Reflecting back on the rapid growth of Sharing-economy

Ride-sharing companies, Co-working Office Space companies all leveraged a mix of Digital Platforms, superior user experience and big-data analytics to scale rapidly and disrupt the mobility and office-rental industry without having to own any asset. Consumers too loved using the Sharing-economy services as they were able to get premium services at affordable cost with great user experience. The dependency on multiple consumers sharing the same asset with minimal or zero capital investment and connecting a multitude of consumers with a multitude of service providers or sellers enabled these companies to offer premium services at affordable prices.

.. and now the rapid fall of Sharing-economy companies

In the last 2 months, we have seen the fall of all the poster boys of Sharing-economy with bad news about them never subsiding. Thousands of jobs have been axed by these companies and the rapidly rising losses threaten their very existence. Even during the pre-COVID era, these companies hardly focused on turning a profit and the focus was only on growing their consumer-base.

Why have these Sharing-economy companies suffered the most from the COVID-19 pandemic despite an out sized investment on Technology?

The rapid spread of the corona virus, coupled with the globalized nature of the pandemic, was something their business models failed to factor in and these companies were unprepared for. COVID-19 is off-course a once-in-a-century event. What these companies failed to gauge is the impact of a black swan event on behavior of their consumers. Data about the behavior of the consumers was collected solely to understand how to Personalize services and offers to their consumers so that they get a larger share of their consumer-wallet. The business model assumed that consumers would adopt any service as long as it was affordable for them and the user experience was great. The assumption that this behavior will be consistent, and constant proved to be the undoing.

Empathy with consumers health and safety will decide the longevity of a business

COVID-19 has led to consumers feeling safe only when the service is exclusive to them. Safety and health will be bigger factors in a consumerā€™s choice for a service than only price and experience. Corporate Strategy now needs to factor in the probability of different events inducing a change in the motivation of their consumers in buying a service. We will see more investment on Consumer Behavioral analytics and studies on predictability of consumer behavior. Analytics will be leveraged to identify the shift in consumer behavior and predict its impact on business models.

Business Resiliency and continuous Risk assessments are going to play a major role in the success of business models in the Post-Covid era, especially when companies aim to scale rapidly. Focus on Consumer Safety and consumer health will decide the longevity of businesses. Personalizing and Recommendation of products and services keeping in mind the health and safety of the consumer is going to play a major role in winning consumers.

Author:
Balaji RaghunathanAssociate Partner, DX

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As the third largest mortgage provider and one among five top commercial lenders and current account providers, the bank had to comply with the regulatory deadline of the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA). The goal was to meet the PSD2 norms for strong customer authentication (SCA or multi factor authentication) across its digital channels. With the COVID-19 pandemic eliminating the chance of our team being physically present at the bankā€™s facility in the UK, both Client and 91¶¶Ņõ set up the infrastructure, teams and tools to remotely ensure that the change to the bankā€™s digital systems were made within prescribed deadlines and without impacting its 14 million customers base.

The regulatory requirement the bank needed to meet included implementation of 2F authentication for:

• Standing orders and setting up new payee customer journeys for retail customers
• Remote log in for retail and business banking customers
• Confirmation of payee changes

How do you meet deadlines when COVID-19 disrupts the work environment?

91¶¶Ņõ set up a remote team (peak size: 40) to work on the bankā€™s requirements. From the client side Product owner, Analyst and Client manager worked remotely and continually on meticulously planning the roll out of the 2F authentication to 100% online banking users across the platforms of Web, Mobile and tablets.

The 91¶¶Ņõ team members connected using remote access service (RAS) using distributed agile model. The scrum teams both onsite and offshore connected from the safety of their homes.

