The pandemic has shown us what digitization is capable of! Our education system has been highly affected by the pandemic. The whole education system has gone from desk to desktop. This has brought a positive factor as well.
There have been tons of education-based applications launched to serve the students in an effective manner. India has entirely moved from the conventional classroom method to the virtual technical classroom. And a great asset to this has been the very prominent UpGrad, which provides higher education, digitally.
UpGrad is a pretty fascinating application and a very successful education-based company. Through this article, we will discuss the business model of UpGrad in order to have a better understanding towards the Ed-tech companies. Moreover, we discuss how this Ed-tech company makes money and also, how it targets its audience. Let’s get started!
UpGrad is known as India’s largest company that provides higher education in many fields, founded in 2015. UpGrad offers higher education through various programs in Technology, Law, Data Science, and Management. There aren’t any specifications for the students. From students to professionals, anyone can sign up for these programs.
The most fascinating thing about UpGrad is that it offers courses in collaboration with the top universities such as MICA, IIT Madras, Jindal Global Law School, Liverpool John Moores University, NMIMS Global Access, Duke CE, and many others.
UpGrad has built a very strong upholding in the Indian education system and it’s all set to achieve definite career success for everyone from the global working environment. UpGrad offers an 85% completion rate for programs, industry-relevant curriculum, placement support, result-based learning opportunities, and significant mentorship to its members.
On a global scale, UpGrad has over 40,000 paid active users right now along with an influence on over a million. In fact, UpGrad is the first-ever company to have a well-recognized PG Diploma in Data Science course from the National Association of Software and Services Companies (NASSCOM) and NOS.
Moreover, UpGrad has been honored with the “Best Education Brands” award from the Economic Times in 2018.
Where does UpGrad operate?
The co-founder of UpGrad, Phalgun Kompalli has done incredible work in the sector of higher education and learning through technology with his award-winning company, UpGrad. The company operates in many countries including India, Africa, the United States, Southeast Asia, and Brazil.
UpGrad offers specific online courses and rewards the learners with a well-recognized certificate in many fields such as Machine Learning, Data Science, Digital Marketing, Software Development, product management, and many others.
Furthermore, it provides unique experiences to its customers through the contents developed by academia and industry experts. Also, effective mentorship and career support.
Target Audience of UpGrad
UpGrad majorly targets people above the age of 22 or 23. Its targeting is quite similar to that of Simplilearn company. UpGrad focuses on the working people in the age group of 23-45, who are eager to learn and improve their skills through online channels.
Business Model of upGrad
UpGrad runs on a pretty effective business model which holds a two-way approach between the students and the educators in order to form a bright future together. In other words, UpGrad acts as the bridge between the educational institutions and the candidates to gain the best knowledge and proficiency. The educational institutions offer their program courses in different subjects through the UpGrad app as well as the website at reasonable prices.
The candidates who are interested in the offered courses, register themselves on UpGrad by filling out the essential eligibility criteria fixed by the institution. After this, the candidate pays the given fees for the course. UpGrad offers two options for submitting the fees: complete fees at once or installment option.
Besides, UpGrad also employs professional guides who would enroll the professional candidates in their courses. This forms a two-way business approach that helps UpGrad in completing its ultimate goals and brings out a convenient way for companies to hire potential people. As we discussed the business model of UpGrad, let’s have a look at what’s unique about this business model.
What is Unique about the business model of UpGrad?
The most unique thing about UpGrad’s business model is that it isn’t any other ed-tech company with educational videos and content. UpGrad is the leading platform that provides the expertise and experience of entrepreneurs as well as professionals. UpGrad offers tons of student-based services and always brings out remarkable results.
UpGrad is working towards more than 15 new courses that would be included in the programs and are all set to expand its locations globally.
UpGrad offers programs at some very reasonable prices as it reflects their commitment towards the education of candidates. Around 50% of revenue is collected from the candidates after completing their program.
For the enterprise business deals, UpGrad receives money from the companies who send their employees for training to UpGrad.
Conclusion
From this article, we got a better understanding of the working strategy of UpGrad. As we discussed the business model of UpGrad, we built the market perspective of the Ed-tech company.
UpGrad carries a strong and effective business model and it is clearly reflected through its results and revenues. But most importantly, the company focuses on the education of its candidates and does not compromise anything for that.
UpGrad follows an effective marketing strategy that always results in various beneficial deals.
FAQ
Who is the owner of upGrad?
Ronnie Screwvala is the Co Founder and Chairman of upGrad.
Is upGrad an Indian company?
Yes, upGrad is an Indian higher education company founded by Ronnie Screwvala, Mayank Kumar, Phalgun Kompalli, and, Ravijot Chugh in 2015.
What is the revenue of UpGrad?
The revenue of upGrad in 2021 was INR 1200 crores.
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.
UpGrad is an educational technology company that was founded in the year 2015. The company has its headquarters located in Mumbai, India. The company was founded by Ronnie Screwvala, Mayank Kumar, Phalgum Kompaili and Ravijot Chugh.
The target market of the company is the working professionals who are looking back to get into the learning process without quitting their job.
The company provides access to the working professionals with university education through online modes in a structured manner. Let’s look at the below article to analyze the different subsidiary companies of UpGrad.
