivery strategies need to be better optimised at this time of uncertainty. Considering grocery is in high demand, this makes sense for all players involved in it.
In India too, Grofers, BigBasket and other grocery delivery apps have seen a boom in demand over the past week on the back of panic buying. As many consumers are stuck at home, they are heavily relying on these online grocery stores offering doorstep delivery. Seeing these demands, many foodtech startups are also turning towards these grocery sales to earn some revenue.
Food-delivery and restaurant discovery app Zomato has decided to try hands at the grocery sale as the category sees a major demand amid the Covid-19 outbreak. The Gurugram-based startup Zomato has decided to partner with e-grocers, Grofers and BigBasket, to sell food products and essentials on its platform by facilitating their deliveries.
Zomato & Swiggy have started to Deliver Grocery in Major Cities
Zomato has begun delivering grocery in more than 80 cities in India. Users can access this service by downloading the Zomato app and visit the Zomato Market section. Zomato Market identifies nearby grocery stores that are available and open for delivery. They have started grocery delivery in 80 plus cities across India to help with the supply of essentials.
CEO & founder of Zomato, Deepinder Goyal said, “Our delivery network in the country is the second best after India Post. Thus, we are ensuring that in every effort we put it to good use to serve the community. We would like to thank the government authorities, grocery stores, FMCG companies and other startups that have come forward to partner with us and support the community in this endeavour.”
Apart from its grocery deliveries, Zomato has also extended paid Zomato Gold memberships by two months at zero additional cost. This new extension is valid in India, UAE, Australia, Indonesia, Philippines, Lebanon, Turkey, New Zealand, Portugal, and Qatar.
The food delivery app Swiggy is also not behind in this league. Swiggy has announced a new service to deliver groceries through the application. The lockdown has encouraged the company to spread this service to over 125 new cities across India. Swiggy will be providing essential commodities by partnering with numerous national brands.
Swiggy has launched a hyper local delivery service called ‘Genie’ that will pick and drop items from any local store that is open. The service is currently only available for essentials and even medicines. During the launch of the service in September last year, the service was labeled ‘Swiggy Go’.
Swiggy will be partnering with Hindustan Unilever Ltd., P&G India, Godrej Consumer Products Ltd., Dabur India Ltd., Marico Ltd., Vishal Mega Mart Pvt. Ltd., Adani Wilmar Ltd., Cipla Ltd to provide essential items across various cities.
Due to lockdown, Swiggy and Zomato are finding it difficult to grow online food deliveries but this has led them to partner with local grocery shops to provide essentials to the people who want to avoid social gatherings. But this has given people a good opportunity to maintain social distancing by ordering groceries from home only.
Needless to mention, Coronavirus has affected every aspect of human life. Lockdowns and social distancing particularly has had immediate effect on several banking activities. Thus, at the same time, many efforts are being made to raise funds and help startups and SMEs. Experts in the sector have greatly underscored the need for focusing on digital channels and platforms during times like these. After the coronavirus wiped $7.6 trillion off the world’s stock markets in four days, global health groups are asking companies, governments and even the public for billions of dollars to fight the contagion. The World Health Organization(WHO)set up a website seeking contributions from anyone in an attempt to raise at least $7 billion.
On Tuesday (March 24) evening, Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced that the whole country has been put on lockdown and had announced INR 15,000 Crore package to strengthen the Indian healthcare infrastructure in India. The fund will be used to develop testing facilities, personal protective equipment and procure more isolation beds, intensive care unit (ICU) beds and ventilators. Moreover, the government will be using the fund to train paramedical and medical staff helping in treating affected patients. Earlier in the day, finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman had relaxed timelines for filing taxes and raising default thresholds for avoiding bankruptcy proceedings. She had added that the government will soon announce a package to address the coronavirus impact on the economy.
In one such efforts, Prime Minster of India, Narendra Modi announced a special emergency fund for the nation to fight crisis like COVID-19 on March 29. Prime Minister’s Citizen Assistance and Relief in Emergency Situations Fund (PM CARES Fund), is a dedicated national fund with the primary objective of dealing with any kind of emergency or distress situation, like posed by the Coronavirus pandemic, and to provide relief to the affected. Hours after the announcement, entrepreneurs and celebrities from various walks of life have come together to show their appreciation.
