 Welcome to this exchange for media presence, Reboot Mantra which is powered by Media Mantra. We're going to discuss the topic is technology trends transforming the workspace in 2020. And for this panel, I have with me, Nikhil Joshi, co-founder of Digital Jalebi. I have Teja Gudluru, founder Yuju, Vasudev Jagad Lamuti. He is head of online sales, Telugu. I have with me, Ram Malay. He is CEO of Webcof Meetings and Sonics Consulting. We have Kiran Dham, CEO of Globus Infocom and Mr. Uddit Bhattak, the man behind this entire concept. And thanks Karan, thanks for the introduction and thanks to all the NG4MT members who are there supporting us. We are live on Facebook. We will be taking questions later on. We expect audience questions. So before this, I just want to begin. This is a generic question just to set the tone of this conversation. Let me start with the proverbial ladies, first Kiran with you. Tell me, what has been the learning of COVID-19? What are the challenges that you faced? I just want to understand it. Very good afternoon to all of you and thank you for the introduction. I hope you all are safe and doing well. Absolutely, getting used to work from home. I think we have to be dragged to office next time. So let's accept that and it's become a norm now. So the pandemic has taught us, it's been quite a learning one actually. And a lot of challenges faced and though it was the challenges were there. But I as a person and representing an organization, took everything in the positive spirit and worked more on planning and training. Because we are in the Atec brand and we are making India brand. And we have designed and developed innovative solutions for the Atec vertical and the other verticals as well. Yes, that was the time when we self-introspected and went deep into the planning. We went more on product developments and we strategized ourselves and channelized ourselves. This is the learning which we have took from pandemic and we took in the right spirit. We launched a new vertical. Last week only we've launched a new vertical which is the healthcare and wellness. Looking at the current scenario, the COVID times and the products catering to that. So that was a learning one and we took in the right spirit. I think a lot of people have kind of innovated and introduced new things to suit the market sentiment. Of course, Nikhil, I know Digital Jalebi is doing a lot of innovative work. In fact, if I was looking at one of your presentations that you made for one of the big clients that is there. Tell me what has been the challenge for you especially and how have you looked at this place? I think the biggest challenge for companies like us who were in services model, we were meant to reinvent the entire thing. And the orientation and the way we were approaching our business completely changed because working in physical spaces, working on customer service-driven projects, that's something that was not there for the last couple of months, four months, hardly there were any projects. And this gave us an opportunity to see whether our team can come up with ideas, completely reinvent our business. Do we have potential to transform ourselves from services to products, approach the market in a completely new fashion, introduce the market to a new product segment which never existed. Like virtual events, like bringing retail stores to web, experiential retail stores. So it's an opportunity for us and we were able to pull it off. And it became a huge opportunity for even marketeers and clients to completely reimagine how powerful web is overall and how people sitting at their households just using basic hardware like entry-level mobile phones could still be a participant of going to a retail store, becoming part of a virtual event and interacting and investing into their product or the brand. So very, very interesting times for us, primarily for me when I look at eight years of running digital Jalebi and then last four months of transforming it completely. All the hard work has come to this, actually everybody is migrating to digital. Right, I just want to make this announcement that people can, you know, viewers can tweet using hashtag E4M webinar and we will take live questions also later on. I want to come to you Ram with your understanding of the last 100 plus days. What have been the learnings and challenges for you? Thanks a lot. Thanks for inviting me. Basically last seven years it's completely a different world. Last four months is a different world. What it's like the world has changed completely like before COVID after COVID like that. So we could, we look at what we were doing and this four months gave us a good opportunity to look at what innovations we are doing and what can be improved. And one of the initiations what we have done is online recruitments like using webcom meetings and even webinars like that. So we are planning to launch the product webcom meetings. Right now it's in the beta testing. So we had e-commerce platform earlier. As you know everyone started shifting towards digitalization. So we have converted this platform as a e-commerce as a service platform. Earlier we sell this as a product or a service like just like any other product. Now we've shifted the direction so that customers can also adapt at a cheaper price and flexible to be launched. Right. Mr. Vasudev, your thoughts? Thank you for your introductions. Good afternoon everybody. As you know Telugu, I keep telling everyone we are I think one of the very fortunate sort of companies which has you know been in this stuck in this COVID situation positively. I say that the kind of business we are in, we build remote communication and collaboration tools and as a business even though we've seen a large increase in the subscription for many of our services one of the biggest sort of challenges has been is to deal with some of our existing customers. You know some of our customers in the education space in the marketing financial services a lot of them you know took a big hit and I think that impact is also sort of showing right now. And as our work has increased I think one of the key sort of things we've seen is we started to work a lot harder, right? A lot more hours and as a result I think a couple of months in most of us started getting burnt out. Like one day I just like put my you know my out of nowhere and I was like I'm going to take a two hour nap a colleague of mine called and like hey we had a meeting I was like you know what no more meetings are the day I'm done. And from there to you know right now seeing colleagues sort of call like three four days in just to take a break from things I think that has been one of the biggest challenges having you know all this additional work come in. We used to be a five day work company but we started putting in a six day to sort of pick up you know all the extra additional service that we need