 Hello and welcome to another episode of our special cities meeting all odds in this series. We are recognizing we're honoring leaders who despite all the challenges and problems in which is thrown at us by this lockdown are ensuring that economy and our businesses remain active. They're trying to contain the damage that this crisis can cause. With me today is one such special leader Mr. Naveen Khemka media CEO media com South Asia. Mr. Khemka especially is very special because it's very difficult to catch him. It took me 3 years to get an interview with Mr. Khemka. Thank you so much for having me. Thank you so much. This is actually a very good time. Most of the times I would get replies like he's travelling, he's not available. Now I know all of you are at home. So at least that level of excuses is gone. At home but not alone. It's almost two weeks now that we're all at home and we're almost entering the third week. What are the challenges the main challenges that you have faced so far in running your business from home? I would say we were actually we saw this coming. Nazia to be very honest because we were following this situation very closely in our global offices of China which is where obviously it first and we saw it coming and therefore we were preparing ourselves for a lockdown like this almost three months in advance. So you know we took a lot of initiatives. Yeah we took a lot of when we started in China so we actually took a lot of initiatives and learnings from our China market and our China offices and and you know what we did was we actually started making sure that all our systems were checked for remote working. We also gave our entire staff almost 80 to 90% of our staff before the lockdown started. We actually also give them all laptops. In fact the day of the lockdown in the day the lockdown got announced and it was from midnight that day we obviously didn't have any more laptops to give away so we actually transferred all the remaining desktops to people's firms. So that was one thing that we did from a readiness point of view and also from a systems point of view we ensured that every system you know beat beat planning beat all the tools beat all the softwares beat my entire billing system everything was remotely functioning and a around the 12th or the 14th of March we actually went on a national lockdown ourselves as a group and we tested the entire system remotely and so as when the lockdown happened from our from a work point of view we were very seamless obviously we went a bit slow we went a bit slow because you know systems are a bit slow and everybody does not have fiber or you know very good broadband connections at home so it went a bit slow but yes from a compliance point of view from a GST point of view I think we are absolutely 100% compliant as we speak and all our clients whoever I reached out to and said that for the next two three months will be not sending physical bills will be sending e-bills and they are all GST compliant so every client has actually come back and said that they really appreciate this move and they will accept not physical but digital bills going forward so yeah so I would say apart from apart from not being in office the office is almost functioning I would say almost at 90% efficiency and 100% capacity wait you were even ahead the government yeah you know we are in a service industry and we have to be prepared for the worst so this is despite 90% efficiency from your side I don't know how many clients are actively working right now so particularly you have clients like make my trip you have clients like Hilton these industries have really been hit very hard by the crisis yeah you know you know there are two so yeah so it's a complete question yeah I was asking like what kind of solutions are you working on for industries like these or what do you suggest to other agencies also for media or hotels tourism or travel industries so yeah you know I would say I would say two things there are two scenarios one is the pre-lockdown scenario and one is the post-lockdown scenario in the pre-lockdown scenario pretty much we were getting briefs from all clients except for maybe yeah the travel and tourism and you know and the retail those were the sectors which are obviously very hard hit so those clients I'll deal separately pre-lockdown we were pretty much working for all clients we are working for fantastic campaigns in the April May in the April May June quarter in the April May June quarter and that being the largest quarter for us given that IPL happens in that quarter and given that you know a lot of start of the financial year we have a lot many new campaigns planned so things are pretty much normal once the lockdown got announced and which means the entire country has gone into the lockdown which means which means that you know the entire country is in lockdown which means all shops and markets are closed which means that even if people want to go and buy some products they can't so that is when the stress started when all the beef started drying up and all activities that were planned had to be pulled out or no new activity was no new campaigns were to go on air even though even though they were planned earlier basically led by the disruption I would say two things a people sitting at home obviously not having the opportunity to buy and second thing is obviously given the fact that the entire supply chain in the country got disrupted with so many trucks and so you know so many people got getting stranded on the highways and movement of goods between the states and the districts not allowed so that is how it the regular business got affected and some of the categories that got affected basically like like you're likely saying the retail the the multiplexes you know the the hotel industry in the travel industry because I make my trip is your client Hilton is your client absolutely how long will they take to recover or what kind of suggestions are you giving to these clients? Yeah so I think these clients basically what we are telling them and and we have we have constantly in touch with them and what we are telling them is they also realize that that you know when when there's a big storm and this is like a storm for that industry you cannot fight that storm. There's nothing you can do about this you have to just let the storm pass. So what we are telling them that's right so just hold your just have have have patients hold your horses do not get do not take anything which is knee jerk make your make sure that your teams are together make sure your employees are together keep the morale high keep the employees engaged and things will start looking up in the next four to six weeks. Engagement can you do at this time you know when your industry is shut? No so it's a good question actually so so you know we are in fact at media comm group M we are actively engaged with our with our teams so apart from forming WhatsApp groups obviously which everyone