Ratan Tata
Joining a number of India Inc leaders who are doing their bit in their own way, Ratan Tata has committed Rs 500 crore for protective equipment for frontline workers, respiratory systems for treatment of increasing cases and testing kits in the fight against COVID-19. In a tweet on March 28, Ratan Tata shared a post detailing how Tata Trusts and the group companies will help as India battles to contain the spread of COVID-19 crisis. Ratan Tata tweeted, “COVID-19 is one of the toughest challenges we will face as a race. The Tata Trusts and the Tata group companies have in the past risen to the needs of the nation. At this moment, the need of the hour is greater than any other time.” The amount would be used for personal protective equipment for the medical personnel on the frontline, respiratory systems for treating increasing cases, testing kits to increase per capita testing, setting up modular treatment facilities for infected patients, and knowledge management and training of health workers plus the general public.
Following Ratan Tata’s announcement, N. Chandrasekharan, chairman of Tata Sons, announced an additional Rs 1,000 crore in support towards COVID-19 and related activities. He said in a statement, “We will work together with the Tata Trusts and our Chairman Emeritus Mr. Tata and would be fully supporting their initiatives, and work in a collaborative manner to bring the full expertise of the group. In addition to the initiatives articulated by Tata Trusts, we are also bringing in the ventilators necessary and are gearing up to also manufacture the same soon in India.”
Mukesh Ambani
One of the top business tycoons of India, Mukesh Ambanihas also contributed in his own ways. In collaboration with the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), the Sir HN Reliance Foundation Hospital has set up a dedicated 100-bed centre at Seven Hills Hospital, Mumbai, for patients who test positive for COVID-19. Reliance Industries Limited is enhancing its production capacities to produce 100,000 face-masks per day and a large number of personal protective equipment for the nation’s health-workers to equip them further to fight the coronavirus challenge. Reliance Industries has donated Rs 500 crore to PM’s Citizen Assistance and Relief in Emergency Situation (PM CARES) Fund to help government in the fight against coronavirus.
Similarly, other companies in India have come forward to contribute. Digital payments company Paytm said it aims to contribute Rs 500 crore to the fund. For every contribution or any other payment made on Paytm using the wallet, UPI and Paytm Bank debit card, the company will contribute an extra up to Rs 10, Paytm said in a statement. Also, Flipkart-owned PhonePe also launched a donation drive and said it aims to contribute up to Rs 100 crore to PM CARES Fund towards fighting coronavirus crisis. Infosys Foundation has also committed Rs 100 crore to fight COVID-19. Uday Kotak, managing director of Kotak Mahindra Bank announced a Rs 60 crore donation. On March 22, Anand Mahindra, CEO of Mahindra and Mahindra also offered the group’s hospitality arm as a medical care facility and said the group will work on how its manufacturing facilities can manufacture ventilators. Engineering and construction giant Larsen & Toubro (L&T) on Monday announced Rs 150 crore donation to the PM-CARES Fund to fight the coronavirus outbreak and said it has set aside over Rs 500 crore per month to support about 1.60 lakh contract workers. JSW Group, an Indian business operating in metals and mining has announced contributing Rs 100 crores to the prime minister’s citizen assistance and relief in emergency situations (PM-CARES) fund in the light of the ongoing Coronavirus outbreak. Paint and decor company, Asian Paints on Monday has announced contributing Rs 35 crores towards Covid19 Relief Fund.
However, startups and small businesses were getting anxious about the support from the government considering the pressure they are facing to keep the operations running smoothly in the light of funds being scarce and market demand being low. This combined with the pressure to plan for remote teams due to the lockdown across India. Amid the country-wide lockdown, startups have been calling for a relief package for small businesses and the startups which are struggling as the coronavirus pandemic continues to hamper daily life. A Reuters report has now said that the India government may bring an INR 2.3 Tn ($20 Bn) relief fund by the end of the week for the poor sections of the population and businesses. For this, various entrepreneurs have showed willingness to help.
Mark Zuckerberg & Bill Gates
The Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, the philanthropic arm of Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg and his wife Priscilla Chan, has announced plans to team up with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to donate USD 25 million to a research fund exploring possible COVID-19 treatments. Separately, a coalition backed by Bill Gates and Norway is considering a crowdfunding campaign as they seek to attract about $2 billion to speed up development of vaccines. Mastercard and charity foundation Wellcome are also partnering with Bill & Melinda Gates as part of the initiative, which started with $125 million in seed funding at its launch. The goal of the project is to develop affordable treatments to COVID-19 that can be distributed at scale.