to give our customers and so on. So I guess that front definitely things have changed but now we're totally starting to get used to this idea we started to take more breaks we are working you know different work hours earlier used to be like a fixed sort of thing but now we're trying to work in our own times. What else? Yeah I think digital sales has picked up for sure I think we're picking up on channels like LinkedIn and Instagram as a B2B company to be there earlier we never dreamt of it but now we're exploring a lot of digital channels to sort of make up business and stuff. Right, right. Sure. What has changed? Mr. Tej, I want to come to you with your thoughts on what has been your observation of the last 100 plus days. I think I don't know if it is a pattern with Hyderabad startups. I would like to second what Vasu said. I think we are placed in a brilliant position right now while it is unfortunate that the pandemic has happened. I think we've been around in the business for about couple of years as one of India's first expert advice freelancing kind of an app and I think the last 100 days has seen a surge in number of people wanting to freelance I think there is a general environment out there which is of anxiousness and anxiety about either the fear of losing a job or wanting to have create passive income sources for for one selves. We've also introduced I mean going with the flow and the requirement of the market we've also introduced video conferencing and a lot of other facilities as well. Our larger vision always has been to provide Indian resources by the way about 30% of the world freelance resources come from India. So we wanted to create a platform where the big economy of India is showcased to the rest of the world. There are already some competitions that we have but we kind of looked at an audio video consulting where freelancers can actually charge for the services right within the app rather than chasing through other sources and the last 100 days we've seen a surge in the amount of people wanting to consult wanting to freelance. So they couldn't be a better time for us at this point of time and we already have more than 3,000 fully qualified experts in about 13 verticals and just like some of our big big Indian company diaspora, we are one of the only startups in India that is not funded yet we are bootstrapped completely and we are also competing with some of the big heads by giving away free video conferencing solutions as well. Uditha coming to you Uditha is also my co-moderator by the way he is going to ask questions as well but before that I want to understand from you so you have a very unique perspective you understand the space what they're coming from and yet you have an outside view. What have you been observing in this landscape of businesses adjusting to this new normal and as Mr. Teja said you know freelancers become the norm. I mean how are you seeing that developing? First of all everyone has to believe that nobody was ready for this pandemic at all. None was no brand, no agency, no PR firms were ready for it. So as quickly as one could have adopted everybody has done that. I will take this in two parts I would brief as an entrepreneur because I'm sitting with a lot of entrepreneurs here so you know first thing which has changed for every office or every you know workspaces that how could we from a physical office turn into a virtual space with probably 100 days back if you would have asked me this question I would have said hang on we can never do that because there are clients demand which keeps coming in and we have to sit discuss strategize for clients so we cannot do that right but now we believe and now since you know we got in the technology as well in the workspace and we have got quantifiable data wherein which says that the productivity of employees have increased it has not dipped ever since in the past 100 days and that has definitely been a what do you call it a change for us as well and our thinking as well so you know that has happened. The second is you know how as a firm we changed our business model because we are also a service firm right which all businesses were be focusing on luckily for us we have always been working with a lot of B2B startups we have always been working with a lot of growing firms right and luckily we also have been working with firms startups or clients who believe that communication is important tool for them right so today also you know whether it's a pandemic whether it's not a pandemic you know if the offices is going on if the clients are working they have to communicate right they have to communicate to their target audience and how will they do that they will do that via PR firms or via going to digital audiences or something like that right so I think we have adopted pretty quickly we have been working with a lot of brands who are growing we are trying to encourage the opportunity in a lot of these video conferences applications and also looking at working with a lot of gaming platforms as well because I believe there's a lot of work there so I think what needs to be happen what needs to happen is you know we need to strategize and change our business model we can't work as a traditional business we can't think that okay our retail FMCG client would come in and give us higher retainers no we have to be innovative in our business model and think of businesses which are growing and you know think of businesses whom which we can partner with so we have done that and touch wood we are also in a position where in I think yes there have been few changes as our restructuring which has happened but yes we are seeing that you know brands are very matured and they are communicating with their target audience they understand the need of communication and I'm pretty happy to see that brands are understanding it we don't have to go and make them understand today so before you dawn the moderator cap I just want to go a quick round of question my second question but I want to request everyone to stick to like one minute to it so that we have a lot of questions for our questions one is I want to start with you again Nikhil tell me what are some of the opportunities you said that you know this has kind of been a moment where digital players I think they were not waiting but it just happened and they are catching on it so how exactly are you catching on this moment and also when you look at the tools and technologies as far as enterprise communication is concerned has it how has it kind of evolved in the last three months plus so the best part about what has happened so pandemic is very bad and all of what has happened is very unexpected but the best part about it it has prepared audiences it has prepared marketers it has prepared clients to quickly jump on to the digital and they are more than ever prepared to invest into digital experiment with new things