The Gate Academy is one of the recently acquired company by UpGrad. With this acquisition, UpGrad had entered into the test preparation market. The acquisition amount was not disclosed by UpGrad.
Even after the acquisition, the company is been known from its original name as The Gate Academy itself. The Chief Executive Officer of the company is Ritesh Raushan. The Gate Academy has its headquarters located in Bengaluru, India.
The Gate Academy Website
The plans of UpGrad after acquiring the startup were to increase the accessibility of this startup to at least 1 million test takers annually. This was planned to be achieved by investing over INR 100 crore in the company and by developing the content of around 20,000 hours in different languages.
The Gate Academy is one of India’s leading coaching institutes. The company has around 57 centers across the country. There are around 2 lakh learners who are enrolled for GATE and other entrance exams. They have consumed around 76 million video hours.
The Gate Academy has provided UpGrad with a non-linear growth opportunity by entering into a new segment and providing a deeper penetration in the semi-urban and the rural markets.
Acadview
Acadview was founded in the year 2015 by an ex-Google employee Himanshu Batra. The company helps fresh graduates upskill themselves to find highly skilled jobs. They upskill the graduates through industry projects and online coaching.
Acadview also provides an opportunity to the young IT professionals to earn an extra income by teaching the courses to the students and providing mentorship. The company has its headquarters in New Delhi, India.
Acadview has partnered with more than 80 private universities and colleges across five states in north India. The company has claimed that it has onboarded around 3,000 students in the previous year.
The acquisition of UpGrad will help the subsidiary company to focus on the north Indian market and UpGrad will help in expanding its presence there. UpGrad will also help the company to bring up its model online by providing the required materials.
Fairmont Technologies Pvt. Ltd
Fairmont Technologies Pvt. Ltd was founded in the year 2015. The company has its headquarters in Bengaluru, Karnataka. UpGrad had acquired the startup CohortPlus which is operated under the company Fairmont Technologies Pvt. Ltd.
Srinivasan Narayan is the founder and Co-founder of the company. CohortPlus will enable members to post various questions and they will get a chance to receive various perspectives from industry professionals. The members also have an option to seek assistance on Job interviews using the platform.
CohortPlus claims that it has a community of more than 31,000 members from a wide range of companies such as Google, Adobe, Facebook, Amazon, Practo, Zomato, Uber, etc. After the acquisition by UpGrad the company is concentrated on enlisting the support of the parent company to build a proprietary platform for people who are looking to advance in their careers.
Rekrut India Pvt. Ltd.
Rekrut India Pvt. Ltd was founded in the year 2020 and has its headquarters in Mumbai, India. Ajay Shah is the managing founder of Rekrut India Pvt. Ltd. Rekrut India has an extensive network of over 100 recruiting experts who handles the complexities of the hiring process.
Rekrut Website
The startup is said to be working closely with a lot of corporates, MSMEs and large enterprises. The acquisition helped the parent company that is UpGrad in turbocharging its career engine by providing a wider opportunity in placement and enabling the learners using the UpGrad platform to access the hiring partners of Rekrut India Pvt.Ltd.
This was the first time where an EdTech startup had acquired a recruitment company in India. The size of the deal was not disclosed.
FAQ
Who is the owner of upGrad?
Ronnie Screwvala is the Co Founder and Chairman of upGrad.
Who is the CEO of upGrad?
Arjun Mohan is Chief Executive Officer of upGrad.
Is upGrad profitable?
upGrad’s revenue stood at Rs 230 crore in FY20. The company has set a revenue target of Rs 300 crore for the January-March quarter.
Conclusion
All this acquisition has provided a strong platform for UpGrad in the EdTech space in India. These subsidiary companies are working closely with UpGrad to capture the Indian EdTech market.
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.
The COVID-19 pandemic has effectively brought normal life to a halt in whole world. Social distancing, work from home and a lockdown are the only ways to stop the spread of this virus. Situation is not different in India too. The Indian government has done the smart thing by implementing a 21-days lockdown along with an international and domestic flight ban, and a stoppage of the railway service. But, this lockdown, work from home will impact Indian economy.
Transportation has stopped, manufacturing units are closed, shops which sell non essentials are closed, so this will affect economy for sure. One of the biggest potential impacts to India’s employment and economy could be the shuttering of manufacturing plants and assembly lines in the tech sector. So, this will affect startups too.
MyGate is India’s leading security and community management solution for gated premises. MyGate helps residents to manage guest entries and delivery executives. We talked to Vijay Arisetty, Co-founder & CEO, on policies the company has adopted with respect to the recent outbreak of Coronavirus.
Quick access to medical expertise and credible information, particularly in the era of social media, is extremely important in the fight against coronavirus. We are very keen on raising awareness on the matter and ensuring the availability of qualified medical advice for our 1.5 million+ users, and found strong partners in digital healthcare platforms DocsApp and mfine who promptly agreed to offer online consultation via their nationwide doctor network. Their doctors were kept busy over the weekend, with 2800 consultations completed over the last weekend alone, at no cost to our users.
Rising Sun
Inatur Ayurveda & Aromatherapy manufactures Organic and Natural skin, hair care and wellness products. These are safer, eco-friendly, and more effective skin care products. We talked to Pooja Nagdev, Founder and CEO,on policies the company has adopted with respect to the recent outbreak of Coronavirus.