In the same way, Facebook wants to help small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) survive the coronavirus pandemic. Now it is offering $100 million in grants to 30,000 companies in over 30 countries. Sheryl Sandberg, chief operating officer of Facebook, said on her page on Tuesday (March 17) that the social media giant(Facebook) wants to “do our part” to help with the “enormous challenge in front of us.” To that end, the company is extending a total of $100 million in cash, as well as credits for advertising, to a maximum of 30,000 eligible small businesses.
Similarly, Facebook’s Head of Health Kang-Xing Jin said in a blog post that Facebook is also supporting COVID-19 fact-checkers with a $1 million grant, in partnership with the International Fact-Checking Network (IFCN). The funds will be used to launch a program to increase capacity during the coronavirus pandemic. Facebook has also opened a special hub to help SMBs during the pandemic, and is planning virtual training through Blueprint, its free e-learning training program. The company’s goal is to assist companies “in this new and unsettling environment.”
The coronavirus outbreak has reached almost every corner of the world, with cases only continuing to soar day by day. In the months since the virus has emerged in Wuhan, China, there have already been signs of a shift in consumer behaviour all over the world. With the outbreak still in its early stages in India, sales of groceries, household goods and healthcare items have seen a boost as consumers look for ways to protect themselves. But analysis shows that it has had a reverse impact on other sectors. The government is taking various precautionary steps to contain the spread of coronavirus such as Janta curfew and 21 days lockdown during which only shops or businesses selling essentials are allowed to remain open. While, the other businesses are strictly closed.
At the same time, the impact of the coronavirus on ecommerce and online store is great. It’s a fact that a lot of things have been and will still be affected by coronairus. Unfortunately, one of them (what will be affected) is dropshipping! But what is Dropshipping? It is a retail fulfillment method where a store doesn’t keep the products it sells in stock. Instead, when a store sells a product using the dropshipping model, it purchases the item from a third party and has it shipped directly to the customer. As a result, the seller doesn’t have to handle the product directly. In other words, it is more of online store. One of the biggest concerns these store owners may have is that consumers will stop making online purchases over fears that they might get the virus from overseas shipments.
With many manufacturing and logistics facilities restricted or shut temporarily, experts have recommended them prepare for delays and take that into account before continuing to run paid ads and take orders. It is a good idea to check with your supplier, but assume that your items will not be shipped promptly. Or, if they are shipping things on time, disruptions to domestic shipping in the destination country could still cause delays. As a result of the continuous widespread of this virus, transportations all around the country are shut down partially or completely. This has caused the inability of all workers and employees to go back to factories and companies to work, which has affected operations in most companies.
The impact of COVID-19 has been massive on dropshipping. First, it means significant delays. Since the priority of the government is public safety, the authorities set prevention and control measures such as lockdown in place that disrupt the free movement of goods and people. These policies have left logistics companies in difficult situation, incapable to navigate the new restrictions, and without the government’s guidance, many are forced to freeze operations as they can’t provide a concrete answer. Moreover, Western sellers are confused about their action plan because most of them don’t know how to lower the possible financial risks. The forecast is not too encouraging if we consider the roadblocks and temporary closing of airports, highways, railways stations, and ports.
In the same way, this uncertainty will disrupt the business of startups & smaller vendors who very often depend on the products they sell; smaller retail traffic could push them into bankruptcy. Their ability to survive depends not only on the quality of goods but also on a speedy delivery process since customers want to have access to products as fast as possible. So, these circumstances obviously unfavourable for them to survive. Stocks have been said to fall on fears that the Coronavirus could take a more significant economic toll than initially expected.
In addition to this, the directive, orders from government during this lockdown have asked people to avoid travel and going out by working from home. These directives, orders from government which excluded emergency service workers and people who work for essential public services, urged the private sector to enforce similar arrangements. This means almost all the workers involved in the dropshipping process won’t have the chance to go work.
The fact is, most suppliers of dropshipping business depend on factories. As a result of COVID-19 and the compulsory -stay indoor- thing, factories will not be able to produce products at the expected date. Because of Coronavirus, the majority of workers will not be able to come back to suppliers’ factories to start producing. However, according to the current situation, the return date of workers may be delayed, which means dropshipping will suffer.
