People Matters: The State of Digital HR - November 2020

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can react to it. How can you navigate these challenging times? This is also the time to relook at the entire business model. It’s time to press the reset button and introspect how you would do it differently. What are the learnings from here and how well you can prepare yourself for the future? I am an eternal optimist and I believe this too shall pass. We can’t lose hope. Sometimes it is also a good strategy, to just sit tight and weather the storm.

The person who inspires me the most is Richard Branson, but now I would also add Reed Hastings fine-tune, tweak your business, make course corrections and be in a pole position to take advantage when things are back to normal. But it all depends on the area of your business & it is not that one size fits all.

As an entrepreneur, what is it that motivates and drives you? You are outside of your comfort zone & life becomes more challenging. There is no security of a paycheck at the end of the month. There is a certain amount

of uncertainty that makes you come alive. When you wake up every morning you feel the adrenaline rush. The good thing is, you have the freedom to do what you want. It is the whole feeling of having found a purpose to pursue things that you are truly passionate about.

In one word, describe your life as an entrepreneur and who inspires you? Master of my destiny. And the person who inspires me is Richard Branson, but now I would also add Reed Hastings to it. What advice would you offer to other entrepreneurs who are planning to take the entrepreneur route amid the crisis? Not everyone can become an entrepreneur. It’s a tough journey & these are challenging times. Don’t get carried away only by the success stories. You need to have the courage and the conviction & more importantly the risk appetite. Once you have finally decided this is really what you want to do, then just go for it. Follow your gut & take the leap of faith. Though it’s a bit early, but what are the key learnings so far as an entrepreneur? Start small, Think BIG! Manage your cash flow well. Be frugal & conserve fuel for the long haul. november 2020 |

En t r e p r e n e u r s h i p

Throughout human history, crises have been pivotal in developing our societies. It has been said that never let a good crisis go to waste. The present coronavirus pandemic will arguably not be an exception; can entrepreneurs be expected to rise to the challenge? It all depends on the business you are in. Many entrepreneurs would have been wiped out or will be wiped out when this is all over. That is a sad reality. Some would have used their capacity and skill to pivot to another area of business. Not everyone has this luxury. In every adversity there is an opportunity, some will be able to take advantage of it. It’s not that entrepreneurs cannot rise to the challenge, many of them will, but some may just not have the resources to do so. These are challenging times.

There are two sides to a coin in the current situation and one of the theories suggests that if any business is able to launch successfully during these extraordinary times it’ll be well set up to thrive into the future. What’s your take on that? I am a big believer that you can’t wait for a perfect time to launch a business. A dear friend once told me ‘that perfect is the enemy of the good.’ My advice is, if you launch now, the expectations are less from everyone, so you can use the time to

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