that's the biggest opportunity that we see what we are doing is trying to bring new ideas develop new concepts like bringing a retail store to digital making an entire virtual walkthrough or a seminar that used to generally happen physical seminars that used to so there's so many briefs that are lying around which were requirements for physical spaces never thought to be for digital now clients are ready to pick it up in digital if we are able to conceptualize bring them a POC do something for them so that has been a big opportunity when we talk about enterprise communication I think there was always a question of the learning curve people were in India generally when we started to work people would always want for an important meeting they would always want you to be there physically to be there I have several times traveled to Mumbai Bangalore and we're not just for an hour long meeting because the key guy wants to meet you but that has completely changed now the absorption rate the trust while I and you are sitting here and talking to each other has built up this wouldn't have happened without the pandemic in the sea so I think enterprise communication was always there but the big push is coming right now where the trust as well as the idea of not trying away from the learning curve is there people are picking up new apps every day people question zoom and then question Google Meet and they say we need a better app and they are ready to jump on to a new app and then learn the interface that was not there people were just looking for very very they always wanted to people either be physically there or just give them a call so I think it is a very very interesting scenario for both creators developers people who are entrepreneurs as well as clients both are very very both are ready to jump into this together and innovate quickly innovate and build new opportunities for the market what have been the opportunities for you that have been created in the last 100 days and also the shift in enterprise communication the tools that we are having around how do you see them have the change how have they shift up if you can just tell us yeah yeah the question we want to add something Nikhil you want to add something no no no okay okay okay so the first and foremost thing is that the pandemic has taught each one of us whether we being the providers or the users the consumers to be agile and adaptable that's the major change which has happened and beautiful imbibition of technology in their day to day business meetings or conferences now earlier what used to happen was that you know as Nikhil rightly said that we had to travel for one meeting to meet the key guy that was there that was in our minds we were working like that we were tuned like that but now the transition is beautiful everybody has accepted it and people have shifted and try to you know they are trying to inculcate that sense that it can't be equal to a physical meeting but yes to a physical meeting which has now become virtual this is the new norm so that's why we also tweaked our business model we went on lot of developments on the online sales model online learning tools video conferencing solutions which is software based so everything is shifting to contact less which is the need of the art so that's why we are working a lot on making the solutions you know just accessible to the users so that the whole businesses they come back to the normal and this is the only way we can come back to normal through technology that is the need of the art so lot of video conferencing solutions lot of online learning solutions so that the learner the student and the teacher can access knowledge can deliver knowledge in one go and the delivery of knowledge should not stop now schools are taking online classes through these virtual solutions available and we now being a make in India brand are coming up with the most affordable solutions which is the need of the art so that every Indian citizen every Indian student and every teacher can use them effectively that's the whole idea behind it Right, Ram I want to understand from you how effective have these enterprise tools been in the last 100 ways of course you know I mean as Nikhil also said that you know there's a certain kind of credibility to it it was there before but we never we just will fly down to the other city just to be there for one hour what has I mean what has been the behavioral change in the use of these tools according to you Yeah, so generally we have a say like any change we do right it can be for a good reason or it can break up something so what happened the change was not intentional it was forceful so people have not left with much of the choice so what has happened is all manufacturing industries all automotive industries and healthcare any other major the way they were operating sometimes they were adopted to the enterprise practice system so long that it takes a lot of time to transform themselves now it could be an opportunity for them to relook at the way they were operationally it's definitely one of the not say pandemic is good but the transformation that enterprises have adopted is always a positive side to consider so people are responding positively even a lot of customers where we are working earlier they were like thinking in the olden generation days like we need to call the customer support and get the issues resolved now it's all more like a next generation where you are using chat boards more effectively and now if you see more or less like internet companies also like driver and few other stuff they go to whatsapp based service request like that so everyone will slowly transform use this enterprise companies will start using the technology in a better way Vasudev so how how are these technologies making a seamless experience between the client and the customers how is it happening you know I mean for all the business and the clients and directly with the customers I can give you an example of a business that is never actually we never had them that they would use technology to reach out to their customers so I speak of agro tech companies and chemical fertilizer companies and they are actually reaching out to farmers digitally via an audio conference or a video conference that they have so this is unheard of I mean earlier they used to have farmer meats and very physical in person sort of thing but now given the sort of importance farmers play in our ecosystem in the food production supply chain all these companies have decided that to bring farmers to sort of bring their products to farmers they started to educate them using some of these remote conferencing tools and collaboration tools and this is something to be here at the state because suddenly a lot of these traditional companies have started like some of these guys were saying even the mindsets have changed all of a sudden right so they