Covid-19, which has shaken the whole world has brought everyone’s life at halt. This highly contagious disease is spreading so fast that Indian Government has ordered 1.3 billion residents to stay home. In this lockdown period, all malls, theaters, companies, shops, restaurants, manufacturing units are shut. This will affect businesses and economy badly. Many companies have told their employees to work from home. But, its not possible for all companies like manufacturing units, theaters, malls to let their employees work from home.
People are also scared of going out. This coronavirus has made people’s lifestyle slow and it will take time for everyone including companies to come back on track after this long period of lock down. COVID-19 has put slowdown to a business everywhere. Travel, Hotel, Events, and Entertainment are the sectors that are suffering.
Many small businesses may close because of many issues due to losses. We asked few founders of few companies about how small businesses are coping with situation of coronavirus outbreak and business closure.
How are small businesses in manufacturing coping with business closures?
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 how small businesses in manufacturing are coping with business closure.
Few people in Manufacturing I know have pivoted to produce some or the other essential commodity / product in F&B, healthcare, etc. That might not be possible for everyone, but the said situation warrants us to pivot from one thing to other to cope up with the losses and keep it going. On one hand, workers want to work but are out of jobs, and on another hand essential factories face labour problem due to migration to hometowns. Mobilising manpower with other factories to utilise manpower and reduce burden of salaries is another way to beat the market lockdown.
Founded in early 2015, upGrad offers online programs for working professionals. We talked with Mayank Kumar, Co-founder & MD, about how small businesses in manufacturing are coping with business closure.
The current COVID-19 situation has brought economies across geographies to a standstill. Especially businesses involved in manufacturing where units have been shut, supply chain has been disturbed, and all imports have been stalled. While the companies are trying and testing new policies and undertaking relief plans to revive from the clutches of the current pandemic and keep their workforce intact, the Government must also take necessary measures to cushion the adverse effects, especially for small scale businesses, as compared to the larger companies who operate with extra cash flow.
How corona Outbreak has affected Ecommerce startups and how they plan to recover?
Xboom Utilities
A one-stop E-Commerce startup based in Bangalore that provides safety and security products across categories ranging from vehicle safety, women’s safety, home safety, personal safety to defense. We talked with Vishal Saurav, Founder & CEO, about how corona outbreak has affected Ecommerce startup.
First of all, I urge all of the readers to follow the guidelines and stay safe in this dire situation. As the impact of the pandemic is global, the trade has slumped and most of the economy is hit hard. Our economy is no exception. Even e-commerce players like us are facing the blow, logistics and human resources issues add on to our lag. Export and import has been severely affected and speculations are that the situation will continue for another couple of weeks (or more), when the business is expected to be slower. Both demand and supply are low as people are prioritizing the basic needs only and not prepared mentally to buy other things, be it offline or online.
Most of the states have announced a lock-down and numbers are going to be grimmer this week onwards. We are adapting to the situation but it will take a bit of time to get back to the normal. To speed up things, all companies should adopt the work from home policy, which we had already implemented and wait until any remedy becomes available. On an individual level everyone should look out for oneself and the families, stay home, stay hygienic and stay safe. In this adverse situation, if all of us, individuals and corporates alike, follow the basic rules and cooperate, then we should be able to work and stay safe at the same time.
Founded in early 2015, upGrad offers online programs for working professionals. We talked with Mayank Kumar, Co-founder & MD, about how corona outbreak has affected Ecommerce startup.
Talking about online education sector at large, seems, it took a global pandemic to bring online education into the mainstream, which has otherwise played second fiddle to the offline model. As per our recent statistics, the current situation has been a net positive for us. The inflection point was the second last week of February 2020 (17th Feb – 24th Feb) followed by the week next, when we started witnessing exponential traction towards our platform.
In the last week of Feb, leads (~interested learners / prospects) increased by around 34% compared to the week before. It further soared as the country started to move towards the concept of social distancing. In the first week of March, our interest went up by 75% as well. Two to three weeks ago, we used to get 2,500 enquiries a day, but there has been a 50% upside with over 3,800 enquiries per day. Therefore, to conclude, I would like to mention that the only way to move ahead is by adapting to the evolving environment as quickly as possible, else businesses would fall prey to such uncertain times and consecutive circumstances.
