CXO Outlook – April 2021 – India Edition – Post Pandemic Market Trends Special

APRIL 2021

INSIGHTS. IDEAS. INSPIRATIONS

Adarsh Kumar, Co-Founder & CEO, TagBox

Lokendra Ranawat, Co-Founder & CEO, WoodenStreet

Deepak Aravind, Founder & CEO, Creative Monkey Games

Manish Kagathara, Founder Partner, AKMK & Associates

Deepak Bansal, Director, Cantabil Retail India Ltd

Markish Arun, Vice President of Engineering, Zoomcar

Disha Singla, Co-founder, Supreme Incubator Gaurav Davda, Head-Corporate Finance and Strategic Initiative, Jindal Worldwide Ltd

Rajit Bhattacharya, Founder & CEO, Data Sutram Sonica Aron, Founder, Marching Sheep

CONNECTING WITH CUSTOMERS BETTER THAN EVER BEFORE

Dr Mahesh Gupta CHAIRMAN & MANAGING DIRECTOR, KENT RO SYSTEMS LTD

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CXO OUTLOOK April 2021

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CXO OUTLOOK April 2021

April 2021

Vol - 2 Issue - 4

Post-Pandemic Market Trends Special (Indian Edition) Head of Advisory Board Dr. Varughese K.John, PhD

Managing Editor Sarath Shyam

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CXO OUTLOOK April2020 May 2021

LETTER FROM THE EDITOR

What to Expect in a Post-Pandemic Market?

W

e thought 2021 would be a year of transition.

In the first few months, individuals, businesses, and society had started to look forward rather than just grinding through the present.

Then came the second wave. With an unprecedented rise in COVID-19 cases, the state governments had to bring back localised lockdowns, dampening the pace of recovery for the Indian corporate sector.

However, many believe that the overall impact will be weaker in comparison to last year’s wreckage.

In fact, the corona catastrophe has taught us how to innovate during tough times.

During the COVID-19 crisis, digitisation has seen incredible growth, which means everything from online customer service to remote working to supply-chain reinvention to the use of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning to improve operations. The transformation was visible in the healthcare sector as well, with telehealth and biopharma coming into their own. However, for the economies to recover, consumer confidence needs to return. McKinsey’s most recent consumer survey, published in late October 2020, found that countries with older demographics, such as France, Italy, and Japan, are less optimistic than are those

with younger populations, such as India and Indonesia. It clearly states that the spending will only recover as fast as the rate at which people feel confident about becoming mobile again—and those attitudes differ markedly by country.

In this special issue of CXO Outlook, we bring expert opinions on the market trends that we expect in the post-pandemic world of business. As always, we have managed to collate perspectives from different industries to help our readers understand the pulse of a country that is striving to recover. On the cover, we feature Dr Mahesh Gupta, Chairman and Managing Director, Kent RO Systems Ltd. The story of Dr Gupta started in 1985, from a small room in his house, with nothing but dreams and self-belief. This first-generation entrepreneur now has the distinct credit to shape up India’s unorganised Water Purifier market to a fastest-growing Rs. 3500 crore industry.

Enjoy Reading.

Sarath Shyam

CXO OUTLOOK April 2021

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ADVISORY BOARD

Dr. Kuldeep Nagi, Ph.D, MBA, BSc.

Program Director of Ph.D, Recipient of Fulbright Fellowship Award & Dan Evans Award for Excellence and Writer columnist.

Dr. Varughese K.John, PhD, MBA, MPhil, MCom, LLB. Former Program Director, MS in Management Program, GSATM - AU

Mamta Thakur Former CEO (ASEAN), Arc Skills

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Mr. Amulya Sah, PGD PM & IR, PG Diploma in PM&IR (XISS Ranchi)

Chief Human Resources Officer, Former Head HR group Samsung R&D Institute India,Transformative HR Leader, Change agent, Digitization facilitator, Engagement architect, Trainer and Diversity champion.

CXO OUTLOOK April 2021

Dr. Ajay Shukla, Ph.D, MBA, BE. Co-founder and Chief Strategy Officer at Higher Education UAE

Mr. Sreedhar Bevara, MBA, B.Com Former Senior General Manager: Panasonic Middle East & Africa, Thought Leader, Speaker & Author of ‘Moment of Signal’ (Amazon’s International Bestseller)

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CXO OUTLOOK April 2021

Contents 8

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CONNECT ING

WIT H CUST OMERS BET T ER T HAN EVER BEFORE Dr Mahesh Gupta CHAIRMAN & MANAGING DIRECTOR, KENT RO SYSTEMS LTD

CXO OUTLOOK April 2021

COVER STORY

ARTICLES

Featured

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FUTURE OF E-RETAILING IN INDIA: GROWTH AND CHALLENGES

Deepak Bansal, Director, Cantabil Retail India Ltd.

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HOW TO MAKE SUPPLY CHAINS RELIABLE, SMARTER, AND RESILIENT USING DISRUPTIVE TECHNOLOGIES

Adarsh Kumar, Co-Founder & CEO, TagBox

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IS INDIA’S START-UP ECOSYSTEM ALL SET TO CHALLENGE ITS POSTCOVID PERIOD?

Disha Singla, Co-founder, Supreme Incubator

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2021 SET TO BOOST THE E-COMMERCE & RETAIL INDUSTRY

Apoorv Bhatt, CEO & Co-founder, Eolstocks.com

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FABRIC WITH A TOUCH OF CONSCIENCE - WHY THE NEW DECADE NEEDS MORE ENVIRONMENTCONSCIOUS MANUFACTURERS

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5 TRENDS THAT WILL SHAPE THE E-GAMING INDUSTRY IN 2021

Deepak Aravind, Founder & CEO, Creative Monkey Games

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CAN ONLINE FURNITURE RETAILERS BECOME THE UNICORNS OF NEW AGE INDIA?

Gaurav Davda, Lokendra Ranawat, Head-Corporate Co-Founder & CEO, Finance and WoodenStreet Strategic Initiative, Jindal Worldwide Ltd.

CXO OUTLOOK April 2021

ARTICLES

Featured 10

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IMPORTANCE OF LOCATION INTELLIGENCE IN THE POST-PANDEMIC WORLD

Rajit Bhattacharya, Founder & CEO, Data Sutram

CXO OUTLOOK April 2021

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RESILIENCE AND BUDGETING FOR BUSINESSES IN THE NEW NORMAL

Manish Kagathara, Founder Partner, AKMK & Associates

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THE POST-PANDEMIC TRANSFORMATIONS IN INDIAN RENTAL VEHICLE INDUSTRY

Markish Arun, Vice President of Engineering, Zoomcar

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FIVE TECHNOLOGY TRENDS THAT WILL REVAMP THE FUTURE OF ONLINE RETAIL IN INDIA

Rajiv Kumar, Founder & CEO, StoreHippo

IMPORTANCE OF A RIGHT TECHNOLOGY PARTNER TO ACCELERATE YOUR ORGANISATION’S DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION JOURNEY

Sandeep Bhargava, Managing Director – APAC, Rackspace Technology

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TACKLING INDIGENISATION CHALLENGES TO BOOST THE MANUFACTURING SECTOR

Raghav Gupta, Director, Kanchan Metals

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HOW LUXURY DECOR BRANDS BOUNCED BACK FROM COVID-19

Sanjeev Agrawal, CEO & founder, Orvi Surfaces

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PERFORMANCE MANAGEMENT IN THE CONTEXT OF COVID

Sonica Aron, Founder, Marching Sheep

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INNOVATIONS, DEVELOPMENT, AND CHALLENGES TO TACKLE RISING COVID CASES IN INDIA

Sujesh Sugunan, Chairman & CEO, Allabout Innovations

HOW TECHNOLOGY WILL HELP YOUR REAL ESTATE BUSINESS TO GROW

Sunil Sisodiya, Founder & MD, Geetanjali Homestate

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COVID 19,20 & 21: HOW THE DIGITAL ECOSYSTEM HAS EVOLVED IN THESE 3 YEARS?

Susheel Garg, Co-Founder, FreshBox Media

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HIRING AND FIRING IN 2021

Umanng Mathur, Founder, Shortjobs

CXO OUTLOOK April 2021

COVER 12 STORY

CXO OUTLOOK April 2021

CONNECT ING

WIT H CUST OMERS BET T ER T HAN EVER BEFORE Dr Mahesh Gupta CHAIRMAN & MANAGING DIRECTOR, KENT RO SYSTEMS LTD The story of Dr Mahesh Gupta started in 1985, from a small room in his house, with nothing but dreams and self-belief. He had mere Rs. 20000 savings from his job with IOCL to invest. His first invention was in Petroleum conservation instruments, where he earned fame and half a dozen patents to his credit. In the late 1990s, Dr Gupta found Kent Ro System. This first-generation entrepreneur now has the distinct credit to shape up India’s unorganised Water Purifier market to a fastest-growing Rs. 3500 crore industry. Over the year, Dr Gupta has diversified into other products like a Vegetable Cleaner, Vacuum Cleaner, water softener, air purifiers and many more. Today Dr Gupta provides services in countries like Bangladesh, Nepal, the Middle East, and Kenya. In a conversation with CXO Outlook, Dr Gupta talks about his expansion plans, growth strategy, new products we can expect from Kent and many more.

CXO OUTLOOK April 2021

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The pandemic has affected industries across the globe. What has been the challenges you faced as a business leader? How did you overcome those challenges?

The consumer sentiments were varied. While yes, most vertical brands and companies were impacted by the pandemic, but now there is a paradigm change as they have found alternative ways to reach their consumers.

Digital space has picked up immensely. Online sales as a channel is fast growing and will continue to witness more growth, as most brands

EARLY DAYS

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Dr Gupta was a very bright student who did mechanical engineering from IIT Kanpur in 1975.

Subsequently, he got a master’s degree from the Indian Institute of Petroleum (IIP) Dehradun. His earlier career begins in 1977 with one of the most prestigious Indian oils corporation. However, Dr Gupta left this illustrious career and started a risky journey into the business of manufacturing instruments for conservation oil. He went commercial under the brand name Kent Oil Meter which is still carrying on successfully in the market.

Belongs to an average service class family, Dr Gupta was the first member in his family who dared to choose business over the job. The year 1998 proved to a turning point in the life of Dr Gupta when he laid the foundation of Kent RO SYSTEMS by inventing a water purifier based on Reverse Osmosis Technology. Today, with almost 40% market share in RO Mineral + RO segment, Kent RO Systems Ltd. is the most dynamic water purifier brand in India.

Dr Gupta is so passionate about his technological achievements. He was conferred with a Doctorate degree from Sri Sri University Orissa for his contribution in giving healthy drinking water in ruler and urban areas. Today, Dr Gupta is focused on spreading awareness about how people get sick by polluted water. He is an optimistic person who is still working on the Kent Ro to improve the features.

CXO OUTLOOK April 2021

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Our products are a result of a thorough R&D and in-depth understanding of the needs of consumers, and we have a firm roadmap to launch a couple of new exciting products this year.

CXO OUTLOOK April 2021

have innovated and transformed the changing demands of the consumers. Also, those who have transformed and innovated are the ones who have survived and also, on expansion mode, those who have not been able to transform have been left out.

We are in a kind of segment that continues to thrive as health is still a priority; be it our water purifiers, air purifiers, or smart kitchen appliances, all have their own benefits and something that the consumers need all the more.

Kent is on a major expansion spree and is set to double up its exports.

What is your growth strategy?

The company is planning to double its exports. We export products to Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Kuwait, Nepal and has also entered GCC Market. There is immense demand for our product both within the country and outside. And with an effective supply chain, we are able to meet this demand. Also, as the e-commerce market is evolving in the wake of the pandemic, we have given our digital front a push as well.

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What was the motive behind diversifying into the artificial intelligence segment with the launch of Kent Cam Attendance?

Well, it was today’s fast-paced life and consumer needs that we stepped into this segment. We felt the time was right and that we as a company felt confident that we could ensure safety at all levels.

Also, this product is in sync with our philosophy to ensure the well-being of people. We believe that safety is needed at all levels. The pandemic triggered us to come up with this product.

Offices are hotbeds for the spread of viruses and bacteria, thus infecting most employees within a span of a few hours. Since contactless ways are the new normal, the Kent CamAttendance is an endeavour in that direction; This unique and revolutionary solution is to help manage attendance without risking infection via surface transmission.

It offers a very simple solution for time and attendance needs. Kent CamAttendance is a touchless attendance system that uses facial recognition and Artificial Intelligence to completely eliminate the need for tactile interaction as experienced in biometric or manual systems.

CXO OUTLOOK April 2021

JOURNEY WITH KENT A Delhi-based first-generation entrepreneur, Dr Gupta, charted out on a new enterprise after jaundice gripped his children in a posh South Delhi colony. Realising that drinking water was the culprit, Dr Gupta researched and analysed the available water purifiers in the market. After several trials, he made his own water purifier and became confident that his product is good enough to be marketed.

The journey started from a small garage, now has charted out a big churn for itself in the entrepreneurial world. Kicked off from the voyage of self-made RO system, Dr Gupta has today stamped its supremacy on all its competitors by inventing and introducing the ultimate technological marvel – The KENT+ Computer Controlled range of water purification.

During his journey of discovery and innovation, Dr Gupta also adopted the philosophy of providing wholesome healthcare and wellbeing for mankind by adding an array of Ozonebased food and air purifiers to his product range.

Thus, he brought pure water to drink, pure food to eat and pure air to breathe. Healthcare is not just a business for Dr Gupta, but it is a passion, in fact, the very purpose of the existence of KENT. Today, Kent RO is the most dynamic and visible water Purifier Company that, over the years, has enjoyed the Bollywood brand ambassadors like Hema Malini, Esha Doel, Boman Irani, Ahana Doel etc. Kent’s vision of making each family a ‘Healthy and Happy Family’ is supported through this. Kent promotes the values of purity, the importance of water for health and keeping beauty and vigour intact with good drinking water.

The Next-Gen touchless face attendance includes Kent CamAttendance Face Recognition (FR) 8” Device, Web-based cloud app and Employee mobile application.

The company also penetrated to automotive security space with the launch of KENT Cameye. How successful have you been in this space?

You must be aware that biometric attendance systems have been banned post-COVID-19 pandemic, as they are considered a critical transmitter of virus/ bacteria. Common surface (fingerprint reader) is touched by all employees, leading to a ban on its usage by corporates, including the government.

This has led most organisations to switch back to manual attendance, which is error-prone and difficult to manage, especially for medium and large-sized organisations. Hence Kent CamAttendance is filling this lag and is doing pretty well with government offices, medium and large-sized organisations which are the target audience.

We have received a great response from corporate companies, government getting a great response as this product is the need of the hour.

AWARDS FOR KENT RO India’s Most Attractive Brand 2013 • Asia’s most Promising Brand 2012-13 • India’s Most Trusted Brand 2012-13 • Innovative 100 - Certificate of excellence 2013 • C hild Most Popular Awards 2013 - Most Popular Safe Water Equipment • B est Domestic Water Purifier Award 2006-07, 2007-08 & 2011-12 by UNESCO and Water Digest • “ The Golden Peacock” Award for the best Eco-Innovation in 2007.

• Best Domestic Water Purifier Award 2019

17 What are the new products we can expect from Kent in this financial year?

Our products are a result of a thorough R&D and in-depth understanding of the needs of consumers, and we have a firm roadmap to launch a couple of new exciting products this year. But it is too early to speak about our upcoming products. But we can definitely say as usual we will diversify our product range and keep servicing our customer.