Drop-shipping is likely to be affected more due to Lockdown
If in case, supplier or suppliers have product stocks available, what about logistics? Logistics companies are also affected due to coronavirus outbreak as most of their workers are at home because government has allowed transportation of essential goods only. With the Government announcement of borders closing and all cities’ transportation systems closed, there’s no way logistics companies could work. If logistics companies don’t work, then there’s no way parcels and other dropshipping fulfillment products will be shipped out to their various destination. Most of the suppliers’ facility has been temporarily shut down by the government. So, it has left businesses with dropshipping with no option but to wait for the situation to get better.
As mentioned above the reduction in logistics and suspension of flights is disrupting the supply chain that is causing delays in shipping, reduced transport capacity, and inflation in shipping costs. As a dropshipper, it is your duty to inform your customers about the delay. The delays should not be affecting for a long time. However, you still need to put confidence in your customers and ask them to wait a little longer. One also needs to be prepared to refund them and wait for the situation to become normal.
The capacity for carrying couriers has been compromised after the lockdown. However, services will be resuming at a slow pace and should return to its normal operations in the upcoming weeks. It is in the best interest of dropshippers to avoid standard shipping.
One must try removing fear from the customer’s mind by letting them know that coronavirus does not survive for long on a surface. The postal services are already using disinfectants and taking extra precautionary measures to ensure the safety of their staff and packaging.
Remove fear from the customer’s mind by letting them know that coronavirus does not survive for long on a surface. The postal services are using disinfectants and taking extra precautionary measures to ensure the safety of their staff and packaging.
Avoid selecting standard shipping and choose a faster shipping method until the outbreak is controlled. It is recommended that you use only the express shipping method during this time.
The coronavirus aka COVID-19 pandemic continues to spread with no signs of fading away. Preventive measures taken by the public sector and by global industry are already having widespread effects. Most of the businesses around the world are facing many challenges and lower demands of their services & products. Meanwhile, the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) has said the global economy may now grow at its slowest rate since 2009.
With the COVID-19 virus spreading to dozens of countries globally, the travel industry is working hastily to both prevent the spread of the virus and navigate through heavy economic uncertainty & slowdown. Now, with the globalized world going into partial or complete lock down over the Covid-19 pandemic, startups in the travel sector are facing a huge stress test as well as immediate interruption to business because public health concern has increased and entire populations are encouraged or even forced not to travel.
Travelers are reconsidering travel plans both to prevent infection and avoid being quarantined. Due to this, airlines are also facing a huge fall in bookings. Airlines have ceased flights to the hardest-hit areas and reduced capacity elsewhere. Similarly, many hotels are empty or facing declining fall in occupancy; conference organizers are losing major events, local tour operators have far fewer customers due to travel avoidance of customers as experts say that there’s no sugar-coating: It’s rough out there right now. Lean times are inevitable for the travel industry – that much is for sure. But among the furrowed speculation and fearful reports, some of the startup founders have been busy formulating ideas and plans catalyzed by the recent crisis.
No to non-essential travel
With restrictions on travel and large business events, many startups, IT majors and corporates have ruled out non-essential domestic and international travel. In a statement, IT major Wipro said: “Wipro has suspended travel to and transit through mainland China, including Hong Kong and Macau, until further notice. Employees have also been advised to avoid non-critical travel to Singapore, South Korea, Japan, and Italy.” As many companies have asked their employees to work from home, it has caused decrease in travel. Asheesh Chanda, CEO of digital wealth management startup Kristal.AI, said all necessary precautions as advised by the government were being taken. “Kristal.AI operates in three locations – Singapore, Hong Kong, and India. Non-essential travel between offices is currently discouraged. We have asked all employees across locations to work-from-home.”
In the same way, many travel tech companies have seen a spike in cancellations. In general the impact is heavy. While some have stated that demand is dropping off a cliff but it’s not as bad as they thought — but it is definitely heavy. Bookings are down by almost half It’s seeing similar changes in booking behavior. Advanced booking has come down drastically. TravelPerk told that it’s currently dealing with a drop in business globally of around 50%.