A number of collaboration tools were used to ensure smooth functioning and on-time program delivery:

• Microsoft Teams/Zoom video conference and tele-conference for Agile ceremonies and collaborations
• WhatsApp group for instant offline communication
• Confluence to communicate priority changes

Since we had low RAS infrastructure availability to handle the vast number of remote connections required for the project, we used a `follow the sunā€™ model. India members connected and worked prior to start of UK business hours, participating in daily stand ups and connected again when required during post UK work hours. RAS was upgraded to aligning with the peak remote connections requirement. Gradually members are now being moved to common work timing between onsite and offshore

100% customers migrated before deadline for 100% success

The problem of deployment was made complex by the spike in usage by bank customers in March. These implementations were well planned by the Product owners and Client Manager, well supported by team members of 91¶¶Ņõ to implement stepwise incremental user migration to the new platform. Finally, before the regulatory deadline, 100% customer migration was achievedā€”just as the threat from COVID-19 had begun to peak in the UK.

Appreciation from key anchor and Manager of Channels IT, had these words to mention: ā€œAmidst emerging COVID 19 situation at that time, new logon went live with full roll out on 10^th & 13^th March across Retail & Business Banking. My heartfelt congratulations to the entire team for the good work, dedication and the support you have shown throughout the roll out phase & to support them round the clock. People have worked in shifts covering different time zones / weekends to cover the sheer volume of traffic across these platforms and to continuously monitor the application.

Logon is one of the most complex journeys technically and the handshake to core application was done seamlessly. Creating sophisticated dashboard & alerts / watchers, are some of the proud achievements we can always cherish & this could not have been achieved without your good work, support and dedication.ā€

The bankā€™s Senior Manager, Channels IT, took note of the effort: ā€œAmazing work from each one of youā€”especially in the current climate. Thank you for navigating through such a complex and difficult journey. You have remained focused throughout and shown true collaboration.ā€

Product Owner for Channels IT, summed up the outcome as ā€œI would like to say well done on your efforts to get SCA login over the line for retail and Business. We made the regulatory date despite many obstacles and dependencies ā€“ you should be proud of what has been achieved and the current performance of the code is v positive.ā€

COVID-19 has placed numerous challenges before businesses; it has been no different for us. But with each passing day we find that with innovation, perseverance and presence of mind we can battle the pandemic and ensure life continues with as little disruption as possible.

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Weā€™ll roll back the story a bit. The motorcycle manufacturer (our customer) was keen to reduce design-to-market time for its new models by 33 %. To do this, they were implementing a PLM system. Over the last few years, 91¶¶Ņõ had moved the Design to Service phase and the Design to Engineering phase to a PLM platform. Later, the much more complex Design to Manufacturing phase was taken up. This engagement had already helped 91¶¶Ņõ with insights into the customerā€™s business.

Now imagine this: If the motorcycle manufacturerā€™s dealers cannot identify the right spare parts and order them, the dealers will end up with unhappy customers who think poorly of the motorcycle manufacturer. The reputation of the manufacturer would be deeply affected. The manufacturer would lose business and the brand would suffer unnecessary erosion.

To fix this problem, 91¶¶Ņõ had created a web-based Electronic Part Catalogue System (built on PTC technology) integrated with Dealer Management System (built on Microsoft Dynamics technology). The catalogue could be accessed over the desktop. Dealers logged in and selected the part number and quantity to order. The system told them what the part/s would cost and when they would be delivered. But the dealerā€™s employees donā€™t always sit in an office where they can access a desktop and login. They would be better enabled by an equivalent mobile version to order spares from any location. To extend the compatibility of the web application to mobile phones, without compromising on functionality, we needed to discover and understand the whitespaces on mobile devices. For this we had to conduct discovery workshops. Normally, this would not have been a problem. We would have been physically present at the clientā€™s location for a face-to-face workshop. But with COVID-19 restricting travel this was impossible.

ā€œWould remote design sessions and workshops with the business and IT team of the client be the solution?ā€ we wondered. We were apprehensive because there were complex and nuanced processes to explain. Worse, if done incorrectly, the workshops could affect the quality of the deliverables. The situation challenged us to create new ways to conduct the workshop.

We love a technological challenge and this time we went full throttle!

For those trying to set up similar workshops, we have lessons to share. These can prove handy when you try to implement your workshops to overcome the challenges posed by COVID-19 and perhaps even turn the process into a default mode of interaction, much beyond COVID-19.

The opportunity for us was to enable a digitally connected workforce. Here is how we did it (summed up in Figure 1), without a drop in productivity or compromising the outcomes.