What are the positives that you have taken from the lockdown period? How will this experience help you to provide a better quality of service in the future?

Well, the most important positive I have taken during lockdown is “Connecting with customers better than ever before” & Communicate transparently with our customers.

The ideal way is to stay transparent with your consumers about what your business is going through.

Customers can empathise with companies facing a crisis as long as the communication is transparent.

Communicate with customers to understand their perception of the product/solution offered by the brand.

CXO OUTLOOK April 2021

FEATURED ARTICLE

How to Make Supply Chains Reliable, Smarter, and Resilient Using Disruptive Technologies

Adarsh Kumar, Co-Founder & CEO, TagBox

Adarsh Kumar, Saumitra Singh, and Sameer Singh

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laid the foundation of TagBox four years ago with the idea of bringing in new innovations aimed at solving the complexities of the cold supply chain ecosystem. The products are aimed at creating solutions that traverse the journey from data generation to data processing to insights and finally ability to drive organizational decision making. From winning Qualcomm Design in India challenge in 2017, making it to the list of top 100 in the Karnataka Elevate Program in 2018, being top 10 in NASSCOM’s Emerge50 list in 2019, CII’s Adarsh Kumar

startupreneur winner in IT and Electronics 2020, to Series-A investment of $3.85M from TVS Group, the company has deployed more than 25,000 sensors, tracked above 750,000 trips, monitored 6,000+ assets and generated over 1M+ insights and actions.

In a conversation with CXO Outlook, Adarsh Kumar talks about how technologies such as IoT, AI and ML transforming the supply chains, TagBox’s way of reshaping Industry’s outlook towards IoT, Supply Chain IoT predictions and much more.

CXO OUTLOOK April 2021

We are working with our customers to create commercials models to ease IOT adoption) and deployment

How have ICT requirements of companies in the logistics sector evolved amidst growing digitalisation?

Logistics companies globally have, in one way or the other, tried to digitalize aspects of their business. Example, providing real-time GPS location of a truck in transit has almost become a norm globally. However, the really outstanding logistics companies are investing in creating a complete digital twin of their operations and supply chains.

This includes: • Adoption of IOT for monitoring assets and supply chains, • An app-enabled workforce to eliminate paperwork • An automated transactional and financial system to ease contracts and payments • A real-time control tower system to be able to manage dynamic changes in the supply chain and keep the end customer updated at all times

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How are technologies such as IoT, AI and ML transforming the sector? Can you highlight some of the emerging use cases?

IoT, ML and AI are three very unique technologies, but very powerful when applied together. For example, TagBox has deployed our BoxLens platform to predict the risk of perishable products spoilage for e-commerce grocery shipments. This involved temperature data coming from our Tag360 temperature

CXO OUTLOOK April 2021

sensor (IOT), being used to create a statistical model (ML) to predict temperature excursion risk and automated alerts and notifications (AI) to warehouse manager to repack the order if there is high probability of failure. Many such examples exists where IOT data is blended with contextual ERP data from client to create real-time reporting, aggregated analytics and recommendations/actions.

Other emerging use cases include asset tracking, asset utilization monitoring, staff SOP adherence and productivity monitoring and process adherence.

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What can companies do to overcome the organisational and internal barriers to innovate and embrace these technologies?

Every company needs to create a SWAT team to identify latent needs in the organizations, scouting for new technology solutions to solve these needs, doing proof of concepts and acceleration solution adoption and change management within the organization.

The trend we see is that a lot of companies are creating “Innovation” teams, but they are not defining clear KPIs for measuring the success of such teams. This results in a lot of “innovation” activity, but rarely any strong business results. Ideally the SWAT team should report to CEO/CFO and be accountable for topline or bottomline improvements through their program.

How is TagBoX bridging the B2B applications of IoT? TagBox has created an end-to-end product which combines IOT, ML and AI in a single platform. This has helped make the adoption of our solution very seamless for our customers as they don’t have to go searching for hardware, software, ERP integration or analytics partners. Our solution is a one-stopshop that delivers all these components.

CXO OUTLOOK April 2021

TagBox doesn’t believe in one-size-fits-all approach when it comes to IOT. We believe in contextualizing and customizing the solution to fit into the operating environment of the client.

For example, a) choice of hardware enclosures, IP rating, battery life and b) customization on reports and analytics modules based on customer needs.

TagBox’s system is completely wireless, and free of manual interventions. This helps with faster adoption amongst the field team of our customers.

As a technology-driven company that aims to seamlessly blend disruptive technologies to make supply chains reliable, smarter, and resilient, how is TagBox reshaping Industry’s outlook towards IoT? TagBox wants to ‘tag every box’ that’s out there.

While box is just a placeholder here, the idea is to be able to monitor supply chains, assets, people and processes at the most micro level of granularity that is needed to make effective business decisions. We are working with our customers to create commercials models to ease IOT adoption (ex. a fully subscription based model) and deployment models where all IOT hardware installation, service and maintenance can be managed remotely. We would like our client to think of IOT, not as a monitoring toWol, but a business enablement tool.

What technology-trends are set to disrupt the supply chain and logistics sector soon?

We had created 20 Supply Chain IoT predictions for the 2020s decade: Industry Adoption of Supply Chain IIot 1. Product information demand from end customers will become the norm for Smart Trust 2. IOT will emerge as an operational enablement tool for last-mile heavy businesses

3. Real-time temperature and location monitoring for Pharmaceutical distribution will get its (late) adoption 4. Healthcare and MedTech companies will measure device availability and readiness using IOT 5. Tighter food safety norms in fast expanding online food industry will warrant IOT enablement 6. Intra-facility supply chains will adopt IOT for traceability and operational efficiency 7. ‘Intrinsically safe’ wireless IOT solutions will be developed for hazardous environments

IoT, ML and AI are three very unique technologies, but very powerful when applied together

Technology Enablers for IIot Adoption 8. Low power networks and better batteries will drive Supply Chain IIOT feasibility.

9. Miniaturization and Printed Circuits will make Supply Chain IIOT deployment broad based and granular 10. Supply Chain IIOT will rise with growth of cloud computing and managed cloud services 11. IOT pipes into Enterprise Big Data Lakes will pave the way for broader SC IIOT data utilization in companies 12. Machine learning models using multi-dimensional IOT and external data will improve supply chain predictability 13. Forward computing and hyper automation closer to the edge will move SC IIOT from information to insight to control 14. IIOT security will have to be beefed up to prevent attacks and breaches 15. Multi-dimensional IOT solutions will triumph over single applications 16. E2EOTB (End to End, Out of the Box) IOT solutions will be preferred 17. There will be a shift from retro-fit IOT to Smart Assets as a Service (SAAAS) 18. A new IOT data sharing paradigm will emerge 19. IoT enabled Blockchain products will form the backbone of sensitive supply chains 20. R&D or continuous sampling framework of IOT will be deployed for low value/margin supply chains

CXO OUTLOOK April 2021

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FEATURED ARTICLE

2021 Set to Boost the E-Commerce & Retail Industry

Apoorv Bhatt, CEO & Co-founder, Eolstocks.com

Apoorv is an experienced Technical Lead

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and according to him, consuming technology and creating technology are two different skills. As a Founder, he had to gain this expertise through strenuous hard work. Formerly he collaborated with a few techies to give a shape to his proposition but failed miserably. He succeeded in the second attempt with a trusted team of technology experts who are now driving the innovation of the firm and he also ensures that he understands every aspect of what is happening at the technological end.

Apoorv Bhatt

C

hange, transition, and adaptability were concepts made mainstream by the global pandemic of the year 2020. Like the silver lining to every adversity, Covid-19 too proved to be a harbinger of new opportunities across industries. The e-commerce landscape has been no different. The lockdown led to a massive shift towards the online mode of shopping as people couldn’t step out. As a consequence, the e-commerce sector is fast gaining huge popularity because the end of this pandemic still remains unforeseen.

In addition, social distancing norms and touchless delivery have made people comfortable with purchasing products online.

CXO OUTLOOK April 2021

Automation is the future and the e-commerce industry is no different from that trend

Being a goliath industry, the future of e-commerce is always on everyone’s mind.

In 2019, global e-commerce sales amounted to about $3.5 trillion worldwide. This proved that e-commerce is thriving and emerging as a highly lucrative option for businesses. It’s also an industry that is constantly changing and evolving. Trends are continually shaping and reshaping the industry in an attempt to change the way people in every corner of the world shop. This makes the future of e-commerce very exciting.

Owing to the spurt in its growth and the advent of 2020’s impact on commerce, the e-commerce ecosystem is proliferating. Every day more retailers are shifting to online selling, while entrepreneurs are launching themselves through e-commerce ventures. It is projected that by 2022, e-retail revenues will touch $6.54 trillion, rising up from $3.53 trillion in 2019.

Here are some of the major trends that are expected to make waves in the e-commerce industry in the year 2021:

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B2B E-commerce to Rise B2C no longer dominates the e-commerce landscape. B2B e-commerce sales are projected to grow up to $6.6 trillion in 2021. With continuous digitalization in the technology industry and the supply chain ecosystem in India, B2B e-commerce companies will adopt different methods to cater to their

CXO OUTLOOK April 2021

customers. Traders, manufacturers, and wholesalers will show a rise in the adoption of mobile apps and other digital platforms. The sectors expected to boom in the coming years include mobile phones, apparel, grocery, furnishing, and healthcare.

Mobile Commerce Will Dominate With customers’ trust growing in online shopping, they are now becoming more comfortable making purchases through their smartphones. In fact, it is expected that by the end of 2021, mobile devices will account for almost 73 percent of total e-commerce sales.

Besides, about 30 percent of online shoppers are much likely to abandon their shopping carts midway if they come to know that the brand’s website isn’t optimized for mobile shopping.

As online sellers, businesses will have to make it a point to be mobile-friendly and improve the customer experience for mobile users.

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Omni-channel Experience All small and big retailers are focusing on Omni-channel experience for their customers and this will give a major boost to e-commerce in 2021 as more people are now shopping from multiple channels instead of relying exclusively on a single medium. Customers of all generations now make purchases online, in marketplaces, from offline stores, and from legacy retailers as well as independent brands.

We will continue to see many offline brands making their mark on the e-commerce space and many online-only brands opening brickand-mortar stores.

AI and AR Will Enhance the Ecommerce Experience Artificial intelligence (AI) will be the key driver for e-commerce and it is expected that online sellers will spend nearly $7.3 billion on the technology by 2022. Even augmented reality (AR) technologies will be used to provide customers with a rich buying

CXO OUTLOOK April 2021

experience. AI acts as an online in-store sales associate and offers personalized guidance and recommendations to the customers. Using previous purchase history and analysing past browsing behaviour, it shows those products to the consumers which they are more likely to buy. In online shopping, buyers cannot try or physically inspect the products that they are eyeing, unlike in physical stores. AR eliminates this restriction and lets customers try on products virtually to see how it would look on them before they go ahead and buy it.

AI and AR technologies will drive conversions for e-commerce brands and will reduce the return rate.

Personalization Will Become Paramount E-commerce brands need to constantly hone the shopping experience for their customers.

Currently, we have algorithms collecting data about consumer behaviours that enable companies to consistently optimize their marketing campaigns. But customers are now growing fatigued of those algorithms and crave personalization in their shopping experiences.

They need assurance that brands care about them and their choices. Something as simple as a personalized email, curated discount codes, or personalized newsletters can go a long way in achieving customer retention. Research has shown that nearly 48 percent of people have admitted to spending more money on brands that have given them a hyper-personalized shopping experience. This is precisely why the future of B2B and B2C e-commerce will revolve around brands and businesses finding novel ways of building a direct relationship with the customers and making the marketing campaigns personalized will be one way to do it. The near future will see increased adoption of technologies that support personalization.

E-commerce Automation Automation is the future and the e-commerce industry is no different from that trend.

The e-commerce sector is fast gaining huge popularity because the end of this pandemic still remains unforeseen

Automation is already prevalent in various functions of the B2B and B2C e-commerce from marketing automation to warehousing and even beyond. Every department in the B2B e-commerce organisation has a particular element that can be automated to a certain extent. For instance, businesses that have large warehouses for carrying out their operations can invest in robotics for more efficiency and pace up important tasks in the fulfillment process.

Similarly, supply chain management stands to gain hugely from automation software as it can schedule inventory alerts to reorder when stocks become less. Like this, we will continue to see increased application of automation across all processes of e-commerce.

Rise of Voice Commerce People have increasingly come to rely on voice assistant devices such as Google Home and Amazon Echo with Alexa to do everything, right from setting an alarm to purchasing products online. It is anticipated that voice commerce sales will hit $40 billion by 2022.

A major reason for the growth of voice commerce is the accuracy and convenience that it accords to the users. Keeping this in view, e-commerce businesses will also need to optimize their online stores for voice search. They can optimize their top-level conversion funnel content so that answers to usual consumer questions surrounding the businesses’ products and services or the market, in general, can be incorporated.

Targeted content that offers value to potential customers will help businesses acquire those customers.

E-commerce businesses wanting to make a mark in the future markets must brace themselves to adopt the latest trends.

And the sooner they do it, the better. Voice commerce, AI, AR, omnichannel and mobile shopping are all going to make waves in 2021 in the e-commerce landscape and businesses need to take note of this. Businesses that do adapt themselves to these dynamics are more likely to remain in for the long haul achieving greater success.

CXO OUTLOOK April 2021

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FEATURED ARTICLE

5 Trends that will Shape the E-Gaming Industry in 2021

Deepak Aravind, Founder & CEO, Creative Monkey Games

Deepak Aravind is the Founder, CEO and the

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Creative Director of Coimbatore-based Creative Monkey Games and Technologies Pvt. Ltd. Unleashing the power of creativity and passion, Deepak has been a cricket fanatic since childhood and experienced a phenomenal gaming journey so far. Founded in 2015, Creative Monkey focuses on developing games in the sports segment especially cricket, racing, and casual genre. Well-known for their super engaging and high-quality games, it is a strong team of 12 creative individuals with a deep domain experience who are Deepak Aravind

passionate about gaming.

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aming was a predominant trend in the West. However, with the rise of its popularity among the youth, gaming fever caught on in India as well. In fact, gaming has emerged as a lucrative business sector. The online gaming market is extremely diverse and fast-paced.

As avid gamers are constantly craving for better gaming experience, they are no longer satisfied with the existing technologies. In order to retain players, software developers and game creators need to keep inventing and implementing new technologies.

According to the report by KPMG, the e-gaming industry is poised to increase at the rate of 22.1% from INR 43.8 billion to INR

CXO OUTLOOK April 2021

Gaming is on the cusp of becoming a spectator sport

118.8 billion by 2023. With the steady rise in consumption volumes, it is expected that soon local development and monetisation of the gaming industry will catch up.

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Trends for E-Gaming Industry in 2021 The Covid-19 outbreak resulted in worldwide lockdowns that resulted in people being confined indoors with a lot of time to kill. As a result, the millennials took to playing online games. As a result, while the physical sporting world remained uneventful, gaming world came to life and became a promising alternative for the players. However, the online gaming industry was witnessing a meteoric boom even before the lockdown.

Here are the 5 key trends that are likely to shape the e-gaming industry in 2021: • Roll-out of 5G Networks As the 5G network ushers in an era of excitement and innovation in the current year, e-gaming will be one of the areas leveraging this development the most. The roll-out of 5G means faster download speeds, better streaming capabilities, and superior real-time gaming experiences. Without having to install new infrastructure, e-gaming with the help of 5G will enable gamers to bolster their experience.