are considering expanding their boundaries probably moving to markets that they never imagined they could reach out to because digital is so powerful so yeah Teja do you agree how much do you agree with what people have said before? Of all the people that have spoken I think I will echo what Nikhil and Kiran said and I think one of the biggest challenges for startups especially that have moved out of the paradigm and trying to do something differently is we have to spend so much money energy and effort to educate the market in terms of why they should stop using traditional methods and adapt to easier ways perhaps and perhaps even cheaper ways of reaching out to consumers or various communication tools the pandemic has made it easy for us I think consumer behavior overall I think there is a sense of that education in the market because of a dire need right now that perhaps these startups can help us and the other key thing and I think I don't think this is specific to India but generally consumers tend to trust bigger companies easily even though it is perhaps not a right solution for them I think Nikhil mentioned Zoom or even GeoMeet or some of the other tools they are only an enhancing software they are not a digital solution but still they would prefer that rather than supporting the startup because of the consumer behavior and we slowly already see that changing and consumers are more than happy to try out cheaper but more innovative products that are originating from India I like the fact that Kiran at least couple of people have mentioned make in India and I think that's also very important and that's a culture that's I think getting picked up as a consumer behavior right now in the market Udit your words finally since you are a thought leader in this domain and you have seen the communication before there was enterprise you know there were tools around it but now I think the scenario is different what exactly is that scenario I just want to understand I think things have changed and they have changed drastically look at what we are doing right now we are virtually connected and we are connected with almost what 100 or people discussing something which is the need of the earth right this is this could have only happened because of this pandemic and because we are in this situation because we are somebody is running from Hyderabad and somebody is from Noida etc right so this has changed so has our industry and communication also changed I have seen what social media has done today is you know or online media has done today you know we could have thought probably this would happen after 3 years right we have done that in the past 100 or days you know connecting with each other we are connecting nonstop with our teams on a regular basis at least 4-5 times in a day and talking to them which we would have not done that usually I personally as an entrepreneur or as a leader of a firm have connected with people whom I would have never connected during my day time right you know I have connected with account executives who are at a junior level which who are doing phenomenal work right but I have realized what potential they have today and I am making sure that they come out and perform more this could have only happened during this time otherwise I could have gone to meet Teja in Hyderabad gone to meet Kiran in Noida and probably get a business right but now I can picture virtually Nikhil or Kiran said and Teja as well that I can pitch them virtually and get businesses so I think this has this has taught and there are lot of industries which are giving especially looking at make in India right especially even after even though the disease is still there even though the numbers are increasing I can see people being optimistic I can see people having some kind of positivity and saying that okay the businesses are going on and you know what has happened and what has changed businesses have started trusting businesses together they are supporting them you know I remember when lockdown happened a lot of queries came into us stating that you know we might want to hold the communication we might have to hold this we might have to but then you know they themselves came back and realized that okay no this is an important thing we can't stop communicating until unless you are in a industry like what probably travel is right now right the entire industry is gone if that is gone you don't have to communicate now you have got different industries gaming is booming video conferencing is booming there are other innovative you know applications which are getting launched make in India is happening look at us we were not even manufacturing one PPE kit we have started manufacturing so many so there is a lot of opportunity we all have to be optimistic and I think entrepreneurs like you know have started being optimistic and trusting each other and definitely looking forward to I know this is a tough phase but then we all have to live with it for at least for next one year that is what I feel right yes totally totally I think that efficiency I mean that has been part of this in the last 100 days I mean without traveling and we get equal the same kind of results also in my conversation with one of the marketing experts they said that people will only remember those brands that have communicated during these tough times and those brands that have been silent during this time they have to face the other side of it you know post pandemic anyway I let Uday take the moderator go moderator chair for some time now yes please you can go but don't ask me the question of course so again you know my question is to everyone let us start with Kiran you know the question is you know looking at that and you know we were just talking about making India as well do you see there is a scalability which can happen during this time as businesses as your business right do you think that you can scale right now or totally as a business as a whole how do you feel that industry will move now especially when you are into a tech you are somehow connected with other platforms as well right so how do you think the industry would move yes I strongly feel that scalability will happen and we are doing scalability in our organization because we can see that the demand is encouraging for these online learning solutions for healthcare and wellness products people are going to go in for these solutions now healthcare and wellness this is the dire need during this pandemic somebody has to go in for a thermal CCTV camera or a sanitizer which is contactless at the entry of the premises because we are following the work from home culture but gradually that also is unlocking we are you know we ourselves as an organization are doing rosters now we are calling alternate days you know we have started that to call people on alternate days so we are now gradually unlocking ourselves so