Figure 1

Structural change

• De-facto enablement of remote connectivity to customer network to ensure seamless work delivery
• Setup infrastructure with the customer and validate the connectivity (VPN, etc.)
• Trial run with limited stake holders

Procedural change

• Virtual workshops enabled by tools like Adobe XD and Microsoft Teams which promote asynchronous and synchronous multi-way communication
• Prepare and circulate workshop calendar with clearly defined expectations from client stakeholders and desired outcomes from each workshop topic

Functional change

• Prescriptive approach during workshops focused towards driving consensus tailored with predefined templates covering use case, requirement gathering, questionnaire etc. This approach reduced the workshop duration and the need for direct customer engagement by up to ~50% without compromising the quality of output
• Hybrid or Agile based execution ensuring iterative process, remote conference room piloting demos using customerā€™s data enabled with Train the Trainer approach and remote UAT assistance.

Did we get the desired results to develop the mobile application?

The workshops succeeded. We developed the UI and UX wireframe design for the mobile interface leveraging our VSC model (Virtually Seamlessly Connected) which defines methodologies, tools, processes to execute projects where complete project or program execution need to be done remotely or by working from home. We even equipped our development team to work from home (laptops, high bandwidth Internet connectivity, access to customerā€™s environment, etc.). The development is progressing well. We hold daily virtual stand up meetings, ensure transparent reporting on productivity, manage governance and 100% business continuity.Ģż There has been zero work disruption and we are on target to meet delivery timelines. Plus, we are confident that the customerā€™s dealers will get an application they are comfortable with ā€“ we plan to make them so comfortable that they believe they created the application. Isnā€™t that the true goal of all application development?

We know you too can use this methodology. But if you face a challengeā€”especially when working on PLM projects!ā€”you know you can depend on us to create the right remote solution.

About Author:

Akhil Jain is VP, PLM, at 91¶¶Ņõ. He is responsible for managing the PLM practice and delivery for Manufacturing and CPG globally and comes with strong technology consulting and implementation experience in PLM packages focused on Manufacturing, Retail and CPG. Prior to 91¶¶Ņõ he was managing the PLM practice and delivery for Infosys.

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Finally, COVID-19 has made the trend of a remote workforce reach its tipping point. Everyone is scrambling to set up processes that allow employees to work from the safety and security of their homes. And in these uncertain, volatile times, it makes sense for us to share our experience with turning remote working into the default mode we plan to carry into the post COVID-19 era.

Remote working has worked out well for us at 91¶¶Ņõ so far. Weā€™ve promptly put the hardware, networks, systems access, tools, security and training for Work from Home (WFH) in place, along with continuous focus on taking care of each employeeā€™s requirements to be productive in less than a week from the word go!

To our surprise, over the last few weeks, we now have more answers than problems! I can see just one issue with this success: When employees working from home want to take a break, will they apply for leave and turn up in office?Ģż

As the leader responsible for tracking and improving employee productivity and deployment, COVID-19 brought with it three unique challenges for me:

1. How to ensure effective resource management?

With the uncertainties around COVID-19, we have some customers either deferring project extensions or putting them on hold, while some are announcing new initiatives aimed at putting business back on its rails. This has meant a constantly shifting demand for resources from our customers and changes in the availability of the talent pool. This translates to tracking employeesā€™ availability, skills and capabilities continuously ā€“ and at speedā€”to ensure they can be rapidly re-skilled and re-deployed.

To do this, we are leveraging technology and a virtual marketplace! We are leveraging a portal to show people availability with skills. The portal is accessible to all resource managers across the company. They can access the portal over a VPN from home. Every day, at a defined time, all resource managers virtually come together, with the help of this system, to discuss their resource demand, availability and utilization and identify the right resources to fulfil their demands internally. Analyzing supply and demand used to be a periodic exercise. With the help of enhanced systems, processes and automation, it has now become a continuous exercise to plan, track and leverage capacity.

There was a time when remote working was not very common, and the existing systems and processes used to cater to that requirement of minority users working remotely and productively. Now, it has become essential to have live, rich dashboards and mobile apps that track several metrics and make them available to employees as well as the business leaders. We have created new tools to track manpower productivity, availability and feedback from employees and customers. 91¶¶Ņõā€™s BCP (Business Continuity Planning) Dashboard and Mobile Apps for Timesheet Submission and Employee Connect/Wellness during Covid-19 are such examples, which are making productive and safe WFH possible for all our employees and our customers.