We have taken the following steps to ensure the safety of all our customers, our partners & most importantly our employees.
Our manufacturing facility, office and retail stores are being disinfected regularly.
All employees have been given complimentary gloves, sanitisers & masks which are to be used at all times, without fail.
Strict measures are taken against anyone working in an unhygienic way.
Zamit
Zamit- a one-stop platform that networks & supports school ecosystems to be future-ready. It is an information, engagement and interaction platform that networks schools, students, teachers, parents, and school service providers. We talked to Aarul Malaviya, Founder, on policies the company has adopted with respect to the recent outbreak of Coronavirus.
The various steps taken by the company are as follows-
Our HR has created a ready-to-refer document and shared it with every employee of the company which contains all the information related to the virus and preventive measures to be taken. (The information is taken from verified sources)
Hand sanitizers are being placed at every entrance of the office and in all cabins/rooms of the office. The employees are asked to wash their hands at regular intervals and only enter the office premises on washing your hands using waster or Hand sanitizers.
The employees have been asked to communicate using various communication platforms like slack, hangouts etc. as much as they can to maintain social distance.
All the employees are being given strict instructions to clean and sanitize their stuffs like laptop, bags, mouse & mouse pads, phones etc. using Antiseptic Wipes which are placed in every room/cabin of the office.
The cleaners are instructed to clean the office using an antiseptic liquid throughout the day in equal intervals of time.
Disposable gloves are being provided to the cleaners and the people managing the pantry. The gloves will be worn every time they are serving any food item to anybody in the office.
Time slots have been given to each department of the office for lunch in the pantry to avoid employee’s exposure to crowded areas.
Face masks are made available in the office for every employee. Whoever feels the need, someone who is coughing, sneezing, running nose or symptoms of COVID-19 will have access to the mask.
Lastly, info graphics, posters are set up across the office as a way of encouraging the employees to eat food & adopt practices which will help in immunity building of the human system.
CASA EXOTIQUE
The company 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, Founder, on policies the company has adopted with respect to the recent outbreak of Coronavirus.
After consulting with experts in the field, we have adopted a number of routines to ensure that the risk of any possible outbreak is minimized.
The workplace is routinely cleaned and sanitized to provide a safe working environment for our employees.
Travelling, especially overseas, has been restricted and is permitted only in urgent or exceptional cases.
We have also employed a temperature gun at the office so that in case anyone contracts the sickness, it could be detected at the earliest. This would help prevent the disease from worsening and would also prevent the infection from spreading.
We have also asked sick employees to stay at home and we’re providing flexible leave policies as well. The alcohol-based sanitizer has also been made mandatory at the workplace.
121 Experiences
121 Experiences specializes in experiential brand communicating solutions to drive behaviour changing consumer habits. We talked to Aniket Sharma, Co-founder & CEO, on policies the company has adopted with respect to the recent outbreak of Coronavirus.
Following policies have been implemented starting this week –
Office will be open from 11am to 4pm Monday to Saturday.
No visitors will be allowed within the office premise.
All employees who have laptops need to work from home; also they need to be available on phone calls and emails during office hours.
For those who cannot work from home, a rotational cycle for attendance will be applied.
Avoiding non-essential local travel.
Domestic and international travel must be prohibited.
In their endeavor to create the most authentic and memorable fan experiences across the world, MyStarHub provides a platform where fans can book personalized video shoutouts from their favorite celebrities. We talked to Swapnil Mahajan, Founder, on policies the company has adopted with respect to the recent outbreak of Coronavirus.
The safety of our employees is of utmost importance for us, and understanding the seriousness of the situation, we have been constantly tracking the turn of events.
We have been maintaining the highest hygiene standards within the office premises and communicating detailed guidelines for personal safety and hygiene.
Initially, we started by restricting travel and face-to-face meetings to only urgent ones. But as the coming few days are crucial for India to control the spread of Coronavirus, we have declared work-from-home for all our employees since March 18.
Sify Technologies
Sify is the largest ICT service provider, systems integrator, and all-in-one network solutions company on the Indian subcontinent. We talked to Praveen Krishna, Investor Relations, Public Relations & Corporate Communications, on policies the company has adopted with respect to the recent outbreak of Coronavirus.
At Sify we have taken certain precautionary measures to safeguard the employees like daily mailers on hygiene, use of santizers, awareness through WHO videos, reporting colleagues who might be coughing or sneezing inordinately, no physical contact with each other, etc – Specifically, these are the is what is being implemented.
People
Stipulation that everybody should sanitise their hands a minimum of 4 times in the day.
Report anybody who is coughing or sneezing inordinately.
No shaking hands
Hydrate with warm water regularly.
Precautions
Daily mailers on maintaining hygiene.
If in doubt, get it checked at the nearest designated hospital.
Recommended home quarantine for 14 days on the advise of a medical practitioner.
In the event of co-habited work space, they have to have sanitisers on the desk.
WHO videos on best way to avoid and if contracted what to do.
Videos on fundamentals, for e.g. how to wash hands, how to wear a mask when out in public, what to avoid etc
All events, offsites etc have been cancelled.
Travel
If carpooling, recommended to exercise caution and not drive other’s vehicles.