Lockdown due to COVID-19 has resulted in low demands of bookings
The co-founder and CEO of TechCrunch, Johannes Reck said, “This is the most severe shock that I’ve seen in the last 10 years. The irony of Europe is that we had a fantastic start to the year, consumer sentiment was high, and then it fell off a cliff a few days ago.” An airline trade group said last week that the industry will lose as much as $113 billion in sales because of the coronavirus pandemic. Also, Booking.com withdrew its forecast, citing the worsening impact of the virus on travel.
Here’s some of the useful tips and tricks for staying afloat in these tough times –
Look for bright spots
If your startup has a global focus, look for bright spots of travel demand. Not every area is affected by travel restrictions and flight bans. For instance, depending on your business model and market, one can switch to targeting short journey. Another tactic is to target travelers from areas less affected by the virus. Take a methodical look at current travel conditions and compare that with your target demographics. Wherever you find opportunities, you’ll need to balance pricing with market share and thus customers can be attracted to use your services.
The travel community has a unique perspective with many “boots on the ground” i.e. contacts in different places around the world. So ask your suppliers, distributors, partners what is happening on their end. So, by gathering information from them, your expertise can be utilized to provide customers what they are actually needing at this time. This can help with lowering cancellations while also keeping your team informed on the virus.
Create your USP
Travelers now face uncertainty and lack clarity over when, where, and how to travel due to constraints. If your startup has a unique selling proposition that addresses some of these challenges, work on it! Try to be creative and see how you might be able to apply your product to add new or unexpected value to the current global situation. Or, perhaps there are aspects of your business model that could be improved a bit to increase relevance in these circumstances.
Partner up with others
Now is the time to get creative with partnerships and building relationships. By joining hands with other startups which are also facing the same challenges, new solutions can be found to deal with current circumstances. As you consider potential partners, look for those who may be especially hard in this climate and needing cost-cutting or short-term revenue.
It’s important to remember that no crisis lasts forever and to attempt to look to the future. This isn’t the world’s first recession and it won’t be the last. It’s not the world’s first pandemic and it won’t be the last. The key for entrepreneurs is to keep a cool head about you, don’t do anything and adopt a war footing while your company struggles through choppy waters for 12 to 18 months in the wake of this pandemic. When the crisis recedes and the courts reopen, your company will need to provide an accounting of its obligations and answer for any it has fallen short on in the meantime.
Coronavirus is here, and it’s making a big impact on every aspect of business. From trade market swings to airline collapses, the economy of many industries is taking its toll and having major constraints. Whole worldwide especially in Europe, those living in Italy, Spain, Germany and France have been the most impacted so far and the situation is set to worsen. The indirect effects for startups have also been huge, but some businesses are faring better than others. While many struggle to operate amid travel turmoil, others are cashing in on the health crisis by supplying much-needed medical solutions. Some London founders even launched an entirely new startup (called Epiderm) this year to help track employee and visitor contact through check-ins and calendar analysis. Similarly, there are clearly dozens of sectors that will likely be impacted such as dating apps, concert booking apps, edtech, will-writing startups, fitness apps, remote working tools and recruiting startups and so on.Here we discussed about impact of Coronavirus on Fintech Startups.
What about the sector of fintech?
Like everything else, it’s also likely to be under threat. There’s more to come from COVID-19 in the coming weeks where large and small fintech companies take a hit. Some could even benefit. Fintech firms globally also have already benefited from more flexible regulations in both emerging and mature countries as many efforts are being made to improve financial inclusion and serve a broader digital economy. According to a report from Ecosystem, there were five key trends that were expected to shape the Fintech market during 2020. The coronavirus pandemic could be devastating for many companies, but it’s also shining a spotlight on the power of fintechs across the world. They seem to be responding to the sudden challenge effectively, though uncertainties lie ahead.
Negative Impacts of Consumer Spending
Fear, panic, and quarantine measure heavily impact consumer spending. Canceled flights, closed stores, and social distancing have resulted into a drop in transaction volume at all levels of the economy. This means FinTech firms in the payments sector like Paypal, PhonePe, Google Pay, Stripe, or Chime will collect fewer fees, negatively impacting their profitability and valuations. Hardware shortages could also impact firms like Square, that rely on digital devices to support transaction processing. It’s evident that large businesses are already feeling the heat with the coronavirus outbreak. Companies such as Mastercard and Visa have cut their predictions for revenue due to the scare. This is because many users of credit cards are unlikely to use it to purchase flights, which is one of the more common transactions for credit card use.