2. How do you hire people and on board them in the times of social distancing?

Remote hiring has made considerable progress in recent times. We see scheduling tools, chatbots and video platforms being used. Some organizations even use sophisticated facial, voice and sentiment analytics to improve their recruitment accuracy and speed. However, the key element is the next step: On boarding employees so well so that they become productive from Day-1. Remember, these employees are not available in-campus any longer, so the processes of making them productive must change substantially! For the moment, we have made onboarding completely remote. In addition to providing home delivery of hardware/software to new joinees, we have also focused on providing a sense of belonging by utilizing a buddy system which pairs new employees with managers/leaders. These managers/leaders are available to new joinees for initial mentoring, for resolving queries and improving their understanding of role, work requirements and company culture.

3. How do you fine tune project processes?

After the enablement of WFH we have noticed that distributed Agile projects have speeded up! Scrum meetings happen more religiously and stakeholders participate more actively. I cannot be sure if WFH has made things more fun for employees (having fun is a tenet of Agile!), but on the face of it, Iā€™d like to believe it has relieved the pressure on travel, made more time available and therefore made things work more smoothly. It is a fact that if people have more time, process adherence improves.

Over the last few days Iā€™ve often wondered why we didnā€™t do all this before we were compelled by COIVID-19. I donā€™t have the perfect answer. But it could be because we had the re-assurance that time was on our side, that we could go to market and hire people and make them productive with some hand-holding (there is a reason that term ā€œhand-holdingā€ makes sense, but sounds so last century now!). The world has changed. Time is not on our side. We must learn new ways to run business and we are learning fast!

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In a crisis like this, each stakeholder behaves and responds differently (but mostly in a pre-determined and agreed manner). The key is to understand how each stakeholder evolves their plan during this dynamic period of crisis.Ģż

Some factors that are being affected ā€“and which will evolveā€”are discussed below. Eventually we will need to redefine and fine-tune them once the impact of COVID-19 recedes. This is essential to developing a sustainable and resilient business.

Business operation will demand an updated Business Continuity Plan (BCP). In any value chain, BCP is managed by multiple stakeholders. The way BCP has evolved during the crisis will aid in redesigning the process, translating into better client acquisition process and financial goal management. The ā€œnewā€ unknown unknowns must be considered during the redesign of BCP along with a slew of new regulatory requirements that will inevitable be on their way. The corollary is that existing information security policies will come under the microscope and must be aligned with the new work environment.

People management is about to take a massive turn. People are the foundation of great asset and wealth management. With social distancing and travel restrictions, employees will be away from their clients. The lack of proximity in interactions will hinder their creativity and effectiveness. In the post COVID-19 period, success will depend on how well tele/ remote/ virtual working tools are used to manage interactions, queries and solutions. A new set of best practices must ensure that customized responses are available, teams collaborate and managers monitor processes and simplify interactions.Ģż

Customer management is about to undergo a revolution. Custom views of interpersonal client interactions have been central to understanding the risk and reward profiles of clients. This profile pivots the design and execution of financial goals and portfolio creation. Advisors must manage this process in a virtual world and develop custom views that keep their customers responsive to markets and macro-economic changes. The utilization of virtual workshops, sessions, webinars, social media live casts and podcasts will grow as tools for continuousĢżcommunication that also provide extra comfort to clients. One of the important aspects of such tools will be the ability to archive interactions for retrieval and analysis at any point.Ģż

Using technology to manage portfolio and trade desks will set off organizations on the hunt for robo-advisory systems, trade bot platforms, cloud and other automation tools. The tools they select will provide competitive differentiators. New technology will provide new use cases and scenarios which will fold into existing processes and deliver a stronger response to client requirements.

Digital Workplace teams will be in demand. When we get to a virtual world, we also add volumes to interactions and transactions. A big change will be presented to EUCaaS owners. They will have to effectively utilize their existing teams and also provide a helping hand to manage increased volumes. This will be besides the burden of reorganizing existing resources and developing and utilizing bots for end-user issue management.