Covid-19has shaken the whole world and brought everyone’s life to a halt. This highly contagious disease is spreading so fast that Indian Government has ordered 1.3 billion residents to stay home for more than 40 days now. Malls, theaters, companies, shops, restaurants, and manufacturing units are all shut. Businesses and economy have taken a severe hit. Many organizations have asked their employees to work from home.
A company has to take permission from its client if the employee has to work on the client’s data from home. Employees need laptop, a good internet connection, communication gear, work-related hardware, and software. Technology has made it easy to do everything online like meetings, attendance, etc. Data security is of prime concern when working from home.
We asked a few founders about how they are keeping data and business cyber secured.
Sequretek is a Mumbai based Indian cybersecurity company with offices in Gurgaon, Bengaluru, and the United States. We talked with Pankit Desai, co-founder and CEO of Sequretek, about how to keep data and business cyber secured with work from home, or WFH, becoming a norm.
In the pre-Covid 19 era, employees working across companies were issued laptops and other devices which were checked for security flaws and appropriate end point protection were loaded into them. The entire network architecture and end point devices were periodically patched and checked for security lapses. As WFH was enforced without any notice, companies didn’t get the time or the option to issue cyber safe devices. In some cases, there weren’t enough devices to allocate. Thus, employees are relying on personal laptops, tablets, and other gadgets over unpatched home networks and accessing, sharing, and trading possibly sensitive information with each other to do their work. One of the main concerns we see is that the same devices are being used for personal reasons like searching for a plethora of information—from coronavirus updates to online purchases in your free time. So if hackers gain access to personal devices, they can acquire log details, texts, and there is a good chance that your credentials have been siphoned off. Those credentials can then be used to carry out various attacks. We are aware of certain cases where significant attempts have been made to steal credentials. In order to not be compromised, you can try a few things to help protect your system from such malicious attacks:
Hygiene: Start treating your personal assets as if they are corporate issued. Try not to access any external storage devices and websites that you would not be permitted if you were working in your corporate environment.
End point security: – Enterprises should make sure that all the devices (both company issued and personal) that are being used to access the company’s network have updated security software with auto-enabled patching. Use freely available antivirus software or 30/90 days trial version products, if needed. – Avoid using Windows 7 as most security products don’t support this operating system anymore. If you are still using it, ensure that the antivirus software is enabled. Windows 10 would be preferred as it comes with in-built security features. – Freemium antivirus: Avast / total AV; 30/90 day free trial: Norton/McAfee/ TrendMicro. Also, check out www.cert-in.org.in.
Network security devices and rules will need to be reconfigured to support external communication: – Enterprises should ensure that the security monitoring capability understands the difference between company owned and personal devices that are now plugged into the network. It will help understand any abnormal behavior and can bring down the number of false positives that may otherwise create a worrisome situation. – Install a firewall if one doesn’t exist. Options range from low end to expensive ones. – Review the rules on firewalls to ensure they are valid and no gaps exist. For every mobile user, create a policy on the firewall for access. Secure the communication with VPN technology. – Most firewalls have a VPN feature. Use the same or open-source options. Try multi-factor authentication to prevent any abuse of credentials. – Enterprises can also implement geofencing to restrict traffic within their networks. For example, if most of the employees working from home on a project are from Mumbai, then the company can make sure that any IP outside the city will not be allowed to access the environment. – Also, lock the specific set of assets to an environment so that people from outside that particular geography can’t access specific environments.
Datacentre: – Make sure your servers are patched and all recent vulnerabilities are fixed. Servers need antivirus software too. – All your OS/DB/network devices are hardened. – Review your applications and make sure they don’t have any loopholes which can be exploited. – Ensure proper credentials and authentication mechanisms exist for your applications. – If feasible, take up services of security monitoring that can help you identify credible threats. – Windows Defender is free with all Microsoft operating systems. WSUS is free for Microsoft patching. -Several open-source vulnerability scanners are available: Burpsuite/Wireshark/NMap.
Surmount Business
Surmount Business targets to become a strategic partner to entrepreneurs and enterprises and help expand beyond their existing roots, professionalize their operations, and enhance their capital efficiency. We spoke with Niraj Bora, the founder of Surmount Business, about how to keep data and business cyber secured with respect to the WFH culture.
Dropbox, google drive, etc. tools are safe for file sharing and also provide real time sync, separate team login, accidental delete recovery options, etc. as well. They have these options that makes sharing very convenient. Communication and project management tools like zoom, slack, and MS teams have good functionality and are helpful for work allocation, tracking progress, email and chat integration, cloud integration, etc. Paid subscriptions further increase the utility to include call recordings, multiple team member logins, etc.