International travel has been completely barred.
Domestic travel is also being monitored with hot spots like Delhi, Hyderabad and now Bangalore not recommended.
Quarantine
Anybody who has internationally travelled in the last 30 days is quarantined for 14 days as a precaution and a report is shared with the travel and health authorities.
Team Pumpkin
Team Pumpkin is 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, on policies the company has adopted with respect to the recent outbreak of Coronavirus.
We were one of the first few offices to declare WFH for all our teams.
We had taken a note right from the beginning and have been preparing to tackle the situation.Initially, we created a COVID-19 response plan and shared it across teams to keep them aware of the probable actions according to the corresponding situations. This was shared along with detailed information about the transmission of the virus and guidelines to ensure safety.
Sensing the seriousness of the situation we had limited travel only to the critical ones and restricted in-person interviews and meetings at all our offices.
The use of the biometric machine has been completely stopped and attendance management is being done through the partner app.
75F provides Internet of Things (IoT) hardware & software building products that makes office building more energy efficient, controlled and comfortable. We talked with Mr. Deepinder Singh, CEO, on policies the company has adopted with respect to the recent outbreak of Coronavirus.
75F Technologists and Sales Teams is working remotely to provide troubleshooting, ongoing training, best practices, and guidance to its customers.
Their Facilisight are fully operational through which customers can monitor, manage, and control buildings remotely through their desktop, tablet or 75F apps to lower set points, power down building lighting, or bring down unused zones or floors selectively to conserve costs and equipment.
75F warehouse are fully staffed, and their flexible cloud-based infrastructure will ensure minimal disruption to the business.
Dineout
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, on policies the company has adopted with respect to the recent outbreak of Coronavirus.
At Dineout, our team is our extended family, and their health and safety always comes first! When the coronavirus outbreak first hit globally, we were as surprised as everyone else however we did start taking preventive measures right from the beginning.
Rigorous office sanitisation, availability of masks and sanitisers, as well as a Self-quarantine policy was implemented under which all employees (or family) with a travel history outside India, or those who have been in contact with affected persons or even flu like symptoms were asked to self-quarantine themselves for 14 days.
We also urged our teams to cancel any work related travel, reduce visitors and fever screening through IR thermometers at the entrance for the last 2 weeks.
We also practiced social distancing at all our offices by sitting at alternate work stations and maintaining 6 feet distance at all times.
From Monday, 16th March, we implemented work-from-home policy for our teams across all cities until March 31st 2020.
Our sales teams have also been advised to focus on virtual training and virtual client support for the next two weeks. In fact our teams are also having lunch together digitally!
In such challenging times, we continue to work together to overcome operational hurdles by leveraging technologies like Google Hangouts, Slack and Google Meets to stay connected virtually and ensure continuity of work.
Huddle
With a rich pool of dedicated experts and mentors to support the growth of early-stage ventures, Huddle enables the ventures to take their business to the next stage. We talked to Sanil Sachar & Ishaan Khosla, Co-founders & CEO, on policies the company has adopted with respect to the recent outbreak of Coronavirus.
The current challenges due to Covid-19, act as a reality check for a lot of startups and large ventures to realize who their real customers are and how valuable their product/service is. In an environment where doing less is helpful, there is a lot of reduction in spends which is funneling out and reducing customer base, which indeed has a detrimental impact on the cash flows of a venture. For us, we have taken measures to help our ventures from day one to create businesses that have a strong back end and therefore, not only those that can sustain during such unfortunate and unexpected times.
This period of isolation and in the day and age where social distancing is important, companies will see a reduction in funding, financing of their working capital due to reduced sales or utilization of their service and product, but the gain from this ‘downtime’ is to create sustainability within ventures through offerings that can add value despite the environment. We are prepared to support our startups through infrastructure and our team, with the resources we have to help them sustain and not succumb to any of these losses. At a time like this, is when our Huddle of portfolios are standing strong together to support one another. For us, we are preparing all the measures to support our ventures. Luckily we have not seen any decline in the speed at which our companies are working, and our onboarding of newer companies, because innovation is needed now more than ever.
Zolo provides fully managed, long-term affordable stay options with a warm and homely environment. We talked to Dr. Nikhil Sikri, CEO & Co-Founder, on policies the company has adopted with respect to the recent outbreak of Coronavirus.
At Zolostays, the safety and health of our residents and our employees is of out utmost priority. Since we operate a co-living model, we have come up with specific policies to tackle the spread of COVID-19 for both our employees and our residents.
For Employees
We have advised employees to ‘Work from Home’, if they are experiencing any kind of flu, cold, cough and breathlessness and have been asked to self-quarantine and get in touch with a doctor.
We have also encouraged hand hygiene by placing hand sanitizers around the offices and the commonly touched surfaces and objects are being wiped with disinfectants regularly.
We have also cancelled non-essential business trips and our efficient HR team regularly shares all the advisories released by the Ministry of Health and Family Affairs.
For Residents and HouseKeepers
We have initiated special training of the housekeeping staffs for the best practices of personal hygiene and sanitizing for COVID-19 prevention.
Personal Protective Equipment have also been provided to all our housekeeping and kitchen staffs including gloves and masks which are disposed off at regular intervals.