In the long term these changes will transform the overall value chain in asset and wealth management. When the industry is affected by the next catastrophe, it wonā€™t panic. Instead, game changing digital process will have been baked into their systems, creating resilience and responsiveness.

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The technology services industry is being challenged like never because business continuity today rides on the tools that technology provides and on proven models of Global Delivery and Agile Distributed Delivery. These models are being strained now and the industry is being pushed into a 100% remote delivery model. Today, the urgency across technology service providers (and other businesses) is to devise enterprise collaboration models and back them with the right set of tools, infrastructure and training.

In a survey conducted by 91¶¶Ņõ & Feedback Consulting, we found businesses were worried about the business continuity in the COVID world. The concerns were around quality of delivery while working remote, arresting team productivity decay and effectiveness of team collaboration and communication. If your business is showing signs of similar anxieties, you are not alone. (More details on the survey to follow in an 91¶¶Ņõ blog. Stay Tuned!)

Winning in the turns

Letā€™s examine the major shifts that are underway (summed up in Figure 1):

Figure 1

• The digital workplace is set to become a reality! Pre-Covid-19, Work from Home (WFH) was largely viewed as a tool for employee engagement. Post-COVID-19, the WFH trend is set to accelerate with a slew of collaboration tools and virtual team rooms. The trend will leave behind a 10 to 20X increase in digitally enabled meetings, conferences and stand ups long after the threat from COVID-19 has retreated!
• The problem of productivity decay! Productivity linked to collocation and proximity models are under pressure. Newer distributed and remote working models are emerging. They are imperfect at the moment, but soon innovations and experimentation will ensure there is little or no impact on productivity. COVID-19 will fire the emergence of digital delivery models (such as the delivery of a new PLM upgrade executed in a 100% remote model) supplemented by digital assistants and bots that augment the physical workforce, providing a productivity boost for every job role and persona. The number of automated/ RPA-based bots per employee will become the new metric to assess the recovery, resilience and effectiveness curve of a business.
• Business turbulence is here to stay! Technology services firms have traditionally competed on efficiency and cost optimization through proven quality assurance and innovative models such as Global Delivery and Strategic Global Sourcing. Over the last few years, the mantra has been around new delivery models characterized by agility and responsiveness. Given the turbulence we are witnessing, the need for agility and responsiveness will get amplified further. Rigid and hardened processes will be considered anathema.
• Fast tracking of demand side changes! A natural corollary to living with turbulence will be the shift from large contracts and multi-year transformation programs to smaller engagements that deliver value within a short span (typically around 12 months). Pragmatic, quick-win engagements led by a clear business focus will dominate the post COVID-19 era, forcing a major re-alignment in sales behavior.
• Accelerated shift to newer value props! Digital has been driving a re-examination of the traditional value propositions around cost arbitrage, reliability and assurance of service quality and efficiency. Newer value propositions around quick turnaround time (TAT), agile iterative solution approaches, flexibility in contracting and focus on business value delivery are emerging. These trends will be further amplified by the imperatives of COVID-19.
• Older delivery approaches will die out! In the past two decades, technology service companies have built delivery assurance through templatized processes and cookie cutter solutions. These drove high process standardization, repetitiveness and predictability of outcomes. Todayā€™s reality demands a move towards bespoke solutions that are client specific, contracting models that are differentiated and digital delivery models based on non-touch non-proximity of service delivery. This also ties up with the increasing shifts towards a digital workforce and a digital workplace.

A blue ocean is emerging

Every now and then, the technology services industry has been reshaped by global events and new disruptions. It has always responded with innovation. COVID-19 promises to be a black swan event that likewise throws up new service models and service innovations.

Given the demand for WFH tools, infrastructure and training that service providers are witnessing, a new reality is emerging. The constraints of today are driving the innovations of tomorrow for technology providers with the onerous responsibility of ensuring business continuity.

Keep an eye out for newer digital delivery models, think about how your technology providers can help build a digital workforce to supplement employee productivity (especially in times of crisis) and how you can create a digital ā€œworkplaceā€ that keeps employees safe without compromising productivity.