these solutions are there work from home culture is imbibed it will be there for I think I can't comment on that but yes for a certain amount of time till the time you have a vaccine so yes we can see that demand coming it is encouraging that the need for a video conferencing solution or an online learning solution is there so scalability is happening as far as both these verticals are concerned and we would do our bit accordingly okay thank you Teja what do you think about it I think like I said you know I think one there's a famous thing that most people use when which is against bad movies or bad products being bought which is when the buying stops the selling stops too I think now the buying has started for a lot of things online which means there is obviously a lot of opportunity for Indian companies to scale up and I think overall some of the initiatives taken up by the government are helping people to now look at the workforce or by opportunity to look at Indian products which is a great sign I think for all of us so yeah from that perspective I totally second what the others because I've been saying here Mr. Ram yeah definitely there is a lot of scalability options are available even the way we are operating also we are seeing the existing matter of adoption we are doing the sales earlier how we are doing the scalability we just have to restructure the operations okay Vasudev I should ask me from a scale point of view I think in this kind of an economy where everything is down and they're all looking at growth I think talent plays a key role and given the pandemic earlier you were sort of restricted to a single city or a location where you were now you have a larger talent to choose from possibly all over India even globally so I think from that point of view we all help position the scale Nikhil your thoughts on this yeah I would just want to add what Vasudev said earlier when we used to hire people scaling obviously is happening with all these opportunities we were always trying to the geographical idea of hiring people in Bangalore for Delhi offices for Mumbai offices now with the idea of everybody sitting at their home just using a laptop to work we can hire talent across the world and that's something that has changed in us also and that is giving given us a lot of opportunities we are hiring amazing talent from across the world and they are interestingly they are also delivering across the world so for a company like us we are not now bound to geographical boundary of India where we were just giving our services to a northern India region we are getting projects all across the world like Brazil and countries in Africa we haven't heard from so very very interesting times and yes scale scalability is happening and interesting patterns we are seeing very interesting patterns also and just another one so again the same order you know so Kiran how do you think that the customers attitude has changed in the past 100 days do you think that I know when I was going through your website and I remember that you're working with a lot of government clients also government projects as well do you think that there has been some kind of change because you know government usually works in a traditional manner do you think there is a shift which has taken place if you could just throw some light on that it's a generation shift it's not a normal shift it's a generation shift in the minds of the consumers and as far as the government fraternity is concerned very encouraging I must compliment you know the government fraternity on that because they have moved on from that mindset of having a traditional classroom to now having a digital classroom which is fully equipped whether it is the content whether it is enhancing on the linguistic skills now they are focusing a lot on going in for implementation of digital labs in the schools in which we are giving them the K-12 content and the English Hindi Sanskrit language contents to enhance these skills of these students whether and it is for the government schools only so it's a generation shift in the minds of the consumers and it is pretty encouraging and I should compliment them on that whether it is government or corporate schools or you know shifting from a traditional classroom to an online classroom though we are not replacing teachers we are just making technology enable them to deliver knowledge effectively that's the whole motive alright okay Teja what has been your case in terms of the customers and consumer shift? I think for a long long time companies have preferred the large brands you know I can now see the shift even with my corporate clients where people who preferred spending a million dollars for a product that probably originated from outside of India just because they said well you know what we don't have a choice Indian products don't have the quality which means they never even bother to explore some of the Indian alternatives that were there always now they are spoiled for choice because now I think they started realizing that hang on we don't have to spend a million probably for less than quarter of a cost of that we are probably getting a lot more features we are being ripped off so as companies look to reduce their overheads and become lean and mean because businesses have been impacted as well I think the focus has moved to looking for a solution centric partnership rather than a cost centric partnership because I think with Indian startups bouncing onto the plethora of platforms right now I think they spoiled for choice and now the focus is more on who gives us the best features rather than who is just copying what the international market is talking about and I think Indians were always ahead in terms of bringing out brilliant solutions unfortunately previously we had to move out of India to kind of become successful I am now seeing a trend like what Nikhil was saying where the world is now coming to us because whether it is talent skill resources or costs there are very few countries in the world that can match what we can provide for our clients so from that perspective I think it's a brilliant transition a generation like what Kiran said. Nikhil your take? I would want to add something what Teja said so it's also because what's happening this shift is also happening because people have started critically looking at things before the pandemic they were just looking at the packaging and looking at something coming from Silicon Valley and not Noida or not Bangalore but now they are since they are using these tools these tools are their only way to connect to the outside world they understand what a feature really means what a bandwidth means in a video calling service how to judge the quality and once they get into the critique they can value and understand and can look at a product whether it is Indian or Silicon Valley company that hardly matters what has