We have also provided hospital-grade disinfectants and cleaning agents approved by WHO for cleaning purposes.
All community activities have been suspended and a special trained support team is kept on standby to help the residents of any related COVID-19 instances.
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, on policies the company has adopted with respect to the recent outbreak of Coronavirus.
Ozonetel has adopted Work From Home (WFH) as one of their policies with respect to the recent COVID -19 outbreak. We believe that remote working model can be as efficient as working from office if we use the right tools. And since we can offer this option for our employees, we did.
Tjori
Imbibing cultural and traditional crafts from around the globe, Tjori is a platform for treasured designs across apparel, footwear, bags, decor, and jewellery. In keeping with the essence of our brand, it also offers a range of organic and ayurvedic skin care products, using secrets whispered through generations. We talked to Mansi Gupta, Founder & CEO, on policies the company has adopted with respect to the recent outbreak of Coronavirus.
We at Tjori are trying our best to create awareness and precautionary measures for our Tjori family, our employees, our vendors and our customers.
The measures taken under the office premises are that of compulsory mask on everyone who enters the office, a sanitization process for our vendors and customers who walk-in for their respective needs. The sanitization process contains the simple steps of handing a surgical mask and using an alcohol derived sanitizer has that helps killing the viability of the office.
The everyday cleaning processes has amplified and now every two hours a thorough cleaning is done.
The people who are ill have been given grace leave in-order to help them recover without any stress.
Packman Packaging
Packman Packaging is one of India’s largest manufacturers of corrugated boxes, corrugated rolls, bubble rolls, bubble pouches, courier bags, POD jackets, duct tapes, e-commerce shipping bags and more. We talked to Gaurav Jalan, Director and Founder, on policies the company has adopted with respect to the recent outbreak of Coronavirus.
Packman Packaging is trying what it can by implementing some of the things not just for the betterment of its employees but in a broader aspect its customers as well. Packman Packaging has already implemented certain work policies that include everyone from the workers and the management.
Packman Packaging is primarily working as a manufacturer so in the manufacturing unit, Packman Packaging has adopted a policy where the workers are being asked to work in shifts so that there will be a lesser number of attendances at a given time.
It will also ensure that every worker has a proper space to work because it is not crowded as it used to be before the pandemic days. As of now, this seems to work well.
Packman has a huge advantage because of its online store. And because of that the majority of the staff related to IT and customer service the marketing and sales teams are working remotely from their homes most of the time.
As for the senior management teams are concerned, the employees are working on a rotational basis. The management team members are working on alternate days. This way it not only helps the normal flow of work but also, ensures everyone remains safe.
The most important thing Packman Packaging has assigned its guards an added responsibility that whoever is entering the premises of the office and manufacturing unit he is making sure that everyone is getting their hands sanitized and wearing masks.
Also, there has been a floor manager assigned who is monitoring that everyone is washing their hands with sanitizer and wearing masks for every exit and entry in the respective floors.
Sick employees are advised to stay at home as much as possible.
Bridged.co
Bridged uses a combination of AI and a 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, CEO, on policies the company has adopted with respect to the recent outbreak of Coronavirus.
We’ve educated our employees on best practices (such as washing hands often and limiting physical contact) to implement during this health crisis.
We’ve placed hand sanitizers across spaces in the office, and even requested employees to practice social distancing and avoid unnecessary travel.
We’ve implemented a work from home policy.
With these efforts, we hope to flatten the curve by reducing the probability of our employees catching the virus, which is essential to mitigating this pandemic.
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.
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 for 21 days. 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.
We have asked few companies how they are dealing with this current biggest issue.
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 talked with Anand Purusothaman, Founder, about how they are dealing with biggest issue.
I wouldn’t say issue. But our biggest priority right now is figuring out the way forward once the lockdown is removed. The health of our growing team and community is priority. So, ensuring that all measures are taken to ensure their safety is what is running in my mind right now.
LegalWiz.in provide services to early-stage startups and small businesses to help them stay compliant and maintain legal hygiene while maintaining the highest transparency on deliverables. We talked with Shrijay Sheth, Founder, about how they are dealing with biggest issue.
Uncertainty is the biggest issue that not only we, but the whole business world is facing as of now. Disruptions in schedule, looming crisis…all these are worrisome factors. We are dealing with it the way we know best – being there for our team and clients & offering the best possible service we can, as of now.
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 how they are dealing with biggest issue.
Our business is dependent on the restaurants and since they are closed, our business is also paused for now. Thus we are doing the only things that we can do – clean up our backend, speak to all the leads we had(especially those that were not interested) to generate a “prospect list” so that we can approach them when we open, create an action plan for when things normalize, plan, plan and plan so that we prepare to get into action when we are back.
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 how they are dealing with biggest issue.
Since we are an eCommerce company, we’re obviously dealing with the complete disruption of services — whether that’s delivery of the products or their manufacture. Instead of stressing about what we can’t control, we’re trying to use this downtime productively— focussing on some medium and long-term marketing goals that we want to achieve.
Metro & Metro is one of the leading manufactures of shoes and allied product in india. We talked with Meenakshi Kalsi, Business Partner, about how they are dealing with biggest issue.
