Friends,
I cannot thank you enough for the tremendous encouragement I’ve received after my first post last week. I am humbled to have been welcomed into your inbox, along with 600+ others!
I cannot take credit for the whole show! I’d like to thank two amazing women who, behind the scenes, make Filter Coffee better than I could hope to achieve on my own.
The logo and banner you see above were designed by my amazing daughter, Kanchana (you can see more of her work at 100K Studio 🔗 here). Auspiciously, today happens to be a big milestone for her - Happy Birthday, Kanchi! 💗🥳
My niece Shivangi is the eagle-eyed editor - she is a talented writer, social media maven, and artist. You can connect with her 🔗 on Instagram here.
This week’s post: COVID - The Catalyst
Collateral benefits?
Last week, we looked at COVID through the prism of Business, Law, and Governance, and, at first blush, it seems like a heap of misery.
Businesses all over the world have gone through — and are still going through— tumultuous times, and the turbulence lingers on with no end in sight. Revival and survival strategies are being considered in every boardroom. Investor confidence is at an all-time low, and could it get lower? The financial statements for FY 2019-2020 did not look too bad, given that the initial tremors were felt more in March. But the 2020 calendar year is bound to witness some dismal performance. All regions will be hit, barring a few countries that either hide the statistics, or portray to the external world that their economy is in good shape. At a philosophical level, the World is indeed One Family, true to the Sanskrit saying, “Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam”.
In this edition, let us reflect with a bit of optimism. Not everything is so bleak — despite the pall of gloom, there are some interesting things taking place as an inadvertent result of, or as a response to, the pandemic.
While FDI appears to be slowing down, we are simultaneously witnessing deals of unthinkable proportions. Yes, the more than ₹1 Trillion invested in Jio so far ( 🔗 Click here for more info) is a testament to investor confidence in that business model, where the business is not yet in full bloom, but the future seems very bright.
The larger question is about the preparedness of businesses to resume activities when the lockdown ends across the country. What strikes us as most important is the duty of Boards to redefine the EHS (Environment, Health & Safety) Policy. Though EHS has long been part of the Board's oversight, it was never before in such sharp focus as it is now, during the pandemic. The environment is no longer just about air, water, and other elements of the natural world, but now includes the work environment when offices, factories, and other establishments open. Health & Safety of people becomes the prime concern. Consequently, the risks associated with opening up and resuming operations need to be calibrated and steps taken to mitigate them substantially. Business and its Governance structure need to go beyond the call of duty under law to take a hard look at the ground realities before deciding to unlock the door.
Commuting to the workplace, organizing shifts, and maintaining social distance on the shop floor will all form part of the new EHS policy. Boards must restate these policies even if it is for a transitory period of say 12 to 18 months. I would extend this obligation even to remote working.
I serve on the Board of Mindtree Ltd. and the company has put together a guide ( 🔗 Click here to download it) to help employees observe certain rules when they return to working from the office. Please feel free to share it.
The Mahindra Group demonstrated this early on. The Chairman shared a video that appealed to him.
The overarching challenge lies in kickstarting a business that has been in hibernation. I strongly recommend reading the latest McKinsey Briefing Note on COVID-19 published on July 9th ( 🔗 Click here to access it), wherein McKinsey talks of “One Step Forward & Two Steps Backward” and how the pandemic is giving new meaning to this well-worn expression.
Debevoise & Plimpton LLP continues a series of webinars for its clients. Their next webinar will be held on Friday, July 17th, and will be dedicated to COVID's impact on digitalization. ( 🔗 Click here to RSVP)
Law can lay down new rules of social behavior. The implementers must persevere even if a section of the population is skeptical or cynical.
In these times, it’s easy to see that law, business, and governance have forgotten that they are strange bedfellows. They have forged a new bond with a resolve to work together and contain the pandemic and its aftermath. The dreaded pandemic may well be the catalyst for bringing them together.
Hakuna Matata
Hakuna Matata!
What a wonderful phrase
Hakuna Matata!
Ain't no passing craze
It means no worries
For the rest of your days…
Worry is the buzzword that pervades every sphere of human activity. Not just humans, it affects even the flora and fauna.
“The situation is worrisome,” is the refrain you hear everywhere now, with news of a COVID spike. The Government says the situation is worrying and the opposition says that the inaction of the Government is worrying. For those of us on the street (not during curfew please!), the uncertainties are worrying.
Can we try saying “Hakuna Matata”? We might, but only if the person worrying is not you, but someone else.
