No let-up for Indian CEOs as it’s work as usual

There is no let-up for Indian Chief Executive Officers (CEO) and it’s business as usual for them, even as the entire planet is crippled by the coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic.

Meena Ganesh, MD & CEO, Portea Medical

For Meena Ganesh, Managing Director and CEO of Bengaluru-based Portea Medical, the lockdown period is just another day. She starts her day at 6 am, spends an hour-and-a-half cooking, finishes other chore, and latter is ready for office by 9:30 am.

Now Working From Home (WFH), her first video-conferencing (VC) with the management team is at 10:30, and then the day is lined up with business calls till 5.30 pm.

“My work has certainty increased,” Ganesh told BusinessLine .

Ditto is the case with Sharad Agarwal, head of Lamborghini India, whose office hours start at 9.30 am, when the top management comes on a Skype call. This is then followed by a 90-minute Skype session with the team, before the day’s events unfurl, while his day typically ends with another VC by around 6:30 pm.

“I have a designated corner in the house, with my laptop connected to an external speaker. As schools have started online courses, my daughters also have their own corners,” Agarwal said, adding it’s usual for children to interrupt video calls with their doubts.

After a 45-minute fitness session (yoga or walking), Sharad Sanghi, CEO of Global Data Centers and Cloud Infrastructure (India) of NTT Ltd, starts his day.

Sharad Sanghi, CEO, Global Data Centers and Cloud Infrastructure India of NTT Ltd

“Then there are scheduled calls with each departments, from people running data centres to personnel in charge of finance, connections and the sales team to keep them motivated,” Sanghi, who uses Microsoft Teams and Cisco WebEx, said.

At times, taking a break from meetings, Sanghi accompanies his 21-year-old daughter, a Hindustani classical and Bollywood singer, on tabla.

‘Similar pace, process’

As the lockdown continues, Benetton India MD and CEO Sundeep Chugh is maintaining a “similar pace and process” as before.

He wakes up at the same time and starts the day with indoor exercises. The daily meeting with his core team is at 10 am, but now on VC, followed up by a number of huddles over Microsoft Teams.

“The dress culture is always casual at Benetton,” Chugh, who generally wears jeans and T-shirts to office, said. The lockdown dress code for ‘office meetings’ is denim shorts.

Vikas Bagaria, Founder, Pee Safe

An avid traveller Vikas Bagaria, founder of personal hygiene brand Pee Safe, finds work as “hectic as ever”. Apart from VCs, he also attends online conferences, formulates social media strategies and spends time at the warehouse.

“It's a blessing in disguise,” Bagaria said, referring to the temporary suspension of the 15-day travel he has to undertake every month.

Strategic planning

With the country under a lockdown, the C-suites’ brainstorming sessions now hover around “strategic planning”.

“It’s mostly strategic planning on how to hit the ground running once the lockdown is lifted, and also about controlling of expenses and conserving cash,” Benetton India’s Chugh said.

New norm

“People were reluctant to use technology earlier, but now this will become a habit,” Chugh added.

“I think in future, all of us would want to probably have a mixture of WFH and work from office. In my view, WFH is here to stay,” Portea’s Ganesh said.

Many in the industry also expect WFH to be the new norm.

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