(We examine many of these shifts, present our practitioner experience and insights, and our offerings designed for the new COVID world, in a series of upcoming blogs from our thought leaders. Do stay tuned!)

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Some industries like travel and hospitality are going through an existential crisis, while others like retail and manufacturing have been badly hit by the spikes and troughs of disrupted demand and supply chains. Banking is perhaps less visually impacted (for now), as irrespective of self-isolation or social distancing, it is a necessity and a fundamental utility akin to gas and electricity. But there is a lot coming down the road for sure.

I have spoken to many banks and CIOs in the last few weeks and discussed and shared thoughts. The immediate focus has been on business continuity measures, on getting remote work from home (WFH) processes up and running and ensuring the technology and infrastructure is in place and getting contact centers and helpdesk to support the business. But now as it stabilizes, and it becomes evident that this is the ā€˜new normalā€™ (a phrase you hear everywhere), there is a clear thinking emerging on some potential steps and imperatives for the bank CIO.Ģż

Stress and impact on the self-service/digital channels of engagement

Over the last two decades, internet banking and mobile banking were built as independent channels to the branch, call-center etc. and the utopian goal over the last few years has been to achieve an omni-channel outcome where customers could engage across channels seamlessly. Yet the technology stack has been built incrementally with band-aid solutions and some of the current mobile/internet channels are cumbersome and already legacy systems. Today, due to COVID-19, the entire stress and impact is on self-service via the digital online/ mobile channel, and there has never been a better time or a business-case to look at transforming this.Ģż There is cheap and proven technology around to choose from. Mobile-first, cloud-native and secure; out-of-the-box functionality that can easily integrate with your existing core-systems, and canned workflows and processes that can easily be tailored. And low-risk implementation models that are plug and play and bolt-on, delivered in days and weeks rather than months.

Donā€™t put your change budget and discretionary spending on hold; modify it

Most enterprises are programmed to follow set patterns of risk management. The first response to a disaster is to put discretionary spending on hold. ā€œLetā€™s focus on BAU,ā€ is a comforting idea amidst the chaos. But the lessons of 2008 should not go waste. In 2008, savvy banks invested in modifying their technology estate, IT legacy systems and their limitations, while the markets were still in turmoil. They got fit before the downturn loosened its grip. And when economies returned to normal, these banks zoomed ahead leaving their competition far behind.

Core-systems transformation/ modernization and approaches ā€“ either ā€˜rip and replaceā€™ or ā€˜hollowing out the coreā€™ – have in the last decade matured significantly. They donā€™t necessarily need to balloon into spends running into millions (which then get railroaded by inter-company political agendas) and fail spectacularly and become a career-limiting outcome for the people involved.

Trim down the change budget by all means but talk to your IT partners and see how it can be put to better use and explore how some proven technology and approaches can simplify and transform your existing IT limitations. This could be the best time to do this.

Agile IT Delivery ā€“ make it global and distributed

When Agile development became institutional in the last few years, and Agile manifestos, and stand up meetings sprang up everywhere, the purists recommended co-location as mandatory and suddenly development and testing teams all in the same floor/building became de rigueur. This was somehow seen as a conceptual clash with the global delivery (onshore, nearshore, offshore) model and local IT contracting and costs mushroomed exponentially. Some of the braver CIOs saw this as unsustainable and took the step of working with their IT services partners and pioneered Distributed Agile development models. These have now matured very well with robust tools, technologies, processes and ways of working with remote teams.Ģż And when COVID-19 struck, unsurprisingly, these distributed agile teams were the first that adjusted to the new normal. Today when everyone is working remotely, whether a developer logs in from his home in Boston, Birmingham or Bangalore, it doesnā€™t make a difference. But it does make a difference to the bottom-line when the unit cost of delivery is different in each of these.Ģż

And then with automation and other efficiencies, there has probably never been a better time to go all-in and consider Distributed IT delivery models that reduce your unit cost of delivery.

