April 30th, 2020
Colloquy with Mr. Y.C Gupta (CEO) Indorama India Private Limited over Impact of Pandemic and Quarantine life
I had an opportunity to have conversation with our CEO, Mr. Y.C Gupta and learn about how he spends time during this quarantine, his take on this pandemic & its impact on business.
Q1.How is it being working from/at home?
Mr. Y.C Gupta – Discipline is something which we follow every step at home, getting up early in the morning, doing Yoga, Dhyaan/worship, taking meals on-time and more importantly timely replying to all the e-mails and queries. I also enjoy evening walk, corona made me change place from my park to terrace
Q2. What is your take on this pandemic, I mean how do you look at it?
Mr. Y.C. Gupta – “Be Positive” is the mantra we all need to have during this phase! I would like to share a short story to explain this,
Suppose a man meets an accident, in which fortunately he survives without any major injuries but his car gets crashed completely, repairing work might cost him close to Rs. 50,000. So, there are two situations out of this,
a) He keeps crying over the expenditure of Rs. 50,000 to get his car back in shape
b) He thanks God that his life is saved and rest everything is just a small matter to deal with
I believe & strongly recommend, we all need to follow option “b” during this phase.
Q3. What is nice part & what’s not nice about this lockdown?
Mr. Y.C. Gupta –
Nice part – If you say….. there are lot many positives, people are spending quality time at home, indulging themselves into reading, cooking, meditating, etc. kind of activities which helps in enhancing skills and brings lot of positivity, though temporary there is significant reduction in pollution, nature is at its best, birds are chirping freely and loudly….. so on.
Not-so-nice part – On personal front, I miss my evening walk in the park. On professional front, lot many meetings and projects are pending. There is big worry on how do we manage cash flow, especially when you don’t receive payments from customers as per plan and on other side, you need to manage salary & wages. There are concerns of workers migrating back to their natives and hence starting operations post lockdown is not going to be that easy…..so there are several such worries but I think, everything can be addressed, need of the hour is to follow government directives on Covid-19 and stay positive. Our approach should be to improve immune system of our business so that we keep ourselves away from Covid-19 impact.
Q4. What do you think has changed or will change post lockdown?
Mr. Y.C. Gupta – Post lockdown, there will be major thrust of healthcare, even when we start operations/business we all will need to follow certain SOPs like social distancing, maintaining cleanliness, usage of mask, etc. Corona outbreak has massive impact on Global economy, it will take time to generate demand across supply chain and bring business back to normalcy. The new “Normal” is going to be much different from what it was….
Q5.What opportunities one can see out of this crisis?
Mr. Y.C. Gupta – Current Global scenario pose lot of threat to China, developed countries might move their operations out of China and settle in countries like India, Vietnam, Cambodia, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh. We will be getting lot of opportunities in the coming days. Many business dimensions like innovation, cost competitiveness, co-creation with customers, enhanced service levels, etc. needs to be the prime focus to grab such opportunities. Other key areas such as political stability, reforms and measures to facilitate foreign investors, comprehensive efforts to build infrastructure and strong R&D will place us better against China.
Q6. Closing statement!
Mr. Y.C. Gupta - After every dusk, there’s always a dawn, night can be long but morning is inevitable. Nothing is going to remain same as today, so just pursue your interest, make most of this leisure and stay positive.
Also, this reminds me a beautiful Hindi song of legendary Kishor Kumar:-
Stay home,Stay Safe!
Best Regards,
Parul Agrawal
Manager – Marketing & Branding