5G network will also foster virtualization and create network slices, with each slice designated a particular purpose. Network slicing ensures smooth 3D augmented reality experience for the spectators,

CXO OUTLOOK April 2021

allowing them instant replay on their devices and 360-degree views of their gameplays.

• Rise of Mobile Gaming The advent of 5G will provide the necessary thrust for making mobile gaming accessible to all.

Research has shown that over 2.2 billion people have played games on their mobile phones in the past decade. The ongoing improvements in Chipset technology will bring mobile devices at par with

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Without having to install new infrastructure, e-gaming with the help of 5G will enable gamers to bolster their experience

gaming consoles like Xbox. This will mean more gamers and favourable outcomes for companies associated with e-gaming. In addition, it will also mean improved games at affordable prices.

• GaaS & Cloud Gaming The widespread success of Software-as-Service (SaaS) and Platform-as-Service (PaaS) has led to the model being adopted in the gaming industry as well. It is known as the Gaming as Services

CXO OUTLOOK April 2021

(GaaS) model and is touted to have the potential to transform the gaming industry completely. This service is expected to enable gamers to play online games irrespective of the configuration of the PC or mobile devices. In other words, a user would be able to play online games on any device without any drop in the overall game performance. This system will also eliminate the need for software updates, as games would come installed with the latest updates and ready to play.

• Overtake by Millennial Spectators Gaming is on the cusp of becoming a spectator sport and millennials are the most active demographic leading to the growth of the industry. As per Nielsen market research report, nearly 71% of gamers watch gameplay consistently on YouTube and other similar video sharing platforms. The average age of this young demographic is coming out to around 35. The youth, especially those in the age bracket of 18-25, is more interested in viewing gamers battle it out in virtual sphere than in regular sports broadcasts. It is projected that by the end of 2021, the number of spectators is most likely to outnumber active gamers by 90%.

• Emergence of AR and VR AR and VR hold immense promise in providing an immersive gaming experience. Since their inception, both AR and VR have made huge strides. For 2021, it is expected that the technology involved in both AR and VR will offer a more realistic and superior visual experience.

Consequently, video game companies will be able to use this technology to enhance the overall gaming experience without requiring a video monitor. Statistics show that both the technologies have the potential to raise the revenues up to $20 billion in 2021.

The continuous innovation and advancements in technology have introduced endless possibilities.

Convergence between virtual and offline sports will keep drawing to a close as e-gaming adopts these trends and features which previously ruled over the world of physical sports. Factors like sponsorships, betting and advertising revenue will further develop the industry in 2021.

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CXO OUTLOOK April 2021

FEATURED ARTICLE

Future of E-retailing in India: Growth and Challenges

Deepak Bansal, Director, Cantabil Retail India Ltd.

Deepak Bansal is a graduate in mathematics

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from Delhi University. As a director, he is responsible for expansion and diversifying of the retail market and business of the company. He actively looks after the complete preparedness of marketing strategy. He has an immense interest in finding the newer and upcoming markets & setting up retail footprints of the company there.

He has an overall experience of 13 years in Retail Apparel Industry.

Deepak Bansal

CXO OUTLOOK April 2021

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he transition of the retail industry received a shot in the arm due to the pandemic. COVID-19 induced tectonic shifts in the business patterns across segments. While business was affected for a major part of the year, the sector realized the significance of e-retail and its growing influence on consumers.

There has been a significant change in apparel consumer behaviour.

The wardrobe has moved towards casual wear and athleisure as there was an across-industry spurt in work from home culture. Brands have had to reimagine their style codes and retail modes to fit in the new normal. The government has extended its support to the sector with eased policy norms such as 100 per cent FDI under the automatic route for single-brand retail trading.

The penetration of the internet and smartphones have facilitated the emergence of a large digital ecosystem

The Indian retail market is capped at 840 billion dollars today, a majority of it lies in the unorganized sector. However, this scenario is changing for the better with the entry of more and more organized players in the domain.

With organized players, the industry would witness a marked shift in business patterns.

Their digital-enabled platforms would bring about a revolutionary change in the Indian retail market. It is expected that riding on this phenomenal change the e-retail market would grow at the rate of 30% CAGR and reach 200 billion dollars in 2026 from the meagre 30 billion in 2019.

It is estimated that the number of households engaging in online transactions would grow around 50 per cent and reach 233 million by 2025. The growth of e-retail is dependent on several factors. While some can assuage the growth, others could prove to be a roadblock.

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The Growth Propelling Factors Internet penetration and smartphones India is among the few countries in the world with one of the highest number of internet users. This number is growing by the day. A 2018 market survey by PWC suggested that the user base would reach approximately 846 million by 2022. While another report by IBEF

CXO OUTLOOK April 2021

indicates that as of August 2020, there were more than 760 million internet users in India. 61 per cent of the active connections were from the urban market and 97 per cent of the connections were wireless.

While it is said that smartphones played a vital role in the penetration of the internet, it would not be wrong to surmise that the rapid growth and availability of better internet connections across the country facilitated the smartphone boom. Smartphone shipments to India registered a year on year increase of 8 per cent in the first quarter of 2020.

The 5G internet launch in January 2021 and the subsequent launch of 5G enabled phones would further galvanize the smartphone market.

Brands have had to reimagine their style codes and retail modes to fit in the new normal

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The enabling digital ecosystem Social media has moved aeons ahead of what it was perceived to be a decade ago, today it has become the perfect platform to promote businesses. Fashion brands and apparel businesses have taken cognizance of this and are aligning their business strategies to the social media platforms. The fact that these platforms can help them reach out to the target consumer in their language in the visual and video form is an added advantage.

The penetration of the internet and smartphones have facilitated the emergence of a large digital ecosystem that can support the digital media requirements. Furthermore, the digital ecosystem enables the digital payments systems that have radically altered shopping patterns. No wonder a global e-retail giant recently invested 95.40 million dollars into its payment unit.

Online Shopping and the positive impact of COVID-19 on e-retail The Internet penetration coupled with the smartphone boom has ravelled up a never seen before online shopping scenario. The

CXO OUTLOOK April 2021

Indian e-commerce segment is ranked 9th in the world. In 2020 online shopping accounted for around four per cent of the total apparel, food and grocery and electronic retail trade. It is expected to grow by double and reach nothing less than eight per cent by 2025.

An Ernst and Young report says that globally 39 per cent of consumers believe that they would make an online shift in their day to day shopping. The fear and anxiety caused by the contagion would restrict them from venturing out and going to their favourite super-market. A significant percentage of Indian shoppers are also expected to follow the trend and make a move to online shopping.

Over the year the sector has witnessed a considerable number of first-time buyers.

People who were finicky enough to try multiple clothes before finalizing one are getting accustomed to the idea of choosing clothes on digital platforms. A McKinsey report suggested that 60% of consumers were stipulating to move towards online shopping during the last festive season.

However, the interesting factor is that a majority of them wished to continue with it even after COVID-19 would cease.

Challenges and the way forward Changing consumer preferences: Today, the consumer is much more informed than before and is always on the lookout for a better product. However, there has been considerable conditioning in the last year, the consumer is now looking at a locallymade, sustainable and value for money product. Organizations need to neaten their portfolios, innovate faster and alter communication strategies to meet the changing demands.

Supply chain management: The key to the success of e-retail is a buoyant supply

chain system that is ready to withstand sudden jolts and disruptions. Networks that are capable of providing effective control, speed, flexibility and end-to-end visibility can prove to be a reliable solution to demand response.

Reimagining channels: The exponential growth of the online retail market is possible only if direct to consumer offerings are strengthened by increasing online presence. Partnerships with multiple brand channels can do the trick for fashion brands that already have their e-retail process.

E-retailing is the Future India ranked 2nd in the Global Retail Development Index (GRDI) in 2019. The sudden disruption caused by the lockdown would not have affected the Indian retail sector to the extent that it has, had it undergone a digital transformation earlier.

Therefore, it is essential for fashion brands to align their business processes and goals according to the changing circumstances, and they need to invest in making the switch to e-retail.

Undoubtedly, e-retailing is the future. However, it is unlikely that the sector and consumer behaviour will tilt drastically only to one model. As the sector increasingly leverages digital technologies, it is an integrated omnichannel approach that is going to be the way forward for the fashion industry.

As the industry engages in a product range that is highly tangible and is vulnerable to consumer preference and seasonal changes, the physical aspect of retailing is important. Having taken the same into due consideration, it is the e-retailing network – digital arm – which is going to be a game-changer in terms of market reach and empowering brands with an agile and resilient ecosystem.

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CXO OUTLOOK April 2021

FEATURED ARTICLE

Is India’s Start-Up Ecosystem All Set to Challenge Its PostCovid period?

Disha Singla, Co-founder, Supreme Incubator

Disha Singla is a qualified Chartered

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Accountant and alumna of University of Florida, USA. She is the co- founder at Supreme Incubator helping early stage startups elevate to higher performance levels.

I Disha Singla

CXO OUTLOOK April 2021

ndia has the third-largest start-up industry in the world, where reportedly at least three tech start-ups are born every hour, on an average. Considering that 2019 was a remarkable year in the history of start-ups in the country with $14.5 billion funds raised cumulatively, the expectations for 2020 were immensely high. However, the global outbreak of Covid-19 heavily disrupted the financial markets, leaving the world on the edge of an economic meltdown. Although corporate giants have also felt the brunt of the pandemic, it has majorly been the small businesses, start-ups and entrepreneurs who have emerged as the most vulnerable groups.

However, amidst all the chaos, the good piece of news is that a vaccine has arrived on the scene and things are expected to soon go back to normal, or at least some semblance of normality is likely to be restored in how businesses will function going forward.

Here are some ways in which the start-up ecosystem is expected to change post – COVID:

Start-ups are displaying trend-defying growth, which is attracting more venture capitalists and angel investors

• Flexible Remote Working The Covid-19 pandemic has been the harbinger and accelerant for the adoption of remote working. This has made it necessary for organisations to make provisions for easy transition. Even businesses that were considerably against the idea of remote working adopted a new model. In light of this transition, millions of employees and business owners have benefitted from the non-existent commutes, greater flexibility & free time on hand, and greater control over their work environments. As people are working literally from any part of the world, it has made them more productive as now the focus is on the output. Owners are saving money on the office expenses and witnessing their businesses thrive.

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• Diverse Teams Mean Diverse Ideas Remote working means no location constraint when on boarding people from diverse walks of life. Hiring people from different backgrounds means bringing more creativity to the team as each person would come with their own set of ideas. When such diverse people collaborate, there is bound to be greater innovation and creativity in the team.

This will also motivate team members to move out of their comfort zones and brainstorm more. This will also

CXO OUTLOOK April 2021

Striking the right work-life balance translates into higher employee retention since people have a job they love within the comfort of their own home, in turn leading to long-term success.

The Covid-19 pandemic has been the harbinger and accelerant for the adoption of remote working

• Setting Up Venture with a Purpose With the advent of recent events, it has become even more essential for entrepreneurs to step up and bring a social angle to their ventures.

Entrepreneurship is all about problem-solving, and the first leg of the lockdown saw a surge in innovators bringing out products to make the times easier on various stakeholders. This lesson can be applied in day-to-day business building as well, where startups focus on creating purposeful and meaning solutions to real-life issues..

widen the pool of talent to choose from as business owners can pick from a wider choice of staff with specialized skills, thus saving on training.

• Rising Investor Interests in Certain Sectors Covid-19 has brought in a significant change in start-up investment patterns. Venture capital firms are now shifting their focus to sectors like OTT & home entertainment, online grocery delivery, healthcare, EdTech, FinTech, and cyber security as these are now witnessing a growing user demand.

The global pandemic has no doubt affected adversely the start-up funding scenario in India, but simultaneously it has led to new opportunities for those start-ups that are agile and are manoeuvring to adapt to the current circumstances. Some of these start-ups are even displaying trend-defying growth, which is attracting more venture capitalists and angel investors.

• Work-Life Balance Gains Renewed Importance On the face of it, bringing work home could seem counterproductive. However, the reality is much different. When working remotely, employees tend to face much less distractions, thus increasing their productivity. Also, due to the lockdown, many working professionals took time off for themselves from their hectic schedule and spent quality time with their family and friends. Going forward, founders can also encourage their team members to prioritize themselves as well along with the work, and take some time off to rejuvenate as that is very important for better professional outcomes.

Summing Up It’s a practical certainty that Covid-19 will have a lasting impact on entrepreneurship in the times to come. The pandemic has forced business founders to undergo many transformative and sudden changes to survive the emergency conditions that arose as a result of the lockdowns.

The good thing is that the resulting lessons have not been ignored. The combined power of people, power of the internet and the power of doing good deeds will bring about a fundamental shift in the kinds of entrepreneurs and ventures that will emerge in the coming years.

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CXO OUTLOOK April 2021

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CXO OUTLOOK Higher Education Digest Sept-Oct April 2020 2021 October 2020

FEATURED ARTICLE

Fabric with a Touch of Conscience - Why the New Decade Needs more EnvironmentConscious Manufacturers

Gaurav Davda, Head- Corporate Finance and Strategic Initiative, Jindal Worldwide Ltd.

Gaurav Davda is in charge of the Corporate

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Finance and Strategic Initiative at Jindal Worldwide Ltd. He is a seasoned Corporate Finance, Fund Raising, M&A and Strategy professional with more than 15 years of experience across multiple sectors. He is an MBA (Finance) from SP Jain Institute of Mgmt. & Research. (SPJIMR). Throughout his career, Gaurav has been involved in the capital raising of more than USD 500 MM and M&A transactions worth over USD 750 MM. Gaurav has worked across IPOs, QIPs, Private Equity, Mezzanine Finance, among other products.

Gaurav Davda

Gaurav holds Board level and advisory positions across various organizations, both listed and unlisted. Gaurav is an early-stage investor and mentors young startups and founders in strategy, fundraising, go to market plans and other organizational matters.

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hen it comes to Textile Industry, consumption of power, natural resources, water and the waste product generated have always been a hot topic of discussion among environmentalists and critics. Waterbody pollution is the primary environmental problem associated with the textile industry, mainly caused by the untreated

CXO OUTLOOK April 2021

The new decade and the lingering effects of the COVID 19 pandemic is opening up new avenues for Fiber, Fabric and Fashion market

waste discharge. As per the latest data from World Resources Institute, 5.9 trillion litres of water are used each year for fabric dyeing alone, and around 20% of industrial water pollution in the world comes from the treatment and dyeing of textiles. While one cannot dismiss the concerns raised by environmentalists, there is no denying that the Textile Industry, in its way, is trying to come up with new techniques and solutions to maintain productivity without harming the environment.

What has ailed the Indian textile sector in terms of green practices so far is the fragmented nature of the sector and lack of awareness/incentives. However, that is changing now with regulatory policies in place that have acted as a growth driver for sustainability. Mega-investment textile parks over the next three years will be instituted to boost textile manufacturing and investment in the sector. This will be enhanced by bringing in environment-friendly plug and play infrastructure as it is key to attracting global textile buyers and making the sector competitive. Additionally, there has been a massive push for Indian industries to upgrade their technology to minimize carbon footprints. Hence, post COVID19 pandemic, the anticipated boom in textile manufacturing and realignment of the global supply chain is expected to create new opportunities for India.

Given the size of domestic as well as domestic demand, India has to make a quantum leap in terms of mainstreaming environmental and social governance in textile manufacturing. As per data from Invest India, India is among the world's largest producers of Textiles and Apparel. The domestic textiles and apparel industry contributes 2% to India's GDP,

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CXO OUTLOOK April 2021

India has to make a quantum leap in terms of mainstreaming environmental and social governance in textile manufacturing

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7% of industry output in value terms and 12% of its export earnings. This is an excellent opportunity for textile garment manufacturers to scale up operations. Also, this will encourage more and more players to look for sustainable manufacturing solutions.