COVID is now the mother of all worries and is the root cause of all other worries. But if one were to pause and think, some of them are more like apprehensions than worries.
Worried about how you will buy your groceries? Hakuna Matata, 🔗 you can get them online.
Not getting enough exercise and your pants don’t fit? Hakuna Matata, Leslie Sansone will help you. Check this video out:
There are plenty of similar YouTube videos out there to make exercising from home easier.
Worried about contracting COVID? Hakuna Matata, follow social distancing, obey local lockdown regulation, wear a mask when outside, sanitize hands, and more importantly, work on nourishment and 🔗 increasing your immunity.
The big worry for those of us trying to maintain a clean home, is getting help. It’s something ‘Maid in Heaven’. Yup! Peace prevails, tensions dissipate, laughter abounds, and it is sheer heaven when help turns up. Readers familiar with Hindi will appreciate how fitting the term ‘calm-waali’ is!
Online classes are a good thing, but it’s like telling children that we will remotely teach you if you have a remote chance of getting a laptop with WiFi. That’s worrying. Our maid was in that situation. We gave her a used iPad, but WiFi? She can’t afford broadband, and must cough up (mask not required here) and get a dongle. Let me put out a social message here: Please use your concern, and help such children have access to online classes.
Here is a great collection of resources on dealing with the challenges of online learning: 🔗 Sustaining Higher Education in the Coronavirus Crisis.
Someone asked my granddaughter Ria, “Can you tell me the difference between a real classroom and the virtual classroom?”. She answered, “The mute button.” Sounded hilarious then, but introspection told me that online could get very impersonal, robotic, and at times numbing.
Hakuna Matata! And see you next week!
P.S.: If you liked this post, please click the link below to share. I would also love your feedback - please leave a comment with your reactions and suggestions!
Dear Pras,
I don’t want to dwell too much on your abilities as a gifted writer, thinker and the brilliant idea to communicate your thoughts over a ‘cuppa’. That too with an endearing name ‘ Filter Coffee’. You and I go back to the days of one by two ‘Kapee’ Filter was probably not invented. I have complimented you sufficiently’ More sugar will spoil the taste of coffee !
Two things prompted me to write this. Rea’s cute quip about the difference between real class room and online class. And the other about enabling your maid to access learning for her children by giving her an IPad. Since I work in the space of children’s education in village schools, over seven lakh children in our program are currently in a mute mode.
To them an IPad is a dream and so is internet connectivity. It took many boxes to think out of and say Hakana Matata to them. We are now gearing up to impart knowledge capsules on what matters to them most to survive not only through this crisis, but life itself. All this by enabling their parent’s ability to communicate. A program to make the parent (grandparent too) as a teacher. We update the information that the parent already has on subjects like crops, crop nutrients, livestock, kitchen garden, health home remedies etc etc. Video capsules of not more than 2to3 minutes on each topic are being made and delivered via Whatapp. Our volunteer teachers in villages follow up to ensure that the parent imparts this information to the children. Fifty topics are being readied. Initial trials have created quite a buzz.
Now lets sip the brew man before it cools off !
Liked your second Sunday musings particularly for the general optimism it brought about.
The example quoted of a company with a level of debt that was beginning to give some of its investors the jitters, in almost next to time, moving on its way to becoming a net debt free company was indeed apt. That the investment has come from within (ex: rights issue) and without the country (ex: face book investment) shows that India’s business stock is still high amid the general world-wide business gloom.
While the debate of India’s demographic dividend being a boon or bane continues, especially in view of the possible lob losses that these covid times could create, it’s indeed a test of positivity that India offers to the world. It’s also an example of how things could change in a jiffy if problems are confronted with positive thoughts and affirmative actions.
Talking of positivity, the brilliant video (sans audio) was a great concept on how to convert negativity to positivity without creating much noise. Great work and very thoughtful of you to get it featured in your stack up for the rest of us who didn’t get to see it before.
Again I liked the way how, while discussing the future of opening up of businesses and resuming operations, you brought in the problems associated with commuting to workplace, the need for new rules at the workplace etc within the overall EHS Policy. It was, I thought, another brilliant example of how to subtly bring positivity into any discussions - even on something as morbid as covid. Here’s someone talking of opening up even offering suggestions on how to go about it while most of the world is talking of a possible endgame scenario.
Keep it up. Looking forward to more brilliant thoughts ahead. Hakuna Matata.