Excess2sell is India’s leading B2B excess inventory marketplace which covers multiple verticals. We spoke with Mr Amit Kundra, Technology Director, about how to keep data and business cyber secured when WFH is becoming a norm.
Work From Home (WFH) has been the biggest challenge across businesses during the lockdown, especially in India where businesses still run the traditional way. The lockdown imposed on us due to the COVID-19 has left us with no choice but to WFH and since most businesses, especially the SMEs had never experienced this way of working prior to now, it has been a paradigm shift for enterprises. In such times, the only way to achieve business process continuity is through digital transformation, work automation, and mobility.
We at Excess2sell.com managed to keep up the processes going in this crisis situation as our E2S Ecosystem has been architectured in such a manner that majority of our business processes are automated , run independently, and are tightly integrated with each other which had really helped to continue with our tech development, member on-boarding, activation, CRM support process and departments, and most importantly, customer facing apps seamlessly running without any hindrance factoring all security aspects.
On the Infrastructure side, we decided to manage it out by categorizing it under two heads with strict guidelines:
Use your own laptop.
Company desktop / laptop with guidelines issued to all employees. • To beware of phishing emails. • To avoid use of public Wi-Fi. • To ensure home Wi-Fi routers are sufficiently secured. • To verify the security of the devices that they use to get work done. • To avoid clicking links in emails from people they do not know. • To avoid installation of third-party apps should be confined to bonafide app stores. • Daily backups.
Since security was a bigger concern than the speed of work while allowing employees to WHF and ensuring business process doesn’t get stalled, we immediately actioned Privilege Access Management and transitioned our tech development completely onto offline mode. All new developments and product enhancements work are now being carried out on a separate secured Temporary Cloud bucket besides the ones regularly used considering best practices and team collaboration is happening via Slack.
Track of every login to the system, Multi-factor authentication, bitbucket and webmails monitoring processes should be strictly followed. Access to All High Availability Production Apps and environments is/should be restricted to a bare minimum mode and only VPN connectivity should be permitted in case of any critical or urgent release need.
To make communication smoother and faster with customers as well as internally, WhatsApp is being used as a part of enterprise communication along with SMS and email channels. Customers send their documents through WhatsApp or emails and they are tagged through Mobile or Web apps. Other tools that we recommend for efficient collaboration of the team in such times are Slack or Zoom.
These are hard times for businesses and IT budgets will be impacted in more than one way. But considering the new working normal and moving forward, businesses should invest more in IT to enable employees and customers to operate seamlessly in such unavoidable circumstances in the future. Businesses will definitely benefit by enabling and allowing complete digitization and mobility.
The need of the hour for every business moving forward is to be pro-active in defining business specific digital solutions rather than being reactive to similar kind of crisis conditions in future.
Volksara Techno Solutions
Volksara Techno Solutions Pvt. Ltd. is an all-in-one provider of remedies pertaining to the comprehensive security and safety solutions and integration of products, systems, and services. We spoke with Saily Lad, Director, about how to keep data and business cyber secured when WFH is becoming a norm.
Due to the extraordinary circumstances we are navigating, working from home has become the norm for a lot of people and companies, possibly for the first time in their lives. This has not been a common practice in the past and hence, there is a severe lack of a strong cybersecurity policy and standards to keep one’s data safe. In fact, every time an employee connects to a corporate network from their homes, they are creating access points that can possibly be exploited by hackers. When this happens over 1000 times on a single network amid lockdowns, it becomes increasingly difficult to guarantee security of each and every connection.
What we can do in such a scenario is to encourage employees to use a VPN at all times, especially when working with sensitive data. Additionally, we should encourage the use of cybersecurity tools that are capable of performing simulated attacks across remote connections in order to assess risks. This can greatly help determine the extent to which our current settings and defenses are effective, and what changes need to be made to keep our organisations and data safe.
TechChefs Software
TechChefs Software focuses on product engineering and multi-cloud engineering. Pratap Simha, the founder and CTO of TechChefs Software, discussed about how to keep data and business cyber secured by working at home.
Today we live in a world where everything and everybody is interconnected. Technologies like cloud, automation, artificial intelligence, robotics…to name a few, have made life much easier to stay connected with one another, both at an individual and at an enterprise level. But these advancements have also brought security threats which can post significant threat to data, confidential information, and everything else. Fortunately, a host of antidotes are available— the basic ones being Firewalls, antivirus software, anti-spyware software, and password management software.