happened in my industry also I come from the new media industry which is largely AR, VR fancier technologies these were very fancy technologies these were not meant for day-to-day client these are not meant for like a proper conference or a meeting happening in a large organization these were just meant for events and do quirky stuff now this pandemic has given people an opportunity to try out more immersive techniques because they want to enhance their experience of talking to someone like becoming holoportation they are very very fancy concepts of getting holoported becoming a hologram you looking at someone so all of you who are speaking to me right now could be just sitting in my room so these technologies and these concepts were there but now people are ready to invest experiment with these products and they are coming to real life that has been a huge shift this would have taken many years like someone rightly said this would have taken I think you were telling 3, 4, 5 years this could have taken 5 years for us to achieve but now it's happening for months yeah yeah that's right Vasudev your take on this you are on mute now I said from a shift in consumer mindset I think one of the key things is willingness to sort of learn and try new things like how Nikhil and you know Kiran and them are saying it's willingness to actually experiment you know give more chances to the Indian startups alternative products I won't say necessarily cheaper but in some cases obviously they are cost conscious but I think that as a whole is great for business earlier communication was around okay you're a brand or you're not you know then if you're not a brand you're probably selling cheaper but now that people are willing to try I think it will be an interesting sort of time to you know gain digital gains yeah that's right Mr. Malik your take yeah yeah there is an interesting conversation happened with one of the client very recently we were asking couple of we were having some small discussion with CFO, CEO and couple of other management team so who will actually play key role in digitalization is generally a CTO or a CFO or sometimes management had some pressure like you have to transform because of so and so challenge business challenge like that now who is playing major role here is a COVID not like CFO, CTO or any other person so whatever reason happened but now it's a positive side for most of the companies to have a reason for adoption like earlier what used to happen you will have a lot of reasons not to adapt to the new technologies now it's kind of a new norm where you have a chance to experiment something and then you know transform the company using the digitalization so I would say everyone has to reinvent and re-look at the strategies what they are following so yeah so one last question and then we move to the audience questions because there are a few questions which have come in and anyone could any 2-3 people could answer this you know about what so this is a question related to communication so what do you think has been your communication mantra to get the business objective now this could be anything right so why don't any one of you probably Kiran, Teja, Nikhil, anyone could answer this what is your communication mantra and what do you say what will you talk to young entrepreneurs you know we're just starting especially during this time I know a lot of people who started in January and they had to shut their offices in March so what will you say to them I can go first maybe and I think you kind of answered that already Udit in your intro about how you're probably communicating a lot more right now 2020 for most companies is about survival and you just said that right of course growth there are companies are still growing in this tough times the communication mantra for me is over communicate of course within the feasible limits but communicate at least twice more if you were only reaching out to your existing customers you know make it twice because as much as it is important to acquire new clients right now it is also important to keep the clients you already have because they're spoiled for choices right now so over communicate be in touch with your teams be in touch with your clients at least twice more than than what you were doing previously because there's a lot of noise out there on social media or marketing channels everybody is going digital keep your clients close to you and then perhaps look at acquiring because it's all about survival this year I would like to add on on what Teja said communication mantra for us as an organization in this pandemic I would like to focus on that area that we believe in being supportive first and foremost and we empathize with the whole ecosystem around us as an organization you know because there are a lot of insecurities in young minds that's why I'm telling this so you know point as far as I'm concerned that there are a lot of organizations who have gone in for layoffs for you know pay cards for restructuring their organization and things like that but we as an organization have not done a single layoff and we have done 100% pay off of salaries during this pandemic which has brought in whether it is for our employees or whether it is with our vendors and the whole ecosystem which we have created around us we have done our bit that has led you know a sense of deep trust towards one and all and we you know now people are saying that it's a dream organization that they would like to work with because we have been supportive we have empathized we have inquired about our customers health their families health our employees families health so we have been supportive throughout and that has been our mantra throughout this pandemic yeah so as long as you are doing external communication internal also plays an important role and that is what you have done Kiran thank you those to you Nikhil Vasuli yeah quickly I think our mantra has been to tell our clients that let's innovate and there's nobody judging so there were a lot of apprehensions in client's mind when it comes to experimental media experiential media what will work what not will work is this a good technology will it become too fancy I think this is the right time for them to open up their gates invest into experimental experiential stuff and see because everybody even the customers who are sitting at their own they're pre open to any sort of idea and they would like to interact take participate in something which is interesting so and that is really picked up that's that's the pattern I am also seeing in a lot of our clients who are ready to experiment now all right I just have a yeah please okay so to add to what Teja said about you know a lot of noise being on various marketing channels I think my communication mantra would be is to be authentic you know number one and number two I think what Kiran has been doing to do