There’s a lot of uncertainty at the global level because we are exporters. We don’t know how our buyers would react to the COVID crises. On the other hand, there is ambiguity on the labour future which is our major issue and our responsibility. The need of the hour is to work as a United factory where the workers and our staff are all in one spirit. We all have to fight the pandemic together! The best way to deal with the crisis is to stay calm and foresighted with the passion of forever moving forward.
Simply Fresh India
Simply fresh AI technology in farming for growing, nourishing, picking and processing. We talked with Sachin Darbarwar, Founder & CEO, about how they are dealing with biggest issue.
Biggest issue we are facing right now is making sure our farms are operating at optimum capacity and we meet the demands of the orders we are receiving from our retail, corporate and HoReCa clients. We are working closely with our clients, vendors and logistic partners for a smooth operation. We have taken necessary steps for our staff at farm. We have sanitized their living quarters and are providing them their basic essential food requirement on daily basis. Also, making sure they are maintaining hygiene. We have arranged for doctors to visit our farm every alternate day to brief our staff and check for any symptoms of health issue.
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 how they are dealing with biggest issue.
To run the operations with limited number of manpower is biggest issue as we are a continuous process plant. We are running with limited manpower and employees are stretching their work hours, exhausting them.
Getting vehicles i.e. trucks and containers is a big challenge. Employees, at times are unable to reach the factories due to certain travel restrictions imposed due to the lockdown.
We are approaching year end appraisals, and it is a challenge for us to help facilitate employee self assessment and managers review, so it is not affected.
There are various training programmes and Talent Management initiatives, which are getting cancelled due to the lockdown.
For employees working from home, it has become ironic as they have to put more hours of work time than normal.
Founded in early 2015, upGrad offers online programs for working professionals. We talked with Mayank Kumar, Co-founder & MD, about how they are dealing with biggest issue.
The remote working model for us has indeed brought certain advantages to the forefront. Things like a lesser distraction, more time to think and think innovatively, and the introduction of new practices, are taking over the system. We have increased the usage of online collaborative tools like Zoom, Google Hangouts, and Slack to communicate internally, and group video conferencing has proved out to be extremely useful for us.
Ecolab Digital Centre
Ecolab’ Digital Centre focuses on finding solutions to real-world problems around water safety, energy conservation, food security, and health & healthy environments. We talked with Malahar Pinnelli, MD, about how they are dealing with biggest issue.
Power cuts, Band width issues and New laptops for the team being recruited. Given the situation there is not much we can do as Laptops, UPS or buying a new broadband connection at home, as are not an essential item.
Excess2sell is India’s Premier and leading b2b excess inventory marketplace which covers multiple verticals. We talked with Mr Rajan Sharma, Founder & CEO, about how they are dealing with biggest issue.
Uncertainty is always bad for business and right now we are in a major state of flux. So people are undecided on how soon things will be back to normal. Our team is constantly in touch with our partners assuring them of the safety of transactions even during these times. In absolute terms things don’t change much, although not many deals are happening since people are adopting the wait and watch mode.
Fortunately, none of our buyers or sellers has backed out from the deals so far. However instead, we have witnessed a spurt in the E2S Premium Membership as more partners are looking to align with excess2sell in anticipation of inventory pile up. We have already tasked and equipped our customer support, logistics and tech teams to face any eventuality in the current scenario.
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 how they are dealing with biggest issue.
One of the biggest issues which we are facing right now is Ensuring Employee Safety and Mental Agility.We started our BCP ( Business Continuity Planning ) very early even before the lockdown and ensured that the above mentioned are taken care off. Our products like Geo-Fencing, Timesheets, Zero Touch Payroll, Learning Management Systems, Mobile Notifications and many more have come quite handy during BCP for self and clients.
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 for 21 days. 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.
But, noone knows when this lockdown situation will end as number of new infected cases are increasing. So, Government may extend this lockdown till number of cases become low or government can remove partial lockdown from few places.
We have asked few companies about their strategies strategies to fight with situation if lockdown continues.
Strategies to fight with situation if lockdown continues
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 strategies to fight with situation if lockdown continues.
I think we are well prepared should the lockdown continue as we have always been a virtually connected organization, with teams working across multiple geographies. We always had 4 day work week and work from home for all our customer facing teams. The investments and technical decisions made in cloud based services, virtual services, video conferencing has helped us run the business productively. Also having mandatory video conferencing for all leadership calls and key meetings helps us collaborate better with the personal touch. Last but not the least, the leadership team at AppViewX is committed to frequently communicating to all employees to keep the spirits up and move forward in a progressive and creative manner.
LegalWiz.in 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 strategies to fight with situation if lockdown continues.
Our approach has been pro-active for the start. Our client relationships are robust, time-tested and we continue to deliver a superb CX – amply attested to by a 9.6/10 rating. That said, we plan to offer customised packages for our services. Moreover, there are a few sources from which we ensure a good business flow and hence we are equipped to cope. We will ensure that the team moral and efficiencies are high.
Primus Co-Work
Primus Co-work partners with restaurants ,that open only during the night, to convert them into co-working places from Mon-Fri/10am-6pm. We asked Shardul Bayas, Founder, about their strategies to fight with situation if lockdown continues.
If it continues, we will continue to plan and prepare for the day things open up. Keep the chin high so that we are ready to kick start when the lockdown is over.