Over and above these, there a host of tools/activities which when diligently followed can have a significant impact on staying secure:
Encryption of data and creating back-ups: The two most important aspects in staying secured are (1) to prevent sensitive information/data falling into the hands of hackers and (2) rendering the data useless if it falls into the wrong hands. Here, encryption plays a significant role addressing the issue. In parallel, creating a robust data back up to fall back upon in the event of any breach.
Safeguarding the hardware: Much has been spoken about security from the software aspect. Theft of computers/laptops can also pose a threat. It therefore becomes important to secure the hardware system with a complicated and difficult-to-break-into password. Virtual Desktops on the Cloud are gaining popularity amount enterprises and eliminate the aspect of hardware theft.
Cyber Security Insurance: Insurance for data, a relatively newer concept, is gaining popularity. At the end of 2019, cyber security was valued at USD 1.97 Billion with projections to be at USD 3.05 Billion by 2022. According to a joint study by PwC India and Data Security Council of India (DSCI), the average cost of a data breach in the country has gone up to INR 11.9 Cr, an increase of 8% from 2017. The losses incurred due to breaches can be best mitigated by investing in cyber security insurance. It is estimated that the yearly cyber premium is in the range of Rs. 80 – Rs. 110 crores with IT/ITES and Banking & Financial sectors as early adopters.
Internally, creating a security-focused work place culture and educating all employees about the pit falls of an unsecured network makes it binding on every employee to be responsible for data security.
ADDA
ADDA is a must have for apartment residents. The App by ADDA is fully integrated with the ADDA SaaS platform which is meant for Community Administration. We spoke with San Banerjee, the co-founder and CEO of ADDA, about how to keep data and business cyber secured when WFH is becoming the new norm.
There should always be a single secure entry point into all the digital systems and all other online systems should authenticate with this system. Email from Google Apps is ADDA’s single secure entry point and also serves as the company email inbox. We follow a default two factor authentication system that cannot be turned off by employees. During on-boarding their registered cell phone number is set as the second authenticator.
The other online portals we use like CRM, Support Ticketing, etc are all synced to the single Google mail for authentication. For an in-house system, whenever employees log in, an email with a 6 digit OTP is sent to their company email inbox. Without this OTP the internal systems will not be allowed. Also, if more than a preset number of tries are exceeded, we deactivate the account and also send an email to the admins. When an employee leaves, deactivating the company email is sufficient and that automatically removes their access to all other portals instantly.
COVID-19 virusis spreading so rapidly and it has hit dozens of countries globally. Indian government has put 1.3 billion residents in lockdwon. This pandemic has impacted many industries like stock market, travel industry, healthcare, supply chain, manufacturing units. Most of the start-ups are on the verge of closure or bankruptcy. Every individual has been adversely affected however it has largely impacted the new start up’s. Companies are firing people from work. This situation is panic for employer and employees too. This virus originated in China but has spread-ed to many countries. Nobody knows when this contagious disease will end.
We have asked founders of few companies their opinion on how employees should react on firing happening now in this corona virus outbreak and lockdown.
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 how employees should react on firing happening now in this corona virus outbreak and lockdown.
How should employees react to the firing happening right now?
It’s undoubtedly a hard situation to be in — losing your job in a general atmosphere of fear and panic is not ideal. However, most employers are trying to avoid lay-offs unless it’s the absolute last resort and are also cushioning the blow with generous severance packages.
The laid-off employees need to first take a breath and realize that what has happened is purely due to these extraordinary circumstances and nothing to do with their ability as employees. It’s okay to have a moment of anger and sadness because of the situation— but wallowing over a prolonged time will only make the situation worse. Even though it sounds hard to believe, there are a number of organizations taking a long-term view of this situation and looking to hire employees at this time. This is the right time to focus on their CV and consolidate all the work they’ve done and the skills they’ve acquired. Many platforms and universities across the world are providing great courses at a discounted price or even free of cost. This is the right time to acquire some additional skills.
How/Where can employees, fired after Corona should look for the new job opportunity?
Luckily most recruitment has shifted seamlessly to online channels. People are doing multiple rounds of interviews via Skype/Zoom, and many are even making final offers. As I mentioned before, many companies are looking at this time as an opportunity to hire skilled people without too much effort.
