Sapience 2021

Nov 24, 2021

Sapience 2021: Purpose Driven Business in the Post Pandemic World

The post pandemic world has taught us a great deal both in our professional and personal lives. For corporates, each day posed a fresh challenge – be it conducting business from remote locations, countering cyber security issues, managing liquidity, keeping the supply chain up and active, ensuring good mental and physical health of human resources or ensuring survival of startups. Best practices established earlier were replaced with new ones which were not imagined before.

Sapience is the flagship annual management conclave of Great Lakes Institute of Management, Gurgaon. Every year, Sapience focuses on a theme that the present industry is resonating to. The erstwhile edition of Sapience, 'Crisis Inspiring Innovation', touched upon the innovative practices which businesses put in place to tackle the crisis. Businesses have become resilient post-pandemic by leveraging emerging technologies and strategies to build sustainable models. ‘Sapience 2021: Purpose Driven business in the Post Pandemic World’ aimed to deliberate upon these practices.

Industry leaders from across the domains of Marketing, Finance, Human Resources, Operations, Analytics and Entrepreneurship gathered around for panel discussions on how the COVID-19 crisis transformed the way they conduct business and how it paved way for innovative methods to deliver value to their customers and stakeholders. The event was conducted as a 7-part series between 24th November and 9th December, 2021.

Keynote Address

The Keynote Address by Mr. Sudhir Rajpal focused on listening to your inner calling, understanding the things you are naturally good at, and then deciding your future journey. Mr. Rajpal shed light on how new paradigms have evolved in the last year and how we as a human being learned new ways to work progressively. He also emphasized that learning from your peers is the key to facing challenges of the future. In addition, Mr. Rajpal also encouraged management professionals to join civil services in order to have a quality governance in place.

Key Takeaway

“You should make your choices in a sapient manner; find your inner calling to do well in your life.”

-Mr. Sudhir Rajpal,

ACS - Civil Aviation Department,

CEO - Gurugram Metropolitan Development Authority

CEO - Faridabad Metropolitan Development Authority

Marketing Conclave

The Marketing Conclave of Sapience 2021, moderated by Dr. Mohit Malhan, Professor – Marketing, discussed the adoption of new-age marketing strategies. There are two kinds of behaviours we can see in the post-pandemic era, the first one where people are living their lives at the moment and another one where people are saving more and more for unprecedented times. The panel discussion explored how marketers should take care of both things and strategize accordingly. The panel also emphasised on how marketers should use digital technologies and analytical abilities for increasing marketing capabilities.

Key Takeaways

"Marketing has changed manifold, we need new age solutions for new age problems," Ms. Payel Basu, Director – Marketing, Zycus

"The pandemic has taught us to unlearn old things and re-learn new things," Mr. Solai Shakthivel, Sr. VP - Buying & Merchandizing, Metro Cash & Carry India

"The brand which has the highest credibility will have the highest target audience and consumers," Mr. Kapil Chanana, Chief Growth Officer, Eupheus Learning

"Digital is going to play a critical role in modern marketing practices," Mr. Anurag Sharma, VP – Sales, Clarks Footwear

Entrepreneurship Conclave

During the Entrepreneurship Conclave, moderated by Prof. SK Palhan, Professor – Business Ethics & Corporate Governance, the panellists described their entrepreneurial journeys – what encouraged them to be an entrepreneur, how did they figure out the problems which they solved with their ventures, and what problems did they face during their journey. They emphasized on constantly looking for opportunities to solve an existing problem, keeping in mind its long term impact to stay relevant. One of the ways was to start with a problem that one has gone through themselves, because they will know it inside out and the pain of it. Also, one must identify where they should invest their energy, instead of overanalysing and running after perfection.

Key Takeaways

"As entrepreneurs, you’ll encounter thousands of problems; focus on those that need immediate attention," Ms. Shreedha Singh, Co-Founder, TAC - The Ayurveda Company

"Entrepreneurship has to be nurtured from a young age; it is an ongoing process," Mr. Kunnwar Vijay Parmar, Founder & CEO, Skilleit

"We can make an impact on the world; just start today itself," Mr. Udayan Bose, CEO & Founder, NetElixir

HR & OB Conclave

The HR & OB Conclave, moderated by Prof. Madhurima Mishra, Assistant Professor – HR & OB, focused on how HR practices have changed after the lockdown and how they are adapting to the ‘New Normal’. Agility and speed of innovation is the way to go ahead. Employee engagement was the highlight of discussion where they encouraged organizations to engage their employees in every way possible, especially in this hybrid or remote working environment, and also make sure that they are mentally healthy and passionate enough to work. Also, it is important for an employer, HR and an organization as well to keep adapting to changing environments and technologies, and sometimes it is good to step back and rethink.

Key Takeaways

"Uncertainty provides an opportunity to change and reinvent," Mr. Shatrunjay Krishna, Group Head - Organizational Design, Learning & Development