The entire process of fibre to finished garment involves consumption of energy, water and resources. This, in turn, has negatively impacted the environment. New-age textile manufacturers need to be actively involved in relentless R&D and innovation to procure and implement the best possible sustainable manufacturing techniques. For example, installing an efficient Effluent Treatment Plant that enables maximum recycling of wastewater is one step towards; making manufacturing units rainwater harvesting friendly, using solar panels; and recycling waste textiles as a part of waste management compliance few concrete steps towards achieving environmental sustainability.

Textile recycling at the manufacturing unit level has to be the norm, making sure that every undesired product is repurposed effectively. In fact, globally, circularity — the process where materials are being used again and again within the industry — is an emerging trend. More and more companies are likely to scale-up and adopt newer recycling technologies. This will be a potential gamechanger by making the fashion industry truly circular.

The new decade and the lingering effects of the COVID 19 pandemic is opening up new avenues for Fiber, Fabric and Fashion market. Also, the

CXO OUTLOOK April 2021

rise in awareness about global warming, climate change and the concern for carbon footprints have now made an average consumer conscious of their choices. People have jumped on to the 'Sustainable' bandwagon and are now electing for environment-friendly products. This has created a ripple effect, resulting in the manufacturers seeking and engaging in new sustainable options.

Some positive developments have taken place in this regards in the past few years in India.

For example, as per available data, India has 1,254 Global Organic Textile Standard (GOTS) certified facilities, the largest number in any single country. Besides, 40% of Fairtrade cotton certified producers or traders are in India. This has helped to position Indian suppliers as preferable players among global brands and fashion chains focused on achieving sustainability.

The demand of the consumer plays a key role in any service and manufacturing sector. The past few years have witnessed a dynamic change in consumer behaviour, keeping the manufacturing industry on its toes. The consumer is now aware, conscious and careful about the choices they make. This has provided a big boost to the manufacturing sector to look for new alternative ways to comply with consumer demand.

Ecological and economical solutions are the need of the hour. The year 2021 is full of promises and dynamic changes in the textile industry. With many textile industries' Going Green' while maintaining and achieving their targets, it is safe to say that textile manufacturers will define this decade's industrial output.

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CXO OUTLOOK April 2021

FEATURED ARTICLE

Can Online Furniture Retailers Become the Unicorns of New Age India?

Lokendra Ranawat, Co-Founder & CEO, WoodenStreet

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W Lokendra Ranawat

inston Churchill once said that “Necessity is the mother of invention,” and it corresponds well with the furniture because, over time, it has gradually evolved into a necessity for people across the world. This dependency on furniture for our convenience and obsession with design and decor has triggered the nationwide massive furniture sale in every segment. It may be an item of work-fromhome furniture, luxury lounge chairs, or some outdoor furniture, especially after pandemic havoc in 2020.

Just to draw a fundamental difference, there was also a time when people were happy without furniture, without the internet, and even without electricity, but today the scenario is quite paradoxical because none of us can live without internet, electricity, or furniture.

Furniture Retailers have grown into mammoths during the last five years, and this is the most visible and viable change one can observe in the market captivity.

Thus, there are specific reasons to justify that; the online furniture retailers are already on the path to become the Unicorns of New age India.

Let’s explore the factors responsible for same: 1. Digital Influence The main reason behind this enormous success and the pivotal growth of furniture retailers in India is “Digital Influence.”

It is a known fact in broad daylight today that every single business in the world needs the internet to make sales. New age India is just the next

CXO OUTLOOK April 2021

The growth trajectory of the furniture industry has been so upwards that it has attracted mass employment in every segment

significant word for digital India platforms. The digital platform like Instagram or Facebook provides access to social media furniture shops online to every other human being on the phone. It is the most affordable device to access the internet.

2. Aesthetics Who doesn’t want to show off every new thing they bring home? Well, everyone, because ever since the social media is immensely active, everyone posts pictures of what “NEW” has come and who has the early access to such things. This is aggravated by watching the mouth-watering aesthetic furniture setup posts to entice the large consumer base, available and active online.

Since the furniture is gaudy and luxurious in appearance, everyone wants such furniture setup for their home to create a comfortable and pleasing experience—another sharp reason for whopping furniture sales.

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3. Compact Space - Modular Furniture The urban problems require urban solutions, which is the case with compact spaces in urban areas. Due to peripheral and consolidated space availability in urban areas, people can order modular furniture for their home, which occupies less space than traditional furniture and comes equipped with complete functionality for your convenience.

This has driven the influence on modern furniture design in the furniture market. Today, maximum online retailers have a collection of such furniture modules made for packed urban spaces.

4. Furniture Industry - All Time Career Choice The growth trajectory of the furniture industry has been so upwards that it has attracted mass employment in every segment, such as Furniture Designer. The designer is the top career designation in the industry, as every online furniture retailer is in demand of

CXO OUTLOOK April 2021

a furniture designer to create fascinating and compatible product designs to attract a colossal consumer base.

The other most requested designation in the industry is Business Developer because of ongoing tough competition to become the unicorns of New age India.

Other than these jobs, there are plenty of essential positions available in various furniture retailer firms, waiting to hire the young professionals for mindboggling ideas.

The online furniture retailers are already on the path to become the Unicorns of New age India

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CXO OUTLOOK April 2021

5. Customization & Experience Store The customization process has added a revolutionary turnover to the furniture industry. It gives the customer the complete freedom to choose and select their furniture. Online furniture retailers have equipped custommade furniture to their every product to attract wide customers across the nation.

If we talk about the experience store, then it is another milestone in the industry for buyers who hesitate to believe in the quality of furniture products. Hence, the experience stores have all the setup in accordance with your home to give a familiar feeling. This has curated much friction towards buying furniture, pertaining to the self taste in decor and interiors. This will also continue to make the furniture buying experience relatively easy and convenient, which is another principal reason for online retailers to become invincible in the future furniture bazaar.

Consequently, the above factors have propelled online furniture retailers to become the upcoming unicorns of new-age India.

New age India is a ladder, in the process to become self-sufficient future generations of the young and skilled workforce. Hence, the time is not so far when online furniture retailers would have become the consortium of the furniture market. Thus, the Unicorns are ready to take off.

Website Design & Development

(W)E ARE PRESENT

LOCALLY (W)E ARE PRESENT

Digital Marketing

GLOBALLY (W)E ARE JUST AROUND

Mobile Application Development

THE CORNER!

3D Animation & Stopmotion Graphics

Online Software Development

Search Engine Optimisation

Online Strategy Consulting

CXO OUTLOOK April 2021

FEATURED ARTICLE

Resilience and Budgeting for businesses in the new normal

Manish Kagathara, Founder Partner, AKMK & Associates

Founder Partner at AKMK & Associates,

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Manish Kagathara is a gold medalist commerce graduate & chartered accountant having experience of more than 15 years in management consulting. He has worked with diversified groups like Reliance, Suzlon, Sunflag & HSBC. He has been instrumental in implementing Budgeting Systems to drive the business growth of many organisations to the next level as a strategic initiative.

Manish Kagathara

CXO OUTLOOK April 2021

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he COVID-19 crisis has created a significant impact to each and every business across the world. Every function across the organisation are forced to think resilience & sustainability like never before in these extremely turbulent times. The resilient organisations will be able to deliver better in the next new normal – post COVID-19 world. We can term those organisations as resilient organisations who have built up bounce back capabilities, adaptive decision making process & cost structures, stronger balance sheet with capital power.

So now that budgeting exercise is to be started for upcoming financial year, the important questions are – • Is budgeting exercise relevant in this uncertain time?

Yes. But the entire budgeting exercise has to be revamped with strategic purpose – resilience & sustainability, in mind. The routine approach will

Planning & Budgeting process is highly useful when accompanied with strategic purpose

not serve the purpose in this uncertain time where forecasting is so challenging.

• Why revamped budgeting exercise is necessity in this uncertain time?

• Can take transformative strategic decisions in line with company’s goals • Afresh understandings can unlock significant values across all functions & stakeholders • Agility & speed in decisions on resource allocation So let us take a fresh look at the regular budgeting exercise & understand how to revamp it in view of the current turbulence, impacts on businesses and making organisation more resilient.

“Failing to plan is planning to fail.” Alan Lakein. The quote written before several decades still holds good.

Many organisations have budgeting procedures designed & operative but lacks the strategic purpose. Many organisations may not have felt the need of it but now they require it as they have grown beyond a certain scale. So, all these organisations have to understand Why & How to establish or revamp Budget Procedures with strategic purpose? More specifically from the viewpoint of current uncertainties & building a resilient organisation.

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What is Budget Process?

• Estimate of income and expenditure for a set period of time.

• Opportunity to control the surplus and prioritize expenses for best functioning of the organization & departments.

• Benchmark & standards for consistent introspection of strategy, activity & expenses.

• Effective delegation tool for the top management • Makes sure that money is being spent in the right direction and goals are attained.

CXO OUTLOOK April 2021

Approaches to BudgetingTop Down & Bottom Up can be adopted for budgeting. In Top Down approach, top management executives sets the goals for budgets. The lower management is not involved in the budget process.

Bottom Up approach involves participation by the each function in accordance with the guidelines set by the top management. Inclusive approach assures high probability of success in implementation budget process.

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Budget Process – Annual We should adopt systematic approach to gain the strategic advantage out of the budget process.

Sample set of planning & budget processes for a manufacturing organisation follows.

If budget & plan is not aligned with vision & goals, there is a big possibility that the vision & goals will remain just on paper. For e.g. if the company has set a vision of achieving geographic sales presence in each state of India with mission to achieve turnover of INR 10,000 crores by end of 2025, it shall be well integrated in the budget process of FY 2020-21 & all following years. Similarly, plans (set of activities & strategies) are link between vision framework & budget. For. e.g. company plans to extend geographical sales presence through dealer distribution model. Then it must be budgeted accordingly in the budgeting process of relevant functions. Thus, organisation’s vision framework, plans & budget shall be closely integrated for success of all.

Brain storming sessions are very important between all functional heads & top executives to set the tone at top for budget process. The brain storming sessions shall be directed to cover 1. what is required/ roadmap to achieve vision framework, 2. what are the best strategies to achieve vision framework both at organisation level & at functional level 3. what are the current business challenges 4. the financial history of last couple of years 5. capacity utilisation trends & capex opportunities 6. product development trends & new product opportunities and lot more exchange of thoughts between the team.

In the Brain storming sessions for 2021 budgeting process, finance function shall check the scenarios, assumptions and decisions that were taken or not during the COVID-19 crisis. This is very important, as different functions will have similar questions related to crisis response and recovery, resiliency and sustainability . All functions shall be aligned & brought

CXO OUTLOOK April 2021

on the same page during the brainstorming session.

What did well & what didn’t during the COVID-19 crisis. What kind of scenarios could be possible during 2021. Each function can bring their own understanding to the table & brainstorm on the future possible scenarios & response plan in the budgeting exercise. Some organisations are relooking their M&A strategies and working afresh on acquisitions, joint ventures and spinning off along their supply chains.

Those in more stable industries are considering new product launches and new technologies in the next normal. For example, a ceramic company is investing in digital distribution models to complement its traditional go-to-market approaches.

The above brainstorming sessions shall help to form guidelines for budget process. Each functional head can prepare a plan and budget for the concerned function based on the overall guidelines. While doing so, functional heads shall make sure to involve maximum team members for success.

Certain examples of strategies to be considered are as underSales & Marketing • Maximum drill down of forecast is essential. Inhouse / Outsourced. Domestic / Export. Vertical / Area / Sales Person / Product. Contribution / Basic Sales / Quantities. Each aspect will carry a specific strategy like which products will be manufactured inhouse and which shall be outsourced based on the margins & other criteria.

• Channel Partners / Human Resource Appointments shall be considered. Categorization of Channel Partners in exclusivity & non-exclusivity along with category specific sales parameters. Kind of human resources to be recruited could be a specific strategy.

• Correlate expenses with the forecast. Expenses under each head shall be worked out like branding, exhibition, sales promotion, salaries & incentives for team etc. This shall be based on strategies like which is more effective medium of advertising, which region/ territory is to be focused specifically.

• Consider Product Launch Plan by Research & Development. Newer product launches may have higher margin up to a certain period of time.

• Forward integration shall be considered.

• Pricing & discounts shall be strategized. This will formulate the kind of pricing strategies like Competition-Based Pricing, Cost-Plus Pricing, Skimming Pricing, Penetration Pricing etc.

HR • Validated Resource Plan from each Department is required. Restructuring can be strategized. Like replacing certain high cost workforce with freshers to be trained by the organisation.

Many organisations have budgeting procedures designed & operative but lacks the strategic purpose

Purchase • Rate history shall be considered. Landed cost break up shall be worked out.

• Vendor development targets shall be fixed & built in budgeting. Share of volume by each vendor can be strategized.

• Annual rate contracts shall be considered for budgeting wherever applicable & possible.

• Backward integration shall be strategized.

R&D • Product Roadmap can be the key strategy.

• Reengineering for existing product line shall be worked out.

Finance • Working capital holding (Receivables / Inventory / Payables shall be worked out). Any optimization possible in capital structure shall be strategized & built in plan & budget.

Production • Present production capacity – optimum utilization can be strategized.

• Planned capex utilization shall be worked out separately with specific strategy.

• Strategy on product reengineering can be worked out to optimize the production cost.

Projects / Capex • Correlate with company goals & vision. ROI validation required. Projects can be prioritized with specific strategy.

This would be converted into capex budget.

Corporate • Corporate level initiatives to be worked out. Like leadership training to all the top management executives can be strategized as a part of plan & budget process.

• In view of the current dynamics, the corporate function can create some central pool of funds (generally 10 to 15 percent of the total budgeted opex & capex) which can help the organisation to respond to uncertainties / set trigger points & grab the business opportunity at the right point of time in the next new normal.

The above pointers are just examples. Many more strategies can be designed during planning & budgeting process for execution during the year. These strategies will be integrated closely with budget numbers by each function & organisation as a whole.

One very important change to be brought in the regular budgeting exercise is the change of approach from historical base to zero base budgeting (ZBB). With this, organisation can understand well the business drivers afresh. This will take more time as it would require a detailed orientation on each of the budget elements & steps. Knowingly or unknowingly, many businesses have been doing it in this uncertain time. ZBB can really help to understand what minimum is needed to be in the business till the complete recovery is resumed. This can eliminate many inefficient spending both in opex / capex and help organisation be resilient.

After the brainstorming sessions are completed, plans & budgets of Sales & Marketing, R&D & Production shall be worked as first base. Rest of the functions shall prepare their plans & budgets considering the plans &

CXO OUTLOOK April 2021

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Brain storming sessions are very important between all functional heads & top executives to set the tone at top for budget process

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budgets. Standard templates can be prepared to capture the information or it can be captured in the system with relevant customization.

In view of the current uncertain time, plans & budgets must be prepared on at least three scenariospessimist, realist & optimist.

While preparing annual budgets, all expenses are broken into two categories for better controls i.e. variable & fixed expenses.

All plans & budgets shall be validated by Finance / Corporate Planning (in some organisations) function.

Some examples of validation criteria• Commercial feasibility like overall company adopted ROI criteria • Working Notes/ Assumptions are very important.

Must be kept in record by each Department & Finance/ Corporate Planning.