with the ecosystem trying to you know be empathetic and sort of be there for her people and her clients I think one-on-one relationships are critical whether it's with your employees or customers and I think focusing on that is very crucial so there are some questions now I'll just go to it quickly so one of the questions that I received on my whatsapp is you know a lot of brands have gone silent you know thinking that this is cost cut and a lot of people say that this silence is not the silence that is needed this is a question for everyone I mean what are your broad thoughts about brands that think that going silent is the cost cut in fact you know how do you see that kind of a cost cut I think if I can quickly answer sure you can't really stop people from spending one way or the other they will start spending the economy will roll and I think it will be very short sightedness at the end of a client to look at just a couple of these months and say that they would want to cost cut from a marketing perspective or from an investment perspective this is the right time for them to invest and build their brand in the minds of their customers use innovative mediums and just go about communicating what they feel is right choose more efficient we have so many entrepreneurs here who are offering more efficient more cost effective solutions I think this is the time for them to innovate even from their practice point of view where their teams don't go about just googling some of the best brands but actually finding out good products that really work for them I will just keep it very short Rohail on that question with an analogy if COVID is like a building that has collapsed and you are stuck under that rubble don't stay silent because somebody is trying to rescue you Any other thoughts also they want to add something to it Yeah I think I agree with Teja now is the time to sort of stand up you know sort of make your authentic voice heard however that's easier to say than done because you know lot of companies are facing cash crunches and they have to sort of figure out where to spend their money so do I go to a PR agency or do I spend on a direct sales person what do I do with my limit so these are probably important right so this is another thing Odit for you this is for you this question that expectations that brands the clients have from agencies have also shifted you know in this new environment what are agencies doing looking at the way the industry is at the moment you know to go that extra mile is anything happening on that front is that needed also are clients also expecting that from the agencies right now I think not only clients everybody will do that right your internal teams they are also expecting much more what you were doing as an employer right Kiran right this is the time to be empathetic towards whether it is your internal stakeholders or whether it is your external stakeholders I think again innovation is the key you could want to support clients in whatever ways you could do you would want them to come out with different ideas and give it to them because remember clients though we have this panel and this panel is doing good for themselves in the business but there are clients who are not doing well as well right we have to remember that they are in a bigger problem than what we are today right so we have to stand their entire business model is disrupted we have to stand for them and say that you know we will work with you we understand you guys are going through a tough phase but that's fine I think businesses as a whole have to support each other today and if we do that ecosystem will flow you know what we have to think is that we have to support the entire ecosystem and we do that I think we will be able to sail through this so we are coming out with different strategies which are solving the business objectives of the clients and brands that's what our aim is right now whatever time it takes we will stand for the clients and I think Vasudev I will come to you because the last answer I think there was some audio drop please tell me yes you can continue that answer plus you can add to it this what I asked are there new expectations are there new expectations from your agency especially the partners and the communication partners are there some edit expectations that you have absolutely I think what was trying to say was you know earlier it was maybe getting you know a certain number of publications out or you being branded across some channels was your sort of deliverable but now I think businesses like ours will start looking at impact of actually having had all that presence so we will start to I think work with agencies that will think in our you know sort of long-term interest as well and very very result driven I think whereas before you know it is very like I don't know how to put it right but yeah it was just you know taking off some boxes I'll give you a few you know appearances on these sort of publications and then we'll try and get you some kind of coverage here I don't think that kind of work would sort of go down well with clients I'm talking again about clients like us Ajay I see you nodding I think you want to add something to it No I completely agree with what Vasu was saying and I think it's important and critical at this point of time to validate the expectations and to kind of match up to that as well so definitely the expectations have increased a lot of clients don't necessarily understand the software development life cycle as well so I think it's important for us to kind of balance it out so I completely second what Vasu said So there's one more question I'll come to you Ram for this that rebuilding you know so we are we say pre-COVID but right now this is a rebuilding part I think we are in a rebuilding process right now and in this rebuilding process brands will reposition themselves when you say reposition so that means you are involving experts somewhere the communication the other experts are part of the process tell me in this do you see a greater role for the entire PR space in this rebuilding process that we are witnessing right now? Yeah definitely like I mean during this read transition phase I'll say like we have two options right one is to focus on the actual transition or focus on the communication or any external issues like that so what it gives a couple of choices but what we thought is like do you let's focus on the basic strategy and the progress and the innovation and right sorry sorry I'll also how do you Nikhil I'll come to you I'll come to you with the same question do you see this rebuilding phase having greater interaction between brands and PR the interfaces even more than before I think like we need to be empathetic towards our employees clients have become more empathetic towards people and especially their partners they've understood that technology can do wonders