The impact of the coronavirus outbreak is impacting both financial markets and consumer behavior as never before. At least in the short term, there has been a significant flight to safer investments by consumers, which could negatively impact venture capital funding of existing and new fintech firms. Combined with investors concerned with higher funding costs, the volatile market could be a catalyst for lower valuations. This potential drying up of financing to non-traditional financial services firms could force many firms to find collaboration or investment partners from traditional banking organizations. Some early-stage fintech firms may need to shut down.
Chinese fintechs will likely face the worst negative impact from the virus. Funding for Chinese fintechs was already down in 2019, likely due in part to trade tensions between the US and China. In 2019, fintechs only secured $298 million, down from $1.8 billion during the same time the year before. Having originated in Wuhan, China, the coronavirus is making the country’s economic outlook particularly uncertain, and more investors may shy away from the market as a result. That means Chinese fintechs might need to prepare for an even less funding-friendly environment in 2020 and shift their focus to a sustainable business model.
Positive Impacts
Whilst we’ve seen many negative impacts recorded in the fintech sector, there is a bright side in which some companies benefiting from. It’s encouraged many companies to adopt fintech for the purpose of their business. For example, the Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commissions company Ye Yanfei explained that blockchain is being utilised for medical data verification. Similarly, consumers desire for digital banking services will most likely increase, forcing many traditional financial institutions to fast-track digital innovation efforts. As a result, many legacy banks and credit unions may look to fintech firms or startups for assistance in bringing better digital banking solutions to the marketplace during this crisis. This increase in demand for digital solutions could provide a lifeline to fintech firms at a time when VC funding may not be an option.
In addition, weakening economies may force government organizations and regulators to stimulate the expansion of fintech solutions. For instance, South Korea is planning to temporarily ease regulations on fintech and ten other industries in March, in an attempt to jumpstart its economy amid the coronavirus outbreak. The World Health Organization has also encouraged contactless payments to contain the spread of COVID-19. Moreover, Google Trends shows a significant spike in the search requests regarding online loans which is a good news for many fintech firms.
Governments are appealing for Cashless Payment
Many countries are also encouraging the use of contactless payment to prevent the spreading of the virus any further from the exchanging of money. To ensure safety of citizens amid the coronavirus outbreak, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) governor, Shaktikanta Das, asked customers to use digital banking facilities as far as possible. Das added, “In the context of COVID 19, RBI and the government together are giving emphasis on encouraging digital payments. And over a period of time, various measures have already been taken to establish safe, secure, stable and affordable retail payment system such as the National Electronic Fund Transfer (NEFT) and the Immediate Payment Service (IMPS).” In South Korea, where regulations were once considered rather strict in the fintech domain, they’re now willing to ease the regulations that they have. This is to lessen the impact of the virus spreading and having a larger impact on the economy.
Reserve Bank of India(RBI) has appealed people to use Contactless Payment
It could boost demand for certain insurance types. The virus’ dominance in headlines may increase awareness of insurance and boost demand for health and life coverage, as well as business interruption and event cancellation coverage. For instance, the outbreak has led to many conferences and events being cancelled at the last minute. At the same time, insurers are not supposed to pay over claims of this outbreak. Most travel insurers, for example, exclude pandemic, epidemic disease or infectious diseases from their coverages, meaning that likely only few will be affected by the virus. A report has revealed India has shown a moderate increase of 7 % when it comes to availing online financial services during this period of social distancing.
21-day Lockdown to promote Digital Payment
India is currently going through a 21-day lockdown that was imposed by Narendra Modi-led central government, as part of its plan to battle the novel coronavirus COVID-19. Several prominent names in the Indian startup ecosystem have also been promoting digital payments. There are various digital payment channels people can use instead of transacting via cash. Digital payments channels include NEFT, IMPS, UPI, etc. Razorpay’s report highlighted that UPI, internet banking and wallet payments have all grown in India because of quarantine and social distancing. Surprisingly, Delhi and Bengaluru have noted a decline in digital payment but this is just a matter of time. Soon, digital payment will see a boom across all cities due to lockdown. So, this is a good opportunity for all fintech firms and startups to flourish.
Parnas Ghosh