Move (even more) to an opex, pay-per-use model

In the last few years, SAAS applications and platforms have paved the way for increased familiarity with the consumption-based spend pattern for IT. On the other hand, large clunky lock-stock-and-barrel outsourcing contracts with black-box operating models are distinctly unfashionable. But there is a clear middle ground here for parts of the IT spend and estate to be carved out intelligently and moved into an opex model with your IT services provider, with guaranteed performance metrics, productivity improvements and clear transparent dashboards that give you all the control you want and the services and scope can be tweaked as required.

By implication, IT vendors will step up their game with new models. While some of the larger vendors may struggle to move fast enough to change their cookie-cutter outsourcing frameworks, or not be as hungry because of the dropping contract values, or perhaps be loath to cannibalize existing contracts, chances are that flexible, nimble and agile mid-tier providers will knit together these offerings much faster than their more mature competitors.Ģż

The winnersā€¦

In my view, this is not the time to wait and watch; it is a time for decisive action. Banks and their CIOs (and their IT partners) have a window in which to turn this setback around and those that react fast and adapt will end up as the winners. To borrow a phrase from Malcolm Gladwell, those who see this as a phase of ā€˜desirable difficultyā€™ will be the ones that thrive.

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In this context of containment within the four walls of my residence, outside of the hours working from home, my pass-time has been a game for which I re-kindled my interest not so long ago ā€“ The game of Chess! Considering it to be, arguably, the best Strategy game that mankind has invented, my fascination for the game has amplified considerably in the last 3-4 months. Although I am some distance away from calling myself a good player, I have started observing the nuances of the game more closely than ever before. One such nuance that I have come to terms through the many games that I have played in this period, is the beauty of the Knightā€™s play. While in term of points there are other powerful pieces on the board like the Queen and Rook, the Knightā€™s play truly has some specialities. The Knight is the only character on the board which can cover all squares on the board through a non-linear play i.e. a non-straight-line play which can at most times take the opponent by surprise. The Knight is also the only character which can jump pieces ā€“ both that of own and the opponent. One key observation from the games that I have played in the last few months is that you canā€™t be a good player without a good Knightā€™s play. Being a Strategy professional, it is in this regard, I thought it makes good sense to juxtapose this Knightā€™s play for businesses on how to win in the COVID-19 context.

While the manifestation of the current crisis may be unprecedented in recent human history, crises per say are not uncommon in todayā€™s world. In fact, the world economy goes through these crises almost in a surprisingly predictable frequency ā€“ once a decade. While the sources of these crises are varied, the last three being as diverse as it can get ā€“ Terrorism in 2001, Financial markets in 2009 and Biological now in 2020, a common outcome of these crises is the crippling blow to the world economy. But it is these times of crises that provides an opportunity for a fundamental shift and establishes a new normal in the way businesses operate. The linear play of cost control and cost reduction is an obvious one that almost all businesses do. However, businesses that are, in addition, able to see the non-linear play (of the Knight) in these crises are the ones that emerge much stronger and shape their market for the future. Classic example is from the last crisis in 2009. While Enterprises globally were under severe financial stress globally, more so were the Independent Software Providers (ISVs) in the technology industry. While the linear response of the Industry was to reduce costs, a clear non-linear play emerged which was spotted only by a few Knights. The Knights in the Software industry were the ones that were able to spot the problem that Enterprises were dealing with in terms of preserving Cash since the credit markets went on a freeze. The Knights spotted a non-linear opportunity of ā€œAs-a-Serviceā€ model in the Enterprise Software and Hardware market with the pitch centered around an operating expense (opex) model for Enterprise Software and Hardware as opposed to the perpetual capital expenditure (capex) model thereby optimizing upfront cash outflows. The powerful Queens and Rooks of the Enterprise Software (and Hardware) industry at that time were busy in their linear play and took significant time to cope with this non-linear paradigm. The Knights that emerged clear winners by jumping over the Queens and Rooks were the likes of Amazon Web Services (AWS) ā€“ a ~$250 M top-line business of Amazon in 2009 , a decade later has revenues of ~$ 35 B, Salesforce.com ā€“ a ~$300 M revenue firm in 2009, a decade later has revenues of ~$17 B; ServiceNow ā€“ a firm with revenues of sub $ 50 M in 2009, a decade later has revenues ofĢżĢż~$3.7 B. Technology service providers who were able to spot this trend too benefitedĢżimmensely.