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 strategies to fight with situation if lockdown continues.
We’ll use this time to focus on more medium and long-term strategic goals. Deep diving into our marketing, making our tech stack even more robust, improving our online discovery and user experience, and so on.
Metro & Metro is one of the leading manufactures of shoes and allied product in india. We talked with Meenakshi Kalsi, Business Partner, about their strategies to fight with situation if lockdown continues.
We have to create opportunity out of adversity. Though the areas are very limited as we are manufacturing company as labourers won’t be allowed to come because of social distancing we need to find new processes and techniques so that we can start manufacturing without putting our labour in danger. We have already started to move in this direction. It’s a kind of challenge that none of us ever perceived but this is the time when the true sportsman spirit comes out and handles the challenge face to face. We may have to bend for a little time but surely we shall rise up because the wind does not break the trees that bend. And as I firmly believe that when the going gets tough, the tough get going.
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 strategies to fight with situation if lockdown continues.
Even if the lock down continues, the company would keep running operations in line with the permission of government authorities. We are a law abiding organization and would never compromise on compliance.
All necessary hygiene and safety compliance would be taken care of for the employees who are required at our different factories for essential operations. Their transport, food and safety will remain our responsibility.
Employees in support functions like HR, Purchase, Sales, Marketing and IT would continue to work from home with all necessary arrangements. They will help operations by providing them necessary support for smooth functioning of the plants.
Founded in early 2015, upGrad offers online programs for working professionals. We talked with Mayank Kumar, Co-founder & MD, about their strategies to fight with situation if lockdown continues.
The current situation is a net positive for online education sector at large. With over 100% Q-0-Q jump, upGrad has expanded its portfolio twofold in the last quarter (Q4) by adding new programs under its Management and Data verticals and is in a position to command the highest ARPU of ₹2.4 lakhs in the Indian online education sector.
While I also believe that the WFH model is a double-edged sword, which could either bring new practices to life for higher productivity or could break the system in the long run. As a matter of fact, it is now ensuring our safety, but there will always be a demand for the physical workforce due to the nature of our product.
In order to minimise disruption, we are now video calling and conducting webinars with our prospective learners, to have the same impact that any personal interaction would have. This has also helped us in conducting additional counselling sessions for them every day, including that on weekdays which was earlier limited due to time lost while travelling.
So, to conclude, if we move into a time where the teams are to work from home, we would swiftly adapt to new practices and march towards creating new benchmarks.
Ecolab Digital Centre
Ecolab’ Digital Centre focuses on finding solutions to real-world problems around water safety, energy conservation, food security, and health & healthy environments. We talked with Malahar Pinnelli, MD, about their strategies to fight with situation if lockdown continues.
We will continue working from home irrespective of mandated lock down for next one month and we are now used to making most of this situation. But If complete lock down continues, I think we need to add more to essential services such as Laptops, UPS and New internet connections so that parts the businesses can contiue without larger Impact.
Excess2sell is India’s Premier and leading b2b excess inventory marketplace which covers multiple verticals. We talked with Mr Rajan Sharma, Founder & CEO, about their strategies to fight with situation if lockdown continues.
Since the lockdown deadline has been extended we might witness a massive hit to businesses and consequently to the revenues. We feel that the challenges of situation will be realised across functions –in short term we expect the revenue to drop in absolute terms, but from a business development perspective we expect major scale up as sellers and buyers will start looking for liquidating unsold and overstock inventories.
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 strategies to fight with situation if lockdown continues.
At ZingHR we have initiated some steps to manage the implications of the current situation with two priorities:
Ensuring Business Continuity for internal external stakeholders
To safeguard the health and safety of our employees, their families and our customers.
To ensure productivity is never compromised.
We are also conducting simulation exercises wherein we are regularly testing the communication channels which includes scenarios impacting the customers and employees.
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 strategies to fight with situation if lockdown continues.
If lockdown extends, a lot of business processes will be redesigned and online methods will be widely used to cater to consumer needs. So, the strategy would be to tweak the business to cater to people without having an office / FaceTime with the team. Easier said than done, but it is possible since the entire IT sector currently is doing the same and many have reported increased productivity due to reduced commuting time. E.g. An agri-supply chain company supplying only to B2B started to cater to society groups where the areas have been sealed in Pune. That has enabled them to continue or rather increase the business in the lockdown phase. They have tied up with Dunzo, etc to supply to B2C segment as well now.
Today, business has changed its pattern. Technology is must to run any business. Any business can invest in advanced technologies, but creating a workforce that’s ready to use them is much harder. So, Upskilling employees is one of the top most thing companies focus on.
Upskilling is basically the practice of teaching employees to use technology to do their job. Using advanced technologies can save time, increase productivity, minimize human. So, companies are ever ready to add an advanced emerging technology in their portfolio, but if employees don’t know what and how if it, it won’t be useful.
What Indian Startups do to upskill
In recent times, Indian startups have also started to focus a lot on employee upskilling. We got in touch with the heads of a few companies to understand what they are doing for employee upskilling.
upGrad
Founded in early 2015, upGrad offers online programs for working professionals. Owing to its commitment of making a future-proof workforce, upGrad provides its employees with a number of opportunities to help them enhance their employability quotient. It not only educate employees of the products and services but also, help them upskill their existing skill-set and knowledge horizon. You can read more about upgrad here . We talked to Mr. Mayank Kumar, Co-founder & MD, on how they upskill employees.
