At Larsen & Toubro Infotech (LTI), the IT unit of India's largest conglomerate L&T, cultivating a beginner’s mind is paramount to how the corporate is dealing with issues related to Covid-19.

"Early March, it became clear to us that Coronavirus is emerging as a reset moment for businesses worldwide. At LTI, we believe the companies that respond to this crisis with a beginner’s mind will perform better in the mid to long-term," said Peeyush Dubey, Chief Marketing Officer (CMO), LTI.

There are many benefits to adopting a 'beginner’s mind', says the official, as though one is experiencing something for the very first time. It can turn an ordinary experience like eating an apple into a profound rediscovery. In the case of Covid-19 too, adopting a beginner’s mind could save lives.

While at the company level, the focus has remained on ensuring employee safety and continuity of operations, Dubey says from a communications perspective the firm is keeping all stakeholders well-informed through regular communication from executive leaders and board members.

"For employee communications, we are leveraging collaboration platforms such as Facebook Workplace, Microsoft Teams, Cisco WebEx and emails to keep them engaged and productive as they work from home. Thinking ahead, we are informing our employees about important safety standards that have been put in place when they return to work," said the official.

Dubey goes on to add that since thousands of LTI employees across 30 countries and clients work remotely, "the role of regular, creative and effective communications has never been more critical in ensuring high employee productivity and client engagement."

Brand support

The company recently undertook some initiatives to show support to the Centre and WHO’s public health campaigns.

"As a brand, we took several initiatives to depict responsibility and solidarity with public health campaigns across the world. The subtle tweak in our logo to promote social distancing has been one of our most engaging campaigns on social media channels this year," said Dubey.

With WHO promoting social distancing as the best measure to tackle Covid-19 transmission, the brand tweaked its logo and separatedthe initials 'LTI' to showcase unanimity. The tweaked logo is being used across all official communication.

Employee communications are also ongoing. "Our Tech and administrative teams moved swiftly to enable our employees to work from home by ensuring essential infrastructure and organisational support to stay connected. We continue to support these efforts through communication campaigns to keep our employees engaged remotely," said the official.

One of the unique initiatives at the IT solutions and services company is #HowISpentMyDay challenge that was started by the CEO. "It promotes and inspires everyone to be even more productive during this time than under normal circumstances. Over the last two weeks, the campaign has gone viral (pun intended) within LTI, with contributions from leaders across the globe," Dubey added.

Multi-channel communications keep clients informed about relevant updates. Dubey says many clients have acknowledged that even if every update is not positive, they get to hear about it from the company promptly.

"Through all of these initiatives our objective has been to showcase the important tenets of our brand - agility, transparency, honesty, and passion to solve," the official adds.

Asked how these initiatives help the brand, the CMO said, "While it is early to predict, the only way we would like to measure the impact of our marketing and communications programme is in its ability to bring a sense of normalcy and positivity in these extraordinary times."

"We are certain that this crisis will eventually pass,' continues Dubey, "but we believe we will make several positive changes that will last for a long time and probably, forever."

The company will continue to assert its position as a brand that cares for its people and understands its community responsibility, with the CMO saying, "We are investing in LTI to be well-positioned during the crisis and much beyond it."

As an example, in response to the crisis, Dubey said the company is supporting the launch of its employee volunteering programme, LTI 1Step, globally.

Terming it an important step, the CMO said, "We believe that now more than ever, brands will be evaluated based on their engagement and contributions to local communities globally."

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