Crises invariably tend to provide an opportunity for a new Paradigm. The current crisis is no different. In addition to the economic impact that all crises effect, the current crisis has an additional human health angle to it. Needless to say, there are definite non-linear plays that one can spot in this crisis as well. A clear broad theme that emerges is aroundĢżā€œLow-touch / No-touchā€ products and servicesĢżin view of the reduced availability of manpower in desired locations and increased health consciousness among consumers. This can have very different implications on different industries ā€“ For example, the CPG industry players, especially food and beverage brands, can take this as an opportunity to make their manufacturing processes and supply chains Low-touch and orient their brand along this additional dimension. e-commerce players can start emphasizing on Low-touch/No-touch delivery models ā€“ Amazonā€™s experiments on a Drone delivery model couldnā€™t be more contextually relevant.ĢżĢżĢżThis theme can have a very interesting connotation when it comes to the technology industry. What can Low-touch / No-touch imply in the context of Software products and Technology services?ĢżWhile Enterprise Software products have increasingly gone the SaaS route, the lever of non-linear play in the current crisis can be the differentiated use of artificial intelligence that can minimize the human intervention in the usage of the Software, i.e Personifying the repetitive use cases related to the Software using Artificial Intelligence. For example ā€“ a SaaS CRM can be made ā€œlow-touchā€ by personifying the roles of a Sales manager and a Campaign manager through intelligent auto construction of action-oriented reports and campaign recommendations. This would minimize the human intervention required for data processing that would otherwise be required to bring the data in the Enterprise Software to an action-oriented format. Similarly, in the Technology Services context the lever of Low-touch / No-touch can imply the use of automation and intelligent platforms to make staple client critical offerings such as Application Maintenance and Infrastructure Support more resilient and less dependent on human interventions. For example ā€“ a completely automated handling of L1 support of Applications (say, ERP) and Infrastructure support through the use of Chat bots and Artificial Intelligence can provide clients with the necessary confidence on the robustness of the service offering to handle a similar situation in the future. In short, the current crisis could well be the push that was required for the large-scale adoption of Artificial Intelligence and Automation as Enterprise technologies.

While we are going through tough times in the short to medium term, we are definitely going through a phase where multiple Knight moves will be made. Organizations that make investments in these Knight moves will end up shaping their markets and emerging winners. Watch out for the same!

Stay Safe and Stay Happy!!

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A condition imposed in 2011 by the MCA was to ensure audio and video recordings of the meetings were made available. Guidance was provided on what to do if the recording was garbled and responsibilities assigned to the Chairman of the meeting and the Company Secretary.

A few years later, the guidance was revised and refined. Some matters as listed below could only be considered at a physical board meeting ²:

• The approval of the annual financial statements
• The approval of the Boardā€™s report
• The approval of the prospectus
• The Audit Committee Meetings forĢżconsideration of financial statement including consolidated financial statement if any, to be approved by the board under sub-section (1) ofĢżsection 134Ģżof the Act
• The approval of the matter relating to amalgamation, merger, demerger, acquisition and takeover

Now, COVID-19 has forced the MCA to allow Boards to take up the prohibited items at a Board Meeting held through video conference. However the relaxation is only up to June 2020.

Over the years, companies had made arrangements for recording their meetings in the board rooms. Now, with COVID-19 they need to take away the dependence on board room infrastructure. Instead, they need to quickly put new infrastructure in place that allows Board Members to attend from anywhere as well as record the entire meeting as required by the government.

Fortunately, with the introduction of technologies such as Zoom and Microsoft Teams, it has become very easy to hold these meetings. Companies are investing in the necessary infrastructure for a smooth and proper conduct of their Board and Board Committee meetings. COVID-19 had created the need and the opportunity. I am certain the MCA and the Institute of Company Secretaries of India will take cognizance that situations like COVID-19 mayĢż occur in the future as well and fresh guidance will be created in the light of these developments, allowing even the prohibited items.

From a cost and administrative convenience point of view, I am certain companies will embrace the changes provided the onerous compliance conditions for meetings by video conference are completely relaxed.Ģż

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