• All expenses shall be classified in Variable & Fixed Category. Base shall be defined for all expenses.

• Combination of History & Future, Forecast & Target shall be used for budget.

• Capex by each department shall be worked out in addition to the major capex by project function.

• Cross validation of each plan & budget with respect to connected function is a very important validation requirement.

• Cost optimization is very essential to be competitive.

Competitor benchmarking strategy can be applied for validation of certain costs.

The above validation points are examples. These can be customized for the need of the organisation.

CXO OUTLOOK April 2021

Make sure that the finance function is closely connected with most crucial areas of planning & budgeting by clearly defining actionable key performance indicators. In view of current turbulence, finance function must adopt the proactive approach instead of traditional reactive approach.

Once the inputs from Finance / Corporate Planning function is considered, plans & budgets are presented to top management in one to one session or in joint sessions. All key strategies, plans, budgets and critical success factors are reviewed by top management.

Inputs are updated in the respective functions’ plans & budgets. Finance function / Corporate Planning acts as a driving force throughout the planning & budget processes.

Finalized plans & budgets are kept on record for implementation. Specific software like Oracle Netsuite, IBM Cognos or ERP Platforms can be leveraged upon for the planning & budgeting process.

Entire cycle right from Indenting of materials & services to payment can be covered in the software for better budget controls. Objective is to control all kind of expenditure right from the origin point & not just at the time of invoicing or payment. Master structure for system according to organisation’s requirements shall be designed including fund center, cost center, function wise budget owners for Budget creation, Budget release / transfer / supplement, Budget controlling & reporting. Proper authorisation structure for all budget transactions shall be designed & implemented in the ERP system.

In this turbulence, the businesses must rethink the decision making process connected to budgeting exercise just like any other strategic decisions as the decision making process really needs to be agile & speedier.

Budget Process – Monthly Once the annual plans & budgets are set, they are converted into monthly plans, goals & budgets for execution. Many organizations prefer monthly dynamic plan based on which budgets are released every month in the system for consumption by the budget owners which becomes more important in view of current uncertain times. Plans & budgets vs actual achievements are compared, analyzed, monitored every month or quarter based on the requirement of the organisation. The analysis with corrective & preventive action plan on strategies & other aspects is presented to top management / steering committee.

Inputs are considered & incorporated in the next periodic plan.

All expenses are broken into two categories for better controls i.e. variable & fixed expenses. If the volumes are higher than plan, variable expenses would be proportionately higher to that extent and hence variable expenses shall be controlled on per unit basis. Whereas, fixed expenses shall be controlled on absolute basis. Any deviation will be triggered for approval by management as defined in the system.

Few benefits • A great tool for controlling and monitoring. The budgets set targets for costs and revenues, targets that can then be achieved through a variety of ways.

• Help to formulate the capital expenditureplans of the business. Facilitates the formulation of strategies for fund raising by outlining the available funding in advance.

• A great way to decide & execute priorities & strategies. Reviews the actual outcome & update the priorities & strategies in timely manner.

• Helps to control cost in a big way in a real time manner & brings cost competitiveness for the organisation in cut throat competition.

• Ultimately helps organisation to control the profit margins by controlling the revenue & expenses.

Organisation can analyse the deviations & decides which function needs revamp / improvements.

• More important in view of current uncertain times

Critical Success Factors An organisation has to keep following factors in mind while adopting budget process for successful implementation.

• Agility & speed in budget related processes & decisions • Proactive participation of all functions & management • Monthly Plan & Closure by all Departments – mostly the organizations have to adopt monthly cycle for implementing annual budgets. Closure of all month end activities on monthly basis in timely manner by all functions is very important success factor. Like completing invoice posting of sales transactions, completing purchase invoice booking etc.

• Timelines are essential for synchronization, as budget related activities are interdependent. Timely action on deviations can only be taken if timelines are adhered.

• System support is must for real time & preventive actions, as controlling through manual mode will be very challenging & ill-timed.

• Figures shall be supported by analysis. Only numbers will not help as numbers are outcome of the series of activities. KPIs of team shall be closely connected with budget activities & outcomes.

• Integration of all functions of the organisation is very critical. The organizations use ERP platform for that.

• Regular watch on budget by the owners & active participation by top management.

Many multinational organizations run on a very strict plan & budget process which helps their promoters to delegate day to day operations & lead the organisation in strategic way. Even large-scale Indian corporates have been implementing this & realizing the benefits. The emphasis shall be given to the budget process with the strategy formation & implementation as that will unlock the real benefits for the organisation.

As the time goes & the organisation iterates this process regularly, properly and diligently, it will learn & find out more effective ways. Thus, it can be concluded that a planning & budgeting process are highly useful when accompanied with strategic purpose, implemented through technology /system & it could prove to be a competitive edge for mid-size businesses of certain scale to large diversified organizations.

The businesses must utilize their learnings to revamp the budgeting exercise for 2021, most significantly to focus on big decisions linked to business transformation strategies & re-aligning the focus to resilience and sustainability.

CXO OUTLOOK April 2021

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FEATURED ARTICLE

The Post-Pandemic Transformations in Indian Rental Vehicle Industry

Markish Arun, Vice President of Engineering, Zoomcar

A veteran in the engineering segment with close

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to two decades of experience, Markish has been a techno-functional executive for over 15 years. His rich and dynamic profile indicates the value he brings to the table. He has previously worked with Goibibo and Makemytrip as the Senior Director of Engineering where he led the supply-side engineering and product initiatives. An entrepreneur himself, Markish co-founded Magicrooms.in, a real-time inventory distribution engine for hotels in India, which he sold to Yatra.com in 2011. He also co-founded Koruko.com in Markish Arun

2013, an IoT-based retail engagement platform, which was later pivoted as Trip38.com. In a conversation with CXO Outlook, Markish talks about hiccups in car rental industry, Zoomcar’s plan to enable 1 lakh electric vehicles by this year, and much more.

What is the outlook for your sector! What are the hiccups that you are facing right now?

COVID-19 has changed the dynamics of our economy indeed. What used to be the norm till last year may well become obsolete in the coming weeks. Therefore, each industry needs to adapt itself to the new normal.

CXO OUTLOOK April 2021

Coming out of Covid, there has been a big push towards ecofriendly transportation that's helping provide a strong tailwind

The car rental industry, to that end, is well-equipped and prepared to serve its customers. There is an exponential spike in demand expected for car subscriptions, especially considering the current recession, car subscriptions can prove to be a better option that ride hailing and as a more affordable and quicker way of acquiring a car, delivering a safe personal mobility replacement. Last couple of months have been quite a wild ride for everyone and particularly for those in the mobility sector, we began to gradually build up operations and saw bookings and subscriptions come back in a strong way. We are already seeing a 400% rise in demand and we expect this to settle down at 200-300% over the next few months. People are now looking for shorter term mobility options as opposed to a long-term expense of owning a car. We have seen a steady rise in demand for cars for personal work and emergency use cases. This December we witnessed a 2x jump in short term rentals compared to the same period last year.

We have also seen a 100% recovery from the end of October. I think this is an interesting time for our business because everyone is in a constant state of evolution.

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How have you leveraged your services over the past couple of months?

People are now looking for shorter-term mobility access as opposed to a long-term investment. We have seen a rise in demand for cars for personal work and emergency use cases. Rentals for intercity travel are up. The notion of owning a car amidst such an intensifying emphasis on social distance may have taken the backseat. Still, the necessity of

CXO OUTLOOK April 2021

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a mobility service remains as relevant as before.

As people would avoid public transport to keep themselves safe from contracting the virus, the need for rental cars will only go up. The industry is looking at various car subscription models to serve the needs of the customers. We also see more demand for in-city trips compared to outstation ones and a strong focus on shorter-term subscriptions. One of our focus areas has been increasing this exponentially by adding more and more vehicle models which will be offered on a subscription basis. The big markets for us have been the top 5 metros Bangalore, Hyderabad Mumbai Delhi and Chennai, this constitutes majority of our demand. Historically we have seen about 50-60% hatch or premium hatch like swift up to the line of segment between 50-60% of distribution, that has gone to 75-80%in the last 3-4 months post covid lockdown. So, we are seeing people with lower income levels who are pinched are gravitating towards lower 6.5 lacs and under. If you look at the vehicles, that are outside the hatch we are seeing the SUV segment like Creta that are popular while the 7-seater SUV has not been as popular post Covid. So, it is really the hatch that is dominating and then the compact SUV’s coming at you in the 8 lacs to 10.5 lacs segment.

At Zoomcar, we believe this is the ideal time to realize the second phase of our broader mobility vision that focuses on bringing disproportionate efficiency gains across the ecosystem through the adoption of innovative, product driven software solutions. Zoomcar Mobility Services (ZMS) is Zoomcar’s B2B SaaS offering providing a full-stack of mobility software solutions across vehicle segments. With the launch of ZMS, Zoomcar will now provide access to its stateof-the-art, proprietary tech stack which focuses on reducing operating costs, enhancing safety, increasing vehicle monetization, and improving customer engagement. This B2B Saas offering is a more diversified approach to complement our existing B2C business where we are going direct to consumer on the rental and subscription side.

CXO OUTLOOK April 2021

People are now looking for shorterterm mobility access as opposed to a long-term investment

Can you brief about your plan to enable 1 lakh electric vehicles by this year?

Coming out of Covid, there has been a big push towards eco-friendly transportation that's helping provide a strong tailwind to a lot of these twowheeler and three-wheeler players to go electric and we want to be a part of that as the technology enabler, who are leading technology services. on 3 wheelers we are working with one of the largest 3-wheeler electric player ETO Motors, we are also working with other 3-wheeler electric manufacturers. On the 2-wheeler side we are working with leading 2-wheeler manufactures for their subscription and their additional service

model. We are certainly very excited about having it out there on road across the country.

This is purely an enterprise model where we are powering the subscription businesses and we are powering the connectivity for a number of electric 2-wheeler manufactures. This is our enterprise Saas business – Zoomcar Mobility Services, we are empowering the broader electric ecosystem of electric ecosystem of 2-wheeler and 3 wheeler players for connectivity IoT as a service as well as subscription as a service for them. So they can run these services accordingly we are providing a technology empowered platform for that. What ZMS is providing to the EV makers is access to its state-of-the-art, proprietary tech stack which focuses on reducing operating costs, enhancing safety, increasing vehicle monetisation, and improving customer engagement. ZMS comprises two primary software offerings: IoT as a service combined with subscription as a service.

One of the major services of the technology is the company's proprietary driver scoring mechanism, an AI-Powered algorithm with machine learning capabilities that tracks the real-time driving behaviour of the customer along with the present health of the vehicle.

How to gain more acceptance here among Indian users, and how to make the environment more conducive for Indian consumers?

The electric two-wheeler game in India is a very high-volume game, they are the smaller ticket sizes, but they are high volume in terms of the overall units. The time is now, from an infrastructure standpoint with the relative range and products and what the use cases actually is, there is actually no constraint today. Two wheelers and 3 wheelers are effectively at cost parity when you have taken in consideration with subsidy, so you are talking about something which is there and efficient and effective today. So in electric 2 wheelers and 3 wheelers you will see very strong exponential numbers on growth. On the electric car side that’s a slightly long game that really

depends more on having a better range and a better price point.

What other measures are you planning to bring about in the future?

Zoomcar has always been at the cutting-edge of tech-enabled mobility solutions. AI and IoT are the two pillars on which our experience works, and Covid-19 has brought their importance into even sharper focus. For example, app-enabled keyless entry technology minimises human contact, which is critical in these times of viral spread.

Our entire tech stack and operations have already evolved to ensure that every car is thoroughly sanitised before and after each drive. We use AI for vehicle monitoring and predictive maintenance.

For example, our models can detect patterns in engine temperatures and coolant levels to predict engine seizures before they happen and guide customers safely to a stop before an emergency situation occurs. We also have models that predict the optimum replacement times for batteries and clutches, thus minimising breakdowns. Last year, we captured almost a 100 billion vehicle-related data points such as speed, distance, revolutions per minute, clutch and brake times. Our unique driver score technology encourages customers to drive cautiously and will have far-reaching consequences for the safety and longevity of our cars. The Zoomcar app, moreover, allows customers to reach out at any time in case of a query through email, messages and chatbots. With keyless entry systems that require little to no physical contact and realtime updates regarding vehicle sanitisation, rental car brands are leaving no stone unturned to offer customers a safe and comfortable experience.

Technology has taken the safety aspect up a notch and the silver lining for companies is that it allows them real-time monitoring of their vehicles to avoid any loss or damage to the cars. With features such as chatbots, 24×7 customer experience, the flexibility to reschedule or cancel bookings free of cost, and integrated payment gateways, shared mobility brands are bringing everything under one roof with mobile apps.

CXO OUTLOOK April 2021

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FEATURED ARTICLE

Tackling Indigenisation Challenges to Boost the Manufacturing Sector

Raghav Gupta, Director, Kanchan Metals

Raghav Gupta is the Director of Kanchan Metals.

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The company is dedicated to providing end-to-end solutions to the needs of food processing firms in India. Motivated by his passion for providing the best possible services in the food processing industry, Raghav firmly believes that success is a result of one’s diligence and determination. Raghav has been a part of Kanchan Metals since 2011. Under his direction, the company has gained a unique position in the food processing industry in India.

Raghav Gupta

CXO OUTLOOK April 2021

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ndia is one of the leading manufacturing countries in the world. Be it any sector, India will boast of having its presence in the production of products in that particular industry.

Various reports suggest that the Indian food processing sector is one of the fastest-growing markets and is expected to reach $ 535 bn by 2025-26.

While the sector is booming, it is of prime importance and hence garners attention from the government as well. It is one of the leading providers of huge employment opportunities as well. Our nation is also touted to be one of the major exporters across the Middle East, Southeast Asia, SAARC countries, the EU, and the US. India not only possesses a huge domestic market but also possesses raw material in abundance. With rapid urbanization comes a change

Despite being the manufacture of raw materials, we have to depend on the exports for various products

in consumption patterns and growing consumption rates. In the present fast-paced times, the population especially the millennials don’t have much time for cooking and preparing meals at home. This further boosts the demand for ready-to-eat, ready to make and packaged foods.

Growth of the food processing sector in India The organized food retail sector offers a diverse variety of options to its consumers.

This coupled with luring deals and offers makes the sector all the more appealing and attractive.

Rising disposable income, rapid urbanization, and growth of the organized retail sector are some of the major driving factors for this market.

The sector’s growth is dependent on various factors. The major ones include• Changing lifestyle of the consumers leading to a shift in their food consumption habits • Rise of disposable income • High agricultural production • Increased export opportunities leading to global integration the economies • Government’s support

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Challenges faced by the industry While the sector is growing significantly, it faces various challenges as well. Lack of infrastructural facilities, applied research, quality of raw material, inadequate food safety laws, production delays due to seasonal availability of certain crops, and storage constraints. Additionally, the transportation issues, lack of technological advancements, along with ensuring the provision of a hygienic and high volume food production

CXO OUTLOOK April 2021

India not only possesses a huge domestic market but also possesses raw material in abundance

without compromising on the taste are some of the major roadblocks for the food processing industry’s growth in India.

However, one of the major challenges that the industry faces is the indigenisation of the produce.

Despite locally manufacturing the produce, we still lack in the availability of the right raw material of adequate quality at the right place and at the right time. This happens primarily due to poor planning, unbalance in the demand-supply chain, absence of advanced farming methods, improper farming methods, etc.

There is a strong need for local manufacturing and technological development so as to enhance the food processing machinery and the working of the industry. Reducing the GST rates lower than the import duties by the government is another step that can help in this direction.