As a part of the new joiner induction process, we offer our programs to every new joiner in the company during the first month of their employment. This allows them to experience our learning platform + student mentor support + submissions grading and, of course, learn a skill that will add value to their profile. This program broadly consists of 1 week of ‘HR Bootcamp’ (explaining about corporate structure and an overview of the company) + 3 weeks of any other program as specified below:
HR Bootcamp + Customer Focus, Customer Behaviour, and the Digital Landscape + Branding (Digital Strategies-Digital Marketing Program)
HR Bootcamp + Exploratory Data Analysis (Data Analytics -PG Diploma in Data Science Program)
HR Bootcamp + Divide and Conquer Algorithms (Software Development – PG Diploma in Software Development)
These bootcamps and workshops are conceptualised with an aim to keep our people well-aware of the industry trends both, domestic and global.
Being a company that endorses upskilling, we encourage our employees to take up our courses to upskill themselves by offering them our programs at 100% discount for an employee who has completed 18 months with us and 50% discount for an employee who has completed 6 months with us.
Also, there’s an in-house Learning & Development team that conducts workshops for employees at frequent intervals.”
PolicyX
PolicyX.com is an insurance comparison portal helping consumers compare, choose and buy policies online. PolicyX provides health, motor, life, travel & corporate insurances from a wide range of insurers. We talked to Mahima Pandey, Founder, on how they upskill employees.
We have a dedicated team of qualified and experienced professionals who focuses on upskilling the employees so that they perform as per the expectations set for their role. They are involved in conducting new hire trainings, refresher trainings, bottom quartile trainings and other skill based trainings as and when required as per the training need analysis and requirements.
Rising Sun
Inatur Ayurveda & Aromatherapy manufactures Organic and Natural skin, hair care and wellness products. These are safer, eco-friendly, and more effective skin care products. The company focuses on ethically sourced natural ingredients and drew inspiration from Ayurveda and Aromatherapy and ensured that every single product was crafted with Purity and Passion. We talked to Pooja Nagdev, Founder and CEO, on how they upskill employees.
At RisingSun we provide constant evaluation and training to the employees relating their job skill sets, health, safety, and hygiene. We encourage them to read more books and learn more with regards to their job.
CASA EXOTIQUE
Established with an urge to deliver incredible experiences, Casa Exotique has redefined a new benchmark for remarkable interiors and exquisite finishes. The company 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, Founder, on how they upskill employees.
Up-skilling is very important for the growth of employees as an individual and the organization as well. We have approached up-skilling on multiple platforms because to foster an all-round skillset development. With our technical skill development training, we equip our employees with the ever-evolving technical skills needed to run the organization. With our soft skills development workshops, we teach communication skills to our employees to make them experts in communicating with clients and stakeholders. Last but not the least, we also arrange product and service training workshops to ensure that we develop good relations with our customers.
Packman Packaging
Packman Packaging is one of India’s largest manufacturers of corrugated boxes, corrugated rolls, bubble rolls, bubble pouches, courier bags, POD jackets, duct tapes, e-commerce shipping bags and more. We talked to Gaurav Jalan, Director and Founder, on how they upskill employees.
Regular training programs are conducted at Packman to upskill the employees. also, employees are promoted faster, if they upskill themselves faster, this gives them further motivation. Packman makes sure to give balanced reward system so that other employees get motivated after seeing the growth of employees with better skills.
Policy-wise Packman Packaging makes sure that every employee from the respective department stays updated about the latest technologies and trends. Employees working in the manufacturing unit are always trained whenever a new machine or technology comes in the unit or it is about to be installed. Similarly, from time to time Packman Packaging also conducts upskilling training for its employees from all the departments that include, marketing, customer service, and management teams.
Packman strictly believes it is important to upgrade the existing workforce because only then the employees and company can grow together.
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, on how they upskill employees.
Companies need to formulate a good development strategy to build comprehensive upskilling in the organisation. Having a plan would help you get buy-in from the organization’s leadership and from the workers themselves too. We conduct training for our employees on a regular basis.
Esper
Esper is a cloud platform that automates application deployment and management for Android devices. Using Esper, enterprises can configure and monitor Android devices for various use cases, keep them secure to help their business function seamlessly. We talked to Shiv Sundar, Co-Founder and COO, on how they upskill employees.
Esper encourages employees to continually reskill, upskill, and pursue their passions and interests. Our employee upskilling programs includes peer-to-peer knowledge sharing. Every department gets one hour each week to share the knowledge of a subject matter expert with peers in an informal, open forum discussion.
Hack Day
Every other week, Esper’s entire team gets our hands dirty with a passion-based project. These hack days aren’t usually related to Android DevOps. Sometimes we work together to develop an app or learn new photography skills.
Training and Courses
Esper is continuously investing in new tools to help our employees learn in the flow-of-work. Our goal is to provide employees with tools to build their existing specialties and work more proficiently, like micro-learning and mobile eLearning. We’re also conscious that the future of work could require rapid reskilling, and we’re an agile brand, so our training options are forward-looking in that sense, too.
Rishita Jain