Try to part on good terms with your employers. They will want to help you, making sure you land on your feet, and you can even ask them for both a good recommendation as well as referrals to employers who are hiring. Besides this, going through all the regular channels — your network, LinkedIn, and job portals— should yield the right results.
What do you think is the best way for employee to connect with an organisation/HR for any opening?
The best way to connect, of course, is through your networks— whether batchmates/seniors from your college/business school, colleagues and seniors at work, or even general friends and family. This is the time to use all your social media networks to connect the dots and find who can connect you with which organizations.
If that’s not an option, doing some basic research will help you figure out which organizations are hiring. Use LinkedIn to find relevant managers/HR within those organizations and send them a polite and personalized cover letter.
What are different ways companies can implement to stop this firing?
The best way is, of course, implementing salary cuts for senior management. This isn’t always the best course of action under ordinary circumstances. For instance, when a company is going through a bad time, experts always recommend lay-offs over salary cuts. That’s because a salary cut makes competent employees leave the company and join somewhere else. However, this isn’t an ordinary business situation — this is a global pandemic resulting in an unprecedented humanitarian crisis. Employees are even voluntarily taking salary cuts at this time so that others don’t experience hardship. This is definitely a good short-term measure.
For companies where cash flow is the biggest issue, delaying part of the salaries might be an option. In this way, they can pay a minimum basic to every employee, but those who earn above a certain threshold could get part of their salary later.
Whatever course of action companies choose to take, it’s important to explain the “why” of these actions in a clear, unambiguous way to all stakeholders.
Founded in early 2015, upGrad offers online programs for working professionals. We talked with Mayank Kumar, Co-founder & MD, about how employees should react on firing happening now in this corona virus outbreak and lockdown.
How should employees react to the firing happening right now?
Our economy has taken a massive hit over the past few weeks of lockdown and has directly contributed to situations like job loss, appraisals being called off, and downsizing along with other career opportunities turning obsolete are impending concerns. A recent report by CMIE (Centre for Monitoring the Indian Economy) suggests that the nationwide lockdown saw the unemployment rate shot up from 8.4% in mid-March to the current 23.4%.
Amid such crucial times, when the anxiety of losing job and economical pressure is rapidly penetrating through our system, the only way to survive through the treadmill of life is by upskilling. One must use this extra time at hand to use it cautiously and meaningfully to develop new skills, understand rooted fundamentals and enhance their professional growth at large. While all hiring procedures have been put to freeze as of now, these newly acquired skills will help professionals bounce back into the system with ease and confidence once the dust settles down, leading towards the greater evolution.
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 how employees should react on firing happening now in this corona virus outbreak and lockdown.
How should employees react to the firing happening right now?
Although difficult, employees need to accept the fact that the business has to justify profits to be sustainable. If it shuts down due to losses, every loses their jobs and is not good for overall good of stakeholders. Whatsapp and Alibaba was founded after the founders were not selected for an interview. Also, I know few people who planned to switch their profiles but never did for fear of low pay. They shifted to something they like and earn out of it. Staying alive is the only mantra for everyone through this, and once the market reopens many opportunities will come up in various positions. Also, next few months could have lower pay till the market stabilises and you have to manage till then.
Employees can spend time learning more skills they through of but could not do so in past due to lack of time. It could be another language, an online course to add to resume, coding, etc. That really helps in future with getting back on your feet. Udemy, coursera, Unacademy, etc are great online learning tools for everyone.
How/Where can employees, fired after Corona should look for the new job opportunity?
Since WFH kicked in, searching only through job portals, linkedin, referrals are good ways to start with. Identify sectors that can compliment your skills and are recruiting. Look beyond your cliche profiles that can also switch your monotonous work.
Nowadays, many freelancing websites are available that pays you on a project / task basis. Identify and search for such options and start working for any company anytime you want to.
Eventually, the globalisation would be like a product you buy might be designed by teams spread across europe, using US technology manufactured in Asia, with materials specifically made in Africa for a brand based in some other country with no physical office. I believe the Gig economy would be a big market for all who can work from home.
What do you think is the best way for employee to connect with an organisation/HR for any opening?
Seek referrals online on social media, linkedin, job portals, etc. and connect with relevant persons. Understand the employers perspective with respect to skills required, get in touch with employees who are already working in the said organisation to understand more about the job opening or the profile/ work culture to better assess the prospect of working there.