All food processing companies who serve as the machinery industry’s potential customers should be provided with enhanced eligibility of depreciation claim in the first investment year only if they buy local machinery over imported ones. Besides, a solid scheme dedicated to the manufacturing and food processing industry is essential that will boost the research and development activities and accelerate technology development of the industry to reduce imports.

With programs like Atmanirbhar Bharat, Vocal for local and Make in India, the manufacturing sector got the requisite push

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CXO OUTLOOK April 2021

and also paved the way for indigenisation.

The Pradhan Mantri Kisan Sampada Yojna is another major initiative that will help in adopting modern infrastructural facilities that will further improve the supply chain process.

Additionally, the government’s 100% FDI permitted for food processing in India will help in tackling the indigenisation charges.

The government can further help bolster the food processing equipment manufacturers by establishing a program to assess the quality and knowledge and operation skills of local manufacturers. Based on such assessment, they can further execute tieups with industry leaders from abroad for the development of local manufacturers.

Additionally, there is a need to incentivize R&D activities by local manufacturers to help them grow their capabilities.

The surprising bit is that despite being the manufacture of raw materials, we have to depend on the exports for various products.

Thus indigenisation remains one of the major challenges for manufacturing especially the food processing and equipment sector in India. While there are various government initiatives that will help in tackling the indigenisation challenges, it is indeed the need of the hour to come up with technological advancements and strategies to ensure that we locally manufacture all the products and there is a bare minimum import of raw material and technology. Doing so will eventually boost the food processing, equipment, and manufacturing sector on the whole.

Want to Sell or find Investor for your Business?

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CXO OUTLOOK April 2021

FEATURED ARTICLE

Importance of Location Intelligence in the PostPandemic World

Rajit Bhattacharya, Founder and CEO, Data Sutram

Rajit is the Founder & Chief Executive Officer

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at Data Sutram, a Location Intelligence Enterprise funded by the Indian Angel Network & Sanjay Mehta led 100x.VC. Having started the company during the final year of his engineering degree at Jadavpur University, he raised his first venture capital at 22.

Rajit has been featured by Youth For Business (an initiative by US Consulate & Contact Base) as one of the top Young Entrepreneurs from Eastern India. In a conversation with CXO Outlook, Rajit talks about the importance of location intelligence, using data to plan Rajit Bhattacharya

smart territories & plan resources, impact of Big Data on the e-commerce industry, and much more.

How can Location Intelligence help organisations identify appropriate business opportunities?

One of the most significant factors that determine the success of any business is location. That means, even a great company with a great plan can fail if it’s set up in a wrong place. But how does a business decide which location would suit it the best? At present, most companies use heuristics and intuition when it comes to finalizing a site. However, this only brings out 10% of the actual situation. 90% of data about a location

CXO OUTLOOK April 2021

Location intelligence will play a major role in achieving the successful distribution of COVID-19 vaccines

lies within a myriad of other sources such as apps, B2C companies, satellites, etc., which companies still don’t bank on. This is where location intelligence (LI) steps into the picture.

LI helps businesses expand by pinpointing new locations.

For instance, where next to open stores, branches or warehouses. Similarly, it also helps companies reach out to the right audience with the hyperlocal market. For example, which societies, businesses, or doctors should pharma companies approach to sell their products? Moreover, LI helps companies improve their existing assets – both physical and digital – by assisting them in deciding what products to stock to give the maximum return on investment (ROI). An industry which was only popular for its navigation and mapping aspects is now tapping into new areas with the increasing use of analytics and intelligence.

In fact, in today’s post-pandemic world, it is widely used by governments and organizations to fight the coronavirus by making people aware about the containment zones and the nearby health facilities that they should reach out if having any symptoms or tested positive. For instance, policymakers and authorities used geographic information system (GIS) to map the disease data – such as the area of outbreak, population health and infrastructure available in a particular area to gauge the risk, during the pandemic spells using spatial trends. Likewise, several companies have used LI to visualize and analyse their operations spatially to remain effective and perform consistently during the current crisis.

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How to identify the data that is critical to your future reward strategy?

How to use data to plan smart territories & plan resources?

We can use data to identify areas where performance is below potential, where store/ product sales are less than the market potential and accordingly classify different regions into red (grow), yellow (build), and green (defend) zones. Next, we can identify a company's marketing targets in ‘red and yellow’ zones, where it needs to send the sales

CXO OUTLOOK April 2021

team to market their products. Then comes the final stage, that is, net impact analysis. Here, we can determine the ROI in line with salesforce deployment by quantifying the net input in terms of effort and resources.

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How is Big Data impacting the e-commerce industry?

Big data is bolstering the e-commerce industry in numerous ways. To begin with, it helps players to market their products and services better than usual.

For instance, through micro-targeting, they can reach out to the right audience with the right set of products aligned with their needs, keeping in mind various factors including demographics, purchasing patterns, ethnicity, age, etc. Similarly, with geofencing and hyperlocal marketing, companies can also approach a specific target audience based on their granular catchments, who are more likely to buy their products through social media, digital advertising or billboards. They can then plan better promotional strategies based on consumers’ demand for different products in different localities.

We also call it product-push approach.

Secondly, big data optimizes supply chain management by ensuring timely delivery of the product to the customer at economical price points. This happens through geocoding of address (placing the right location), route optimization (finding the fastest route), and smart order fulfilment by ensuring that the order is fulfilled from the nearest supply centre via the quickest mode of transport. Big data also optimizes logistics by helping companies identify an ideal location to set up warehouses, ensuring smart stock inventory and fleet management. In doing so, it also identifies delivery bottlenecks and finds areas of ETA breaches, high returns and fraudulent orders, thereby enhancing customer experience in the process.

How can geospatial help the retail industry post COVID-19?

As we shift from globalization to localization with an increase in customer visits to neighbourhood stores, businesses can leverage geospatial data to identify high-potential societies and offices in

CXO OUTLOOK April 2021

the stores' neighbourhood. With geofencing and targeting, companies can focus on customers who visit the stores' proximity through digital ads and marketing campaigns. Next, they can analyse the demand for different products in different localities at a 100x100m level granularity. This is called product demand mapping and smart inventory planning. Similarly, geospatial data can also be used to understand consumer behaviour and footfall trends. This insight will help businesses decide the apt location for opening dark stores/mini-warehouses and shutting stores that are not giving profits. In short, geospatial data allows companies to identify valuable customers, understand their demographic characteristics and serve them seamlessly.

Tell us about the importance of leveraging location intelligence as an effective method for Covid vaccine distribution.

Location intelligence will play a major role in achieving the successful distribution of COVID-19 vaccines. First, we can calculate several indices such as doctor and bed count, the population in a particular area, virus spread, air quality index, etc. that will help us strategize the distribution process.

Taking these factors into account, we can predict the demand for vaccines at a very granular level.

Finally, we can point out the most vulnerable communities to reduce mortality rates, and supply vaccines to doctors to protect the healthcare system.

How can BFSI companies create a real-time impact with location analytics?

The core parts of BFSI that form the entire BFSI ecosystem be it financial services, SME lending, or insurance – all rely on consumer spending capacity and life quality index of a location. This helps determine the volume of business that it can achieve. In this process, LI helps organizations mobilize their resources as per demand and increase their market share by making right location-based decisions. For instance, using LI, we can measure the risk involved in the lending journey and accordingly optimize loan collection process by analysing location behaviour, thus preventing the business from landing into losses.

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CXO OUTLOOK Higher Education Digest April 2021 October 2020

FEATURED ARTICLE

Five Technology Trends that will revamp the future of online retail in India

Rajiv Kumar, Founder & CEO, StoreHippo

Rajiv Kumar, a qualified Software Engineer,

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who has a 20+ years of experience, has offered his service to the Companies like Tata Infotech, ST Microelectronics, HCL Technologies, E-Trade Financial, Oracle, Waterfall Mobile, Tavant Technologies. With vast experience and deep knowledge of handling Technical Architecture and Technical Design Projects, he has started his own Operation of providing E-Commerce Solutions to the Small Medium Entrepreneurs and Individual Entrepreneurs.

Rajiv Kumar

R

etail is a rapidly growing sector and there is a neck to neck competition. Technology has brought about a major transformation in this sector and hence, online retail is witnessing a surge. While earlier, offline retail dominated the market, now with the technological advancements, online retail has become the new fad. The e-commerce and retail sector has witnessed a transition in its working model to cope up with the millennial times.

While the pandemic came with its fair share of troubles in 2020, it initiated the journey of online retail and the technology will further

CXO OUTLOOK April 2021

Businesses know where their customers are majorly present and having their business at the same position is essential

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drive its growth. In the present times, there has been an increase in the demand for the products.

Additionally, customers now prefer contactless options. In such a scenario, online retail seems to be a blessing in disguise.

Tech is indeed the future Online purchasing is on the rise and the figures will eventually increase. To survive in the cut-throat competition in the market, all the e-commerce platforms are revamping their models. Technology has made the transport and availability of the products easy and smooth and has helped to meet the rising demand.

For the existing brands, their priority will be to deliver their best.

For the new businesses, retaining the customers and having a recall value will be a major element in their business strategies. To ensure this, all firms would require up ergonomic technology to support their agendas. All they would want is to have a good customer experience so that they can reach one step closer to the final aim- they want their business to grow. This will lead to the easy availability and accessibility of premium products.

To secure one’s position, the platforms are increasingly adapting and adopting the use of the technology so as to gather consumer traction as what any firm wants is for their customers to have a good user experience.

Five major technology trends that will revamp the future of online retail in India are-

CXO OUTLOOK April 2021

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• Artificial Intelligence Due to the increased preference on the digital space, firms will now rely all the more on AI. AI is here to stay and is being increasingly adopted by firms.

Artificial Intelligence robots are the future and possess the capability to respond to queries, check the inventory, resolve customer issues and provide instant communication.

As per Gartner’s study, by 2021, 77% of retailers plan to imbibe AI, with robotics for warehouse picking. It also predicts that by 2021, customers will manage 85% of their relationship with the enterprise without interacting with a human.

Enforcing the adoption of chatbots will be the first major step in building the online marketplace driven by artificial intelligence.

With artificial intelligence, businesses will be able to focus on their sales and working rather than spending time in the backend work.

product, video demos, teleconsultations, virtual try-on options, 3D trials, etc.

These features of Augmented Reality will bring about a transformation in the online retail industry.

Not only will it aid in simplifying and smoothening of consumer purchasing processes, but will also help the firms to offer good customer service. AR will ensure that the customer buying experience is smooth and of high-end quality.

• Voice commerce and social commerce In e-commerce, Voice-assisted technologies like Siri, Cortana, Google Voice Search, Viv, Amazon Alexa, Google Home help are great helpers in the technological advancements of the online retail sector. Known as Voice commerce, instead of feeding in our query via text, we command via our voice. All we need to say is, ‘’Okay Google’’, or ‘’Hey Siri’’, ‘’open Amazon’’, add the required items to the cart, click on purchase, and boom!

‘Your order has been placed and will be delivered soon’ is what you’ll hear.

Enabling purchases with just a few words, voice commerce could prove to be a game-changer for the online retail industry.

Social commerce has also witnessed a surge and will definitely increase with the passing times.

People now prefer buying directly from the app or website rather than purchasing through a thirdparty app. They demand instant communication and purchasing processes and social commerce is just the right platform for them.

• Digitization is the key Businesses know where their customers are majorly present and having their business at the same position is essential. Hence, having a vast and diverse digital presence along with offering a great user experience is no longer an option but a pre-requisite to thrive in the present times. Hence, the increasing focus will be on developing their brand’s presence in the digital medium and to facilitate sales. They are ensuring that they possess the latest technology, product innovations, and a customer base. They are diligently making efforts to secure the premier position in the market.

• Augmented Reality While earlier customers used to buy from the physical stores only after thorough physical checks by seeing, touching, and feeling the product, now with the convenience of online retail, the customers have an option of viewing 360 appearances of the

CXO OUTLOOK April 2021

• Contactless payments COVID-19 induced the contactless payment procedures and since then they have increased. Online retailers and firms are making concerted efforts to invest their time and finances to ensure seamless contactless payment methods.

Digital payments are here to stay and online retailers are working to come up with tech-savvy solutions to facilitate and improvise the same.

Summing Up There is less scope for personal interaction now. The use and availability of chatbots, virtual personal assistants have been on a rise. While this technology was earlier used by banking and healthcare sectors, it has now spread its wings in other industries as well especially retail.

For the online retail sector, 2021 is set to be the year of change. According to figures from Statista, global retail e-commerce sales will hit US$4.88 trillion in 2021. Hence, the year will be filled with opportunities and growth. In no way can online retail replace the digital but of course the dominance has reduced. However, if used correctly, technology can help them both to co-exist and compliment each other rather than turning each other’s competitors.

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CXO OUTLOOK Higher Education Digest April 2019 2021 December October January 2020

FEATURED ARTICLE

Importance of a Right Technology Partner to Accelerate Your Organisation’s Digital Transformation Journey

Sandeep Bhargava, Managing Director – APAC, Rackspace Technology

Rackspace Technology is a leading end to end

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multi-cloud technology services company. Rackspace design, build and operate its customer’s cloud environments across all major technology platforms, irrespective of technology stack or deployment model. In a conversation with CXO Outlook, Sandeep Bhargava, Managing Director – APAC, Rackspace Technology, talks about challenges that companies face when it comes to multi-cloud deployments, Rackspace’s offerings as a leading end-to-end multicloud services company, their leading customers in Sandeep Bhargava

India, and much more.

What are some of the biggest challenges that companies are facing when it comes to multi-cloud deployments?

As businesses embark on digital transformation, IT leaders must adopt a transformative and optimised approach with a digital strategy based on the cloud driving the growth of the business. With the explosion of cloud applications and the rise of hybrid and multi-cloud infrastructures, complexity has begun to overwhelm many organisations.

Here are three main challenges that hinder progress to such transformation:

CXO OUTLOOK April 2021

To minimise cloud risks, organisations will also need to have a multilayered security strategy on-premise and across multiple clouds

1. Complex applications and infrastructure that are difficult to integrate with the latest technologies including migration to the cloud 2. Managing multi- and hybrid cloud environments and spend 3. A lack of experience and resources Businesses want a single view of their usage levels and cost regardless of the number of cloud platforms used so that they can determine if they are getting the optimal return-on-investment for their spending while keeping an eye on their operating expenses.

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How can businesses overcome these challenges?

The journey from traditional IT to a hybrid or multi cloud environment can be difficult. With a wide range of choices available, organisations need to select the right cloud platform and tools carefully for different workloads instead of taking a one-size-fits-all approach to cloud deployment. Only by doing so, they will be able to accelerate the value of the cloud with an eye to deliver the desired business outcomes with optimised investment.

As opposed to struggling with challenges in-house, organisations can seize digital business and IT opportunities with the help of a Managed Cloud Service Provider.

The right partner can accelerate an organisation’s digital transformation journey and guide them through complex, competing cloud platform claims and value propositions.

How is Rackspace different from its competitors?

Rackspace Technology is a leading end-to-end multi-cloud services company. We can design, build and operate cloud environments for our customers across all major technology platforms, irrespective of technology stack or deployment model. We partner with our customers at every stage of their cloud journey, enabling them to modernise applications, build new products and adopt innovative technologies.