for them and even these time people like us agencies that are supporting them can come up with really innovative ideas to help redefine how their businesses should keep working so I see more cooperation more coordination and more understanding when it comes to client interactions nowadays and the trust is even higher so very interesting time for us Kiran your thoughts yeah I agree you know the relationship between a PR agency or we as an organization obviously we have you know re-structured or retweet our business model and this is what we have communicated and this is what they would communicate and they would you know strategize so it will be hand in hand whatever will happen it will be hand in hand and you know it's not rebuilding a brand I think it's aligning your brand towards the current scenario so whatever communication is done for a particular brand that has to be in sync with the current times not typing about it but it has to be exact this is what I would want to say I think one more thing I just want to say one thing I think we all need to together create a narrative of positive sentiments that is very very important today you know I know people in my office looking up to me and thinking how is the business going you know you might not give exact numbers to them but then you have to talk to them that okay this is what is happening in the organization because they are also dependent on us right similarly at your external stakeholders are as well right so we all have to build positivity yes it has happened it is going to stay now look at the other options come out with positive sentiments that is what I feel totally right Vasudev you want to add to it sorry you might have to repeat your question sure sure so I was talking about this rebuilding process you know the phase that we are in and the relationship between clients and agencies how is that panned out you know this is new to all of us right it's like all of us are in a very similar position of uncertainty we know our businesses but the environment has changed for everybody right so I think it would definitely help to have a partner thinking for you an outsider with a different perspective and sort of help you align with your you know more sort of recent or more you know more aligned with the recent goals so yes I think it will be about you to have an apartment for you also right as Uddit as teacher said that you know we are in it's like the example of that collapsed building and you have to shout and do you think you know they have to actually do that shouting to survive or I mean what is it like see yes I am asking Uddit yeah Vasudev do you want to go ahead please go ahead yeah I think when he said shouting I don't think he literally meant it but I think definitely trying to stand out like I said earlier trying to bring your authentic voice out I feel all companies have a unique DNA and being able to communicate that is very important now so yes I think sorry Uddit also important that we don't change our vision focus and business plan too quickly just because the market and I've seen a lot of my friends who have startups do kind of quickly change their vision or their strategy I think to also validate that is important just wanted to come in and say that right right right Uddit your thoughts on this via communicating doesn't mean that you have to overdo your communication it means you have to do purpose driven communication right you should know what is your purpose of doing communication right you should know your business objective and I think yes the modes might have changed there might be a change of you know there would be a lot of digital media which would come in there would be a lot of there would be less of traditional media but then you still have to communicate so I think business models are which were doing fine they have shifted but then they are still communicating so I think purpose driven communication would play a very very vital role and how are our agencies able to create an impact and grow together with the clients would be the next thing which will happen in the industry and that's that's what my call is right I can see we have one minute do we have some more time Karan or we are over with it because I can just ask maybe a 10 second not 10 seconds this is our TV so 20 second quick comment you know finally the reboot mantra in 20 seconds you know if I have to call it you know you have touched upon it in 20 seconds what would be the reboot mantra for brands as far as communication is concerned just work harder be smarter innovate come up with new ideas that's the reboot mantra for us for anyone Kiran very positive very important I think very important I believe in that strongly and the organization ethos is also like that so stay positive everything else will fall in place for you that's the reboot mantra Vasudev I would go back to saying about how we have to all be authentic and focus on scaling what we have with one-on-one relationships whether internally or with clients so yes that would be the reboot mantra I would say stick to the core basics and the strategy what you have been started later on like add-ons can change the transition can happen but your core foundation and the basics should not change whether it's you are close to this but to keep you keep your trust going on and then it should eventually give the right Teja your thoughts it's always sad to be the last one on this because I agree with Nikhil and Kiran but I think one more thing I would add to that is to have an absolute sense of gratitude if you still have a business that you are able to run you still have employees that are passionately working for you you still have customers who believe in you I think you are in a much better position than most global brands so I think to have that sense of gratitude and be positive I think is my mantra for now so the mantra is also part of the company that you represent too so what is that mantra? I think innovation is the most important thing and the second is keep learning this is the time to unlearn a lot of things which you have done in past and learn a lot of things which you should do and the third important thing would be if you were not multitasking you will not be able to survive today you have to do two things you have to do 100 odd things today I see my wife who is also my co-founder managing the house managing the teams talking to the clients so these are a lot of things which they are doing we would have not done that she has not done that in the past 8 years yes she would sit in the office and come back but then everybody has to multitask and keep learning newer and newer things absolutely I think our time is 2 minutes but thank you very much everyone for joining us it's been a great conversation and hopefully maybe we get another chance to have this conversation thank you once again thank you all of you thank you