I think would have done by now so we have about 250 odd people everybody in that one single WhatsApp group and which is extremely active that's one the other things about what we are doing is that leadership level we are connecting with our teams on a daily basis in the mornings and the evenings something unique that we have done which now obviously everybody is appreciating within group M and also globally at media comm we identified there are about 20 kids 20 young people who joined media comm who are actually what we're calling them home alone what I mean by home alone in home alone is when the lockdown got announced you know they couldn't travel back home and they are not stranded in Delhi Bombay Bangalore staying all alone or staying with a roommate and obviously feeling lost so we've actually created a group called the home alone kids and I'm engaging with them on a weekly basis we've also connected them to a lot of people around them who did not they did not know earlier was staying very close to them so in case they need any help so therefore they don't feel as if they are lonely they don't want to be called the home alone kids yesterday those kids told me that that's very boring we want to be called flying solo so that's what they have named them they've named themselves flying solo and professionally what kind of engagements are are you people yeah so so that's a from a from a from a people point of view just keeping them engaged in fact one more thing we are also doing a lot of webinars we're also doing a lot of training sessions we are also doing some stand-up comedy acts getting some yeah we are getting some friends so that's people are really appreciating that so that's more from my engagement point of view so and from I would say from a work point of view I would say we are missing a lot of time in doing something which all of us want always wanted to do and never had the time so I would say we upscaling them we are rescaling them people have been told to take at least one initiative every week at least one you know we have hundreds and thousands of programs on our global pages which are like training sessions so everybody has said that every week they will do at least one of them and they are maintaining a tracker which all of us are tracking so yeah so I understand the work could be a bit less I understand that we are all working remotely but this is also the time to make sure that we are upscaling ourselves and a lot of clients actually have reached out to me and said can we organize some trainings for them so we are also also trying to see what sort of training can we organize for some of our key clients. So Vivo is one of your very big client and were you expecting something like IPL getting postponed or cancelled I don't know what kind of damage has it caused or I don't I just want to understand the scenario that what are you doing for Vivo right now because it's the title sponsor of such a big property which has been yeah which there's so much uncertainty about IPL now so yeah it's a fantastic question actually and with team Vivo we keep discussing it every day in fact as to what we should be doing so you know I think V as Vivo and Mediacom totally invested on IPL what IPL has done for Vivo is unprecedented Vivo's today household brand name today in the country right in such a short span of time and IPL has a huge role to play in that so we are totally invested with the IPL and we are in constant touch the team Vivo with the BCCI to find out what are the solutions that we can offer we definitely want IPL to happen obviously in conducive environments however if IPL cannot happen in this quarter so I'm sure between BCCI and Vivo we will you know come to a conclusion as to when is the best time to hold this tournament because everybody in the country looks forward to this tournament A because such a high viewership event A and also Vivo had lot of launches planned around this event so having said that we are still gearing up for our launches as in when the lockdown goes down and I'm sure yes yes of course of course no no so you know understand there are two things IPL is an opportunity for a launch however if IPL does not happen the business has to go on so therefore there is a plan B also in case IPL does not happen what will we do in the next three four months to make sure at least the three or four phones that are that are lined up for launches are done and also that the stock that is getting piled up right now because of the lockdown how are we going to liquidate that stock in a very short period of time so yeah there are multiple strategies being worked out as we speak right now and I'm sure I'm sure in the next two three two three weeks you will see a lot more a lot more of this taking shape if you really look forward to IPL it's more like a festival for the entire country so you also have a PNG you know which is a consumer beautiful client and it is the demand is still on so what kind of strategy do you have for a client like this which is irrespective of the lockdown or people are still going out they're still buying consumer products so PNG be still be advertising and spending on marketing right now yeah I would say I would say on a client like PNG which is obviously seeing seeing no loss of demand right now it is life as usual there I mean the teams are working on and PNG follows a July junior so therefore this is the time when my teams actually work on the annual presentations you know category by category we've been brief for the next year and we are working on those annual presentations and you know there's a lot of work happening from a from a July July June 2021 point of view so that's one part of the story and from an immediate point of view apart so I think they will be absolutely fine as in when the supply gets restored apart from that I don't think PNG as a client is facing any challenges so a the factory has to obviously the factories have to restart assuming one and be the supply chain has to get restored beyond that I think it's pretty much work as usual on PNG in fact we are doing some fantastic work for them for some of the brands of what we called as moment marketing now especially for for a brand like Wix there we have some some very innovative stuff right now around the COVID-19 and trying to you know propagate social distancing trying to propagate messaging in a very in a very Wix sort of a way talking in general not just for your clients this is the time when worship is at its peak you know people are spending back numbers we will have new back numbers today news worship has increased by some 200 300 times even GEC time spent on digital as well as TV has gone up so yeah should I mean there are that what what sectors can take advantage of this and you know still advertise is PNG or consumer or I mean I don't know you would know better which sectors can right now make use of this opportunity so you know I you know I would say I would say it isn't it