CXO OUTLOOK April 2021

Organisations need the confidence to know they are getting the maximum value from their cloud investments and minimising risk while accelerating their transformations. No matter where businesses are on their digital transformation journey, Rackspace Technology promises to accelerate the value of the cloud for them. We have the necessary tools to help companies implement and integrate leading applications, deploy these applications on the optimal cloud platform and ensure security and compliance.

business being anywhere near the internet: toothbrushes, doorbells, coffee machines, smart speakers, watches, and – infamously – juicers. As the World Economic Forum reports: “The world produces 2.5 quintillion bytes a day, and 90 percent of all data has been produced in just the last two years.” This has coincided with the growth in hyper scale cloud adoption. Edge computing solves today’s cloudera challenges around moving and managing data to ensure it generates the most value for the minimum of cost, and that it can be processed and acted on in a timely fashion.

Who are your leading customers in India? Can you share some case studies?

We have a very diversified client portfolio ranging from Financial Services, Education, Healthcare, Consumer Goods, Automotive, Media & Entertainment, Retail, Travel, and Hospitality.

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How do you define edge computing?

To put the philosophy to work and unlock these advantages, we first need to define the foundational elements of edge computing.

Illustrative edge computing use cases include sensors in a factory or medical setting, a remote oil pipeline, or surveillance cameras designed to recognise security threats.

The high volume of data generated by these devices drives time-sensitive decisions or actions. It simply wouldn’t be ideal or cost-effective to send it all to the cloud for processing and storage.

In cases like these, we’re looking to create the fewest number of hops between the device generating the data and the first – but not the only or last – “thing” that will do something with that data.

On this basis, the key components of an edge computing network are the public cloud, compute edge, device edge, and sensor.

Clearly, many enterprise models typically encompass at least two of these things – cloud plus one other – whether you formally recognise them as having an edge component or not. So, it’s a diversion to focus too much on “edge,” or to hype edge computing as inherently and automatically transformative. Instead, the intended business outcome – and the practical application of technology to deliver on it – should always be your strategic driver. Not edge computing for edge computing’s sake.

Why should filtering out to the edge computing hype matter to IT leaders?

Businesses are already generating huge amounts of data, with exponential growth every year as more devices come online — including many items that previously had no

CXO OUTLOOK April 2021

The right partner can accelerate an organisation’s digital transformation journey

How is data security ensured in a multi-cloud system?

In an environment where companies are being constantly targeted with advanced persistent threats, enterprises can engage with Managed Services Providers (MSPs) to manage their data and applications across cloud, applications, security, data and infrastructure. To minimise cloud risks, organisations will also need to have a multilayered security strategy on-premise and across multiple clouds to provide detection, response and remediation.

Chief Information Security Officers (CISOs) will also need to work across more departments in 2021 to ensure that security is not overlooked when innovative solutions and new business processes are introduced.

No matter where you decide to go in India, you’ll find something incredible. And right next to that, you’ll find us. Safe and sanitised stays, waiting to host you.

So pack up your bags, dust those boots, come to an OYO near you.

!ncredible

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FEATURED ARTICLE

How Luxury Decor Brands bounced back from Covid-19

Sanjeev Agrawal, CEO & founder, Orvi Surfaces Sanjeev Agarwal pursued his undergraduate

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degree from Rajasthan University in commerce.

He had a head start in his career as he received extensive hands-on training in handicrafts business while working alongside his elder brother. He developed a strong penchant for modern aesthetics and a refined eye for detail very early on. After honing his skills, he embarked on his entrepreneurial journey in 1992 and was actively involved in several business endeavours.

Sanjeev Agrawal

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he pandemic & the inevitable effect of Coronavirus lead shockwaves across industries as business activities came to complete standstill. Luxury brands were badly hit and incurred huge losses and some even came on the verge of closure. But it’s important for us to keep moving forward and always look to evolve with the times.

Considering this, it is critical to now judiciously invest time & resources in uplifting our workforces, artisans and communities. It’s a great opportunity to show solidarity to the workers on the frontline by empowering them through recognition, skill development & technology training. If this situation has taught us anything it is

CXO OUTLOOK April 2021

We pride in our artisans, & encourage them to create oneof-a-kind surfaces and décor products

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that we need people, we need communities to thrive and to survive. This has been one of the pre-eminent factors of success for all organisations during this crisis. Take care of your close ones, your employees, partners, customers, communities and they will in turn take care of you.

From a business perspective, I am a firm believer that instead of pulling back, it is time to invest in future.

We need to constantly innovate and come up with products that emotionally connect with users. From investing in digitization to sustainable product & process choices to getting a much deeper understanding of consumer choices are some steps towards re-establishing ourselves as businesses.

Covid has forced the luxury segment carve out a place for itself online. I believe that a robust social media presence, Solid digital marketing and a strong e-commerce team have now become essential for all business. Online shops are set to become the leading channel for luxury purchases in the coming future and it is imperative for brands to embrace the digital side of business.

The 2021 consumer has now become a very conscious consumer. Beyond the product and aesthetics, consumers are now looking for brands with ethical practices, brands that make an effort to give back to the society, brands

CXO OUTLOOK April 2021

The 2021 consumer has now become a very conscious consumer

that care. This has given brands the opportunity to reflect on their company culture, environmental policies, CSR activities, etc. and use them to enhance their perception. At Orvi we have set out to accomplish two very different goals in regards with sustainability. As the world becomes more populated and the supply of resources shrinks, we are determined to ensure that every inch of stone is utilized, we have created product lines which just focus on that goal. The second goal is to revive and maintain the centuries-old techniques of creating hand-crafted surfaces and décor pieces in India. We pride in our artisans, & encourage them to create one-of-a-kind surfaces and décor products using art techniques like Tarkashi, inlay of semiprecious stone, etc. Hence, through financial empowerment, proper training, and a constantly available support system, the hand-crafted work is kept alive by Orvi, for both present individuals and generations to come. We observe that young millennials often make altruistic buying decisions & are keen to know about these facts when they chose these surfaces for their living spaces.

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Brands now more than ever need to be authentic, keeping craftsmanship and experience at the core of who they are.

A product or an experience that stands out and adds actual value,in the lives of the consumer will be better received by the market and will find itself ahead of the pack. At Orvi, we work very hard to understand the life spaces of our customers and every single peice that we create becomes an extension of our customers’ personalities & individual expressions.

We believe that our clients, especially the young millennial continue to value everything handmade & especially after the way the world has changed this year, they will further make choices that support the Indian artisans & craftspeople.

Many of our collections are an experiment for artistic exploration and a celebration of sustainability.

This past year has been a challenging one for luxury brands, but it has prepared us better for the times to come. Brands will bounce back stronger after this just like after the 2008 financial crisis. For better or for worse the rules of the game have changed and we need to embrace them rather than trying to ignore them.

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CXO OUTLOOK Higher Education April Digest 2021 October 2020

FEATURED ARTICLE

Performance Management in the context of COVID

Sonica Aron, Founder, Marching Sheep

Sonica Aron is the Founder and Managing

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Partner of Marching Sheep, an HR advisory firm specializing in Strategic HR advisory, Diversity and inclusion interventions and capability building. An XLRI post graduate, Sonica has worked with companies like Pepsico, Vodafone, Roche Diagnostics and ICI paints.

She started her career with a sound understanding of business where she went route-riding with Pepsico and was part of the team that launched Pepsi 200 ml at Rs 5. She was the first lady HR Manager stationed at a factory in Upcountry UP and there the seeds to Sonica Aron

her diversity practice were born.

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s we approach the end of financial year end, many organizations are going to launch their performance appraisal process. This is the time of the year when annual performance reviews are conducted across many organizations. However, this year is going to be a very different year as the year gone by was unlike any other which neither leaders nor employees were prepared for and thus shifting major focus was on business continuity and survival and to stay relevant. Reviewing performances for the year 2020 is going to be very different from the previous years.

This would mean that the traditional way of doing performance management and appraisals need to be relooked at, where the focus was

CXO OUTLOOK April 2021

The year 2020 also saw cases of new hiring, transitioning, and exiting workers into new roles

predominantly on business results, rankings relative performance, for the purpose of generating a bell curve.

Measuring and taking into account behaviors is needed considering in the context we all have been functioning in for the past year. In the past, during appraisals, ‘objectivity’ required little cognizance was given to what was happening in a person’s life. But during the pandemic, with sudden lockdown, and remote working, blurring of personal and professional boundaries, during the sudden shifts while balancing both professional and personal front, it is something that will need consideration. Adapting to sudden change in workplace environment with – work from home or hybrid working or remote working models has been huge shift that the entire workforce has grappled with. This led to a deluge of personal and professional challenges for people across organizations, varying in degrees across sectors.

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Recent Trends: The current notational as well as Global trends in Performance Management are intrinsically linked to the rise of individuals and teams working remotely, required new modes of communication to ensure the workforce remains connected.

Exponential rise in the rate of technological development, investments and adoption: This has led to collection, analysis and reporting of data increasingly important in companies throughout 2020. HR departments delt heavily with data, and the use of analytics allowed HR administrators to apply analytics to a wide variety of metrics, covering absenteeism, turnover rates, and revenue per employee.

But the real question was, while a few organizations did focus on building and leveraging HR analytics integration – through in-house capability, or brought in through external vendors or outsourced them (specific to organization that had the bandwidth for these investments) there were a

CXO OUTLOOK April 2021

few organizations that got left behind due to financial crisis.

Did Integration of these HR analytics with Performance management tools effectively capture data that was relevant for the changing business environment and was it able to offer the real time data that brought necessary insight into the process to track progress and need for development of not just the business but also their workforce.

Onboarding, offboarding and transitioning remote workers: The year 2020 also saw cases of new hiring, transitioning, and exiting workers into new roles. With January being the most popular month for job changes. Therefore, the need to prepare for an influx of largely remote workers needed HR leaders to streamline a variety of processes to ensure their efforts to be effective, actionable and relevant. Automation may have seemed like a popular option but not for all organizations considering investments needed. At the same time Automation cannot be a complete replacement for the employee experience and humane touch a new joiner needs.

Understanding the employee experience: Organizations lacking robust mechanism for tracking employee experience effectively were at a significant disadvantage when the lockdown was imposed with a population working either remotely or in hybrid work environments or on field. This led managers and leaders to adapt and respond to an avalanche of challenges and opportunities that needed immediate attention. Another challenge was gathering regular employee feedback.

Managers and Leaders were uniquely challenged, with being accountable for business results on one side , and for team members well-being, experience and performance on the other.

Adapting performance management for the gender diverse workforce: While organizations had to suddenly shut down and quickly shift from traditional ways of working employees across generations, genders and different life stages faced challenges that were unique to personal situations. There

were employees who were living away from home, in PG accommodation and suffered from complete isolation.

There were employees who were struggling to manage household chores, manage family commitments while be productive at work. There were employees who had to take care of elderly at home and so on.

Embracing employee well-being: Case of employees feeling isolated, burnt out and increased screen time disrupted work life balance. 2020 also lead to sudden spike in domestic violence cases, cases of depression and feeling a lack of connectivity with the work teams and colleagues.

This contributed to a number of employees deciding to exit the workforce due to adverse impact on their well-being and it was specially seen to be high amongst women.

Work from home or hybrid working or remote working models has been huge shift

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CXO OUTLOOK April 2021

Way forward: Therefore, organizations, leaders and managers need to embark on the performance management and appraisal practice keeping the following in focus: 1.Focus on measuring and assessing behaviors and not just results.

2.The need to focus on how employees have worked towards upholding the culture of the organization during the pandemic.

3.Managers and employees’ role in holding the teams together, their well-being, team spirit, can do attitude.

4.Need for mangers to be empathetic during feedback process is going to be crucial. Building the capability of managers to preserve the psychological safety of the appraisee during appraisal 2021will go a long way in how they perform and deliver in 2021.

5.Taking learnings from 2020 and planning for 2021focus should be on what can we do to make 2021 a winning year. If 2020 was about survival, 2021 is about fighting back!

The big question for all getting into appraisal now is that will we focus on flogging the dead horse of 2020 or planning for the year 2021?

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Higher Education Digest September 2020

CXO OUTLOOK April 2021

FEATURED ARTICLE

Innovations, Development, and Challenges to tackle rising COVID Cases in India

Sujesh Sugunan, Chairman & CEO, Allabout Innovations

Sujesh is an erudite with a strong academic

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background. He graduated in Commerce and has been an IT Professional with extensive experience in Artificial Intelligence & coding. Influenced by the thoughts of top leaders such as Steve Jobs, Sir David Frederick Attenborough, author Ayn Rand, Sujesh has been an articulate professional who is currently pursuing his entrepreneurial journey, shuttling between India and the Middle East. Sujesh likes to stay at the top of the latest tech trends and likes to keep himself apprised of all the major Sujesh Sugunan

developments taking place in the world of science.

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he pandemic has caused major disruptions in our healthcare system and the second wave is spreading like wildfire. Hundreds and thousands of cases are being tested positive on a daily basis and the majority of the population is suffering in the absence of appropriate treatment, oxygen, and medical services.

Innovations and technological development to tackle the rising COVID cases in India Indeed the situation is worsening but it is no hidden fact that the pandemic also paved the way for the introduction and adoption of

CXO OUTLOOK April 2021

The healthcare sector have primarily been the go-to resort for mass revival from this health crisis

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various innovations in the healthcare and health tech sector. New products and services have been entering the market that we never thought would exist or would be a part of our lifestyle anytime soon!

India has always been known for the possession of well-equipped pharmacy in the world. Medical devices and equipment have played an important role in the growth of the Indian pharma market and the stature has gained all the more prominence in the present times.

As per IBEF, the Indian medical devices market was valued at $11 billion in 2020 and is expected to increase at a CAGR of 35.4% from 2020 to 2025 and might reach the $50 billion mark by the end of 2025. It further states that India is now considered amongst the top 20 markets for medical devices in the world and is the 4th largest in Asia.

These statistics show that the demand for medical devices will increase in the times ahead. However, taking into consideration the present situation, there is a huge demand-supply gap. But the silver lining is that the soaring demand for superior healthcare services is also carving the path for increased local device and equipment manufacturing and organizations along with the government and investors have been focusing on the same.

Owing to the present distressed situation, the healthcare sector and medical devices have primarily been the go-to resort

CXO OUTLOOK April 2021

Medical devices and equipment have played an important role in the growth of the Indian pharma market

for mass revival from this health crisis.

It is indeed clear that there is a dire need to improve the medical industry, health infrastructure, and medical devices sector so as to meet the surging demand for the latest health tech innovations. This is the reason why various institutions, research firms, and medical technology developers have dedicated themselves to bring about plausible solutions to attempt and fight the virus.

Be it blood-based rapid diagnostics tests or RT-PCR-based methods that detect the presence of the virus in the body, an array of screening and diagnostics tests have been introduced during the pandemic. It is due to these technological innovations that we have been able to successfully detect the virus and undergo prompt treatments.

While the Indian Council of Medical Research authorized labs to use RT-PCR as the go-to strategy for detection of the

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CXO OUTLOOK April 2021

genetics of the virus, Mylab Discovery Solutions, Pune was the brain behind the introduction of the country’s first indigenous RT-PCR based molecular diagnostic test that helps detect the infection in 2.5 hours as compared to 7-8 hours by traditional testing methods along with eliminating the possibilities of false positives. Apart from these, blood-based antibody detection methods have also been developed to meet the rising demand for coronavirus testing and sampling.

Besides the diagnostics innovations, the need for effective personal and sanitization equipment has also witnessed a surge to ensure the safety of the people across the nation and at the global level.

Leveraging the power of science and expert talent, various medical firms are making concerted efforts to invest their time and finances in conducting in-depth research and developing state-of-the-art health tech solutions.

A prominent example of this includes tech-woven patented protective masks and helmets. Be it surgical masks, N95, or double-layered masks, all of these have been working well in the market owing to their health benefits and increased preference. Additionally, the demand for protective shields, overalls, gloves, PPE kits, has also risen due to the surging safety concerns and awareness levels amongst the population.

However, one of the feasible solutions to fight the pandemic has been the provision of safe air. Tech-savvy devices like air purifiers and air masks produced via the latest technology and claiming to offer ambient air sterilization, ionbased sanitization, and considerable neutralization of the virus are the recent entrants in the market. Their demand is at an all time high and they will be increasingly preferred owing to their claims of eliminating the SARS Cov2 virus and extending various health benefits. These products claim to offer respite from the virus, do not harm the environment, ensure hygienic air provision and adhere to all the government protocols and regulations. These features make them the ideal, viable and reliable solution to ensure protection from the coronavirus.

Challenges faced during managing the rising COVID cases in India The fact that India was able to come up with a vaccine in just a few months of the virus hitting us and its provision to the middle-aged and elderly population is the testimony of the fact that our nation possesses the capacity and capability to invest wholeheartedly in the resolution of the crisis via the assistance and support of the healthcare industry

especially the pharmaceutical and the medical device sector.

However, it won’t be wrong to state that the path of revival is tough and there are various roadblocks. India is unfortunately not well equipped to handle the unprecedented rise in the COVID cases.

Indeed there is a lack of funds and the absence of advanced healthcare facilities and infrastructure. The mismanagement and dysfunctionality of the sector, along with the acute shortage of healthcare products and services do not match the rising need and seem to be the major challenges faced during managing the rising COVID cases in India. Additionally, despite our nation being considered as the world’s largest vaccine producer, the increasing number of cases puts India’s position as the global exporter at a huge risk.

Summing Up IoT, artificial intelligence, machine learning, and data analytics have forayed into the healthcare segment and have further accelerated the development of tech-savvy medical solutions. These products not only extend high-end hygienic healthcare services but also ensure sustainability and ecological balancing of the environment.

Introducing product innovations is no longer an option and has rather become the need of the hour. The healthcare, health tech, and medical devices sector have realized the severity of the situation and hence have dedicated themselves towards the recovery of the nation from the global pandemic crisis. It is anticipated that the domestic manufacturing of medical and personal hygiene devices and equipment and upscalation of the healthcare industry will increase significantly in the coming times and will contribute majorly in the global revival from this crisis.

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FEATURED ARTICLE

How Technology will Help Your Real Estate Business to Grow

Sunil Sisodiya, Founder and MD, Geetanjali Homestate

Sunil Kumar Sisodiya, The Founder and

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Chairman of Geetanjali Homestate, has more than 14 years of experience in the real estate industry. An extraordinary entrepreneur and a leader in the truest sense, Mr. Sunil Kumar Sisodiya always encourages a harmonious environment wherein the employees work together towards the single goal of meeting the needs of the customers in the finest manner possible.

His endeavors in the commercial and residential real estate have given him inside-out knowledge of the industry, ultimately made him the man behind the Sunil Sisodiya

success of Geetanjali Homestate. Mr. Sisodiya has also won many awards and recognitions from some of the leading media houses in the country.

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s the Internet turns out to be more imbued in each feature of our work and individual lives, businesses that essentially depend on face to face associations have begun to embrace new innovation. Embracing new innovation permits organizations to save significant time and assets for future turn of events.

Progressions in innovation are forming the way realtors and property owners explore the home selling and purchasing measure. In the present

CXO OUTLOOK April 2021

Progressions in innovation are forming the way realtors explore the home selling and purchasing measure

current world, realtors depend on modern information to drive choices, survey home estimation, and discover ideal purchasers. Staying aware of the occasions can be troublesome, yet the technology that is presently accessible to specialists is an energizing and helpful move. Tech is shaping the real estate industry and agents can absolutely acquire an upper hand by remaining educated on the most recent patterns.

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1. Online presence Real estate markets have consistently depended on face to face gatherings among specialists and possible purchasers. However, technology has took into consideration marketplaces to be moderately secure and dependable, in any event, for enterprises like real estate. Online marketplaces make it simple to see a rundown of the multitude of homes that fit your inclinations without leaving your front room. One can make a web space actually like this. A site that gives things like virtual visits that your customers can see on their cell phone, which can be said fundamental in the today’s times.

Sing the right hashtags, creating relevant social media campaigns, with quirky and trending content can help you gain a lot of attention in little time. Facebook is a widely used platform that homeowners and home sellers are actively on. Many real estate businesses have great success using this platform. Success from both paid and organic content and it is your time to join in and take advantage.

2. Price Refinement Agents frequently depend on only a few area factors and property highlights to make value assessments for properties. However, with advancements like AI and precise mathematical modelling, realtors would now be able to appraise costs more precisely than previously.

CXO OUTLOOK April 2021

3. Client and Lead Management Today, real estate companies have an assortment of sources for lead generation, however how can one examine the most beneficial channels of client securing or realize when to call the customer next?

Having an innovation arrangement installed into the day by day work measure assists organizations with dealing with their leads better and oversees existing customers easily.

4. Improving Tenant Relationships and Proper Asset Management Tech can likewise help real estate investors upgrade the experience of their occupants from the beginning. You can use online loft the board programming to make it workable for your inhabitants to rent your apartments on the web, make instalments (stores, leases, and charges) and submit fix and upkeep demands at a solitary spot. By utilizing innovation to make everything identified with your property fast and consistent, what you are doing, fundamentally, is upgrading their experience. Tech has likewise made it workable for real estate investors to screen all that is occurring across their whole portfolios. Regardless of whether it is monitoring the costs, checking the work being done, or putting together property information, tech-empowered property the executives must be probably the greatest advancement in this area.

5. Chatbots: Chatbots help in expanding deals of properties and advertising strategies. This online presence, without any human interfering, encourages the organizations to draw in likely clients. The standard data that is accessible through these Chatbots helps the investors and buyers explore through properties that meet their inclinations. The constant request encourages every one of the guests to the site consistently. All questions are quickly replied by the chatbot and there is no compelling reason to hang tight for a human reaction. If someone is interested in a property, they can get prompt help on it. Chatbots are accessible 24X7 consistently.

The realtors are restricted by timings, cut off times and are unquestionably not at our administration for the duration of the day. The chatbot resembles real estate agent, which will address inquiries of your clients, even past the working hours.

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6. Blockchain We are aware of the fact that real estate is inseparable from enormous and heavy transactions. The requirement for intermediaries, like government agents, banks or credit card companies to intrude in buys is wiped out due to blockchain technology. It diminishes the preparing expense and makes it simpler for investors to purchase commercial land. Smart contracts help in effectively finishing transactions between the buyers, renters, sellers and landlord.

The need for middlemen doesn't emerge on the grounds that the buyers can present their data sellers to the merchants in a scrambled structure. The disposal of these brokers like banks speeds up the cycle of the transaction and the odds of frauds lessen extensively.

CXO OUTLOOK April 2021

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CXO OUTLOOK April 2021

FEATURED ARTICLE

COVID 19,20 & 21: How the digital ecosystem has evolved in these 3 years?

Susheel Garg, Co-Founder, FreshBox Media

Susheel Garg is a marketing visionary who

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hails from Shimla. Being a Director at FreshBox Media, he has been instrumental in turning this Thane-based startup into a full-service digital marketing company. He comes with a deep-rooted passion for branding, content creation, integrated marketing & video production. From having a firm grip on the pharma industry to pushing the envelope in digital marketing, Susheel has been a marketing expert who is never afraid of thinking out of the box. His leadership quality helps all Susheel Garg

the teams at FreshBox to deliver path-breaking services in digital marketing and strategy, web and mobile marketing, and corporate communications.

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he ongoing crisis of the COVID-19 has forced an unimaginable acceleration in digital evolution and up-skilling across the globe.

It’s not just an industry that has impacted our lives but created an explosion of tech awareness that made us realise the importance of going digital. From using video conferencing for staying connected with dear ones to going cashless by paying online for day-to-day transactions, people managed to find a way through the lockdown to do things differently. This

CXO OUTLOOK April 2021

The pandemic crisis affected small scale businesses and many faced huge losses

led to a rise in digital awareness and helped us to make the most of technology.

With the pandemic situation, digital ecosystems soon became the norm as opposed to being just an exception. Companies began to realign their strategies that were now focused on connecting with their customers on a more personal level, and improving their overall brand experience.

Brands even walked the extra mile by taking initiatives that asked and acted on the feedback to create hopeful content and build a closer and stronger community.

As the digital ecosystem grew, there was a dire need to streamline the various processes for customer acquisition and loyalty. These were made possible by the various trends followed by brands which were as follows:

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• Adapting by Adding Value to One’s Service Zomato and Swiggy, India’s popular food delivery aggregators, followed a unique approach giving more to its customers in the form of offering services that went beyond food. This was largely due to the fact that the Coronavirus had paralysed India’s daily life leading to 30% of the restaurants and kirana stores closing down.

By doubling as e-kirana stores, these apps added convenience to the consumer’s life in the safest way possible. These apps proved to be a good case study for brands that refashioned their business models by adapting to the evolving situation.

• Attracting the Audience With Premium Offerings Neestream is a Malayalam platform that engages with the South-Indian audiences through original shows and movies. This platform gained momentum due to its wide range of streaming content. What makes Neestream stand out from the others

CXO OUTLOOK April 2021

is that anybody can watch movies for free unlike other OTT platforms where one has to pay for streaming. Neestream allows the viewer to watch entertainment and news for free.

One has to purchase a subscription package only if they want to watch the latest movies or newly-launched video content. As the audience can continue to binge on classics for free, the app turned to be a huge hit as it converted the free streamers into premium subscribers- as they now knew what they were in for.

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Digital ecosystems soon became the norm as opposed to being just an exception

CXO OUTLOOK April 2021

• Adopting New-Age Strategies from the Ground Up Businesses knew that they couldn’t afford to have employees missing out on important information such as company updates or the latest changes made to projects that the teams were working upon. That’s why, improving one’s internal communication became the need of the hour. With the implementation of the right employee communication technology, leaders and internal communications’ professionals were able to ensure the right flow of data in a timely manner. They were able to efficiently filter their customer base, personalise messages, send push notifications to employees’ mobile phones, and ensure that all the information was available and snackable in a matter of seconds.

• Uplifting Others With a Humane Approach of Marketing The pandemic crisis affected small scale businesses and many faced huge losses. This led to many brands going out of their way and following a humane approach in their campaigning.

Cadbury released an advertisement campaign during the Diwali festivity where they urged the audience to look out for the local vendors and businesses, and support them by buying and using their products and services. Through this initiative, they not only helped others to go digital but also showcased themselves as a brand- which cares for other brands!

As desperate times called for desperate measures, it became vital to understand how digital and physical channels could impact each other and help to drive massive customer opportunities. With the COVID-19 challenges, digital ecosystems aided in adapting to the current trends, adding value-based services, widening one’s scalability, and creating new ways to generate revenue streams. This only led to B2B processes becoming more flexible, and presented an accessible platform that contributed to a digital evolution in business.

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CXO OUTLOOK April 2021

FEATURED ARTICLE

Hiring and Firing in 2021

Umanng Mathur, Founder, Shortjobs Umanng Mathur founder of Eye Media Network

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has launched Shortjobs in July 2020, with a vision to resolve the gap between people who lost their jobs in this pandemic and the companies who are willing to hire employees on a contract basis. Having a major experience in Direct Marketing Advertising Communication, he decided to launch Shortjobs that will tackle the job crisis resulting from Covid 19. His main aim is to stimulate flexible work opportunities for people who can make a decision based on their interests and time availability and have an organized Umanng Mathur

working culture in India.

1. How has Technology become a part of our daily lives?

Technology has become the backbone of our lives and is inevitable.

Ever since the internet boom, technology has evolved and harnessed various tools and processes to make human life more simpler. Today one can not imagine a life without mobile phones and computers as it has become the most common form of communication. It has shrunk the geographical boundary and brought people closer. Technology has helped us in many facets of our lives such as in communication, education, in healthcare and in improving our overall productivity.

CXO OUTLOOK April 2021

The rise of advanced communication technologies has fueled this in a big way

Post pandemic when it was virtually impossible for people to meet each other or organizations to function normally, we relied heavily on various communication technologies and started to get back to normal. AI and ML have become integral parts of the business and various automation tools have become handy. All in all I can say that in today’s time we cannot imagine a life without the use of technology.

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2. How has the Pandemic affected the Jobs of People?

The corporate world has seen an unprecedented year in 2020 which was filled with a lot of uncertainty and a lot of volatility in the recruitment sector. A lot of organizations have tried to cope up with this pressure by re strategizing their hiring and opted for downsizing on a large scale. This has resulted in lakhs of job losses and changed the employment dynamics completely. Indian economy witnessed one of its biggest layoff drives in the last decade or so. Not only entry level candidates but even the experienced ones were also laid off. This has forced veterans and experts to come out of their comfort zone and look for other avenues to survive. Organizations have become lean and started to look out for an agile workforce which can adapt to technology and can handle multiple tasks at a time. Those who were affected realized that they also need to evolve and up skill themselves. Based on the findings by one of the prominent research entities, the unemployment rate went up to 24% in the month of April 2020 which was a huge eye opener for the Indian economy.

CXO OUTLOOK April 2021

Technology has helped us in many facets of our lives and improving our overall productivity 94

3. How has the hiring increased once companies have shifted to Remote Working?

Working remotely was not a common practice for Indian companies before the pandemic.

Companies are traditionally believed to have higher locus of control on the scheme of things which was not possible in remote working culture. Covid 19 changed this dynamic completely. The job location became an absolute criteria as organizations have realized that even after working remotely they can clock higher outcomes. The rise of advanced communication technologies has fueled this in a big way. This has opened the gates for companies to invite talent from any corner of the world and vice versa. Traditionally the

CXO OUTLOOK April 2021

jobs which were concentrated for Tier 1 cities have started to accept talented people from Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities as well. As per the recent Naukri Job Speak Index for the month of December 2020, the hiring has declined in metro cities such as Mumbai (-25%) and Delhi (-18) while the hiring has picked up in Tier 11 cities such as Chandigarh (+8%) and Jaipur (+2). This indicated a drastic shift in the hiring pattern post the remote working culture.

4. Can you tell us more about the growth of Freelancing during the pandemic?

One of the most defining outcomes of the pandemic was the rise of the freelance economy in India and the fact that people have started to accept that freelancing can be a full time profession as well. A report by ASSOCHEM has predicted that the gig economy in India will be approx. USD 455 billion by the end of 2023. Freelancing offered a lot of positives to employees such as flexibility in work, better control over their career, simultaneous work experience, alternative income and independence. One interesting statistics suggest that India’s freelancing workforce is the second largest in the world with 15 million people contributing to almost 40% of the world’s freelancing workforce. This number is surely going to increase going forward.

5. What are some of the Hiring Trends to watch out for in 2021?

My hunch is that hiring will evolve significantly in 2021. Few key trends that are ought to occur in hiring will be as below: • The rise of freelancing and Gig workforce hiring • Skill based hiring • Hiring from remote locations will increase • Data driven and AI based hiring will be a need of an hour • The focus will be on internal talent upskilling and internal mobility • Sector such as IT, healthcare, e-commerce, logistics, and e-learning will become crowd pullers and will see a surge in hiring

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CXO OUTLOOK April 2021

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CXO OUTLOOK Higher Education Digest April 2021 October 2020