isn't it is an opportunity it is a media opportunity but not necessarily it is a it is a it is a sales opportunity right because everything outside is closed even if you look at it from an online perspective even online players are facing a lot of disruption in distribution and how they will deliver and so on and so I would say yes the opportunity is big because people are spending a lot of time on media not necessarily would lead to sales so therefore one needs to be very careful one needs to be very careful into how they want to invest money behind this opportunity and I would say even grand-building today I would say one needs to be very careful because the environment the mood the mindset of people is extremely extremely negative so at this point in time do you want to obviously build a brand you want to build a new brand you want to say that my brand is so good for you and so on and so forth I'm not sure so I'm saying yeah you have to be very careful especially if you are an online brand like I would say like a gaming app or if you are the news news app or if you are a news brand want obviously consumption to rise on your platform so it's fantastic opportunity because people have the time and they will sample your product you have daily hunters also your client right yes of course of course so you know we have MPL we have MPL which is a very large gaming client and we have daily hunt and they are seeing unprecedented surge in in traffic onto their apps unprecedented so for them I would say yes it is an opportunity because people have the time to sample their products and people have the time to spend on their apps but for the others I would say yes the opportunity is there but it is not time to be opportunistic it is time to exercise a lot of caution so this this disruption has definitely will leave an impact on our economy we still do not know how long will this go on but looking at other markets how much do you think this is going to impact in if you have to give some numbers overall how much will it slow down I'm not yeah you know I'm not the authority for this but still you know I'm also reading what you guys are reading yeah I would say the revised GDP is around 2% to 2.5% so if that is about our industry yeah that's what I'm saying if you if you now correlate the GDP to the to our industry I would say I'm assuming the GDP is at 2.5% 3% this year from a growth point of view and pretty much I think we are looking at wiping off all the growth that we are projecting this year at the bare minimum so if you are projecting the growth of 8 to 10% for the entire industry I would say I'm assuming this quarter is the washout quarter or this quarter is when things will not be so stable and from July onwards possibly things will go back to normal and I would say pretty much we can we can say that you know the the growth that we are projecting for 2020 at least for this year for the 1920 for 2020 sorry is what is going to get wiped off and in case in case we de-grow as compared to what we did last year then then there are huge repercussions on the industry and and there are certain media which is already at a huge stress which are not going which actually de-growing they are the ones who will see a face the maximum burnt are you referring to print sector no I would not say yeah so there are there are mediums which are under a lot of pressure so today print is under pressure today our door is under such tremendous pressure because people are locked up at home today any so you know there are today cinema media cinema is under so much pressure because all cinema also closed yeah so I'm saying yes I mean I'm apart from TV and digital I would say in every other media will go through a huge amount of disruption and as an industry we'll have to then get together and see how we can what we can do to save save all these media from from going into a negative trajectory so before we close I would want you to give a message to the industry about how can we really all of us can come out of this situation despite all the problems and estimations that things are not going to be very good in the next few months what is that one thing that we can look up to and still hold ourselves I think it's a it's a very good question and I keep thinking about this myself and being responsible for almost you know as a group we are responsible for three to four thousand people directly indirectly on a day-to-day basis we also feel very responsible towards everyone who works with us and also obviously all our clients so I would say the three things actually I think and you know which I keep telling everybody now and I call it the three hours basically I think we should be a should respect everything this is a huge lesson for everyone we should respect everything human non-human irrespective of whatever small job that a person is doing the time has come to realize how interdependent we are on each other so yeah so respect everything and do not abuse the environment that's one be responsible I would say the second hour is be responsible as a citizen and everything is not about money everything is not about success so we have to be responsible and we have to do things which are right for the society and a third thing is restraint I would say the third hour we might have all the money we might have all the luxuries in life but a little bit of restraint is good just to take care of everybody so it's very important to follow these three principles and then ensure that we are living behind a fantastic company for our juniors or a fantastic world for our children that's how you look at it and professionally you know people who have just started up or maybe young entrepreneurs who just started a new agency what kind of piece of advice would you want to give them actually actually if you see my heart actually goes out to them to two sets actually somebody kids who've actually passed off class 12 and are waiting to start college kids who've actually passed out post graduation are waiting to join new organizations have job offers in and are looking for jobs those two those two two communities and the third one is obviously somebody who started a new setup my heart actually goes out to them because I think they are the ones who actually looking at life so positively there's so much to look forward to new job getting into college and suddenly life seems to be just being very cruel to them so all I can tell them is that we are all here to help them please do reach out to us in case any of you are in trouble and we will see how best we can help you so anybody who's getting into anything thank you so much for your time Mr. K. Mka and I really this was inspiring and I'm sure a lot of youngsters would want to reach out to you for help after this I wish you all the best stay at home and stay safe and thank you so much for talking to exchange for me there thank you sir thank you so much thank you so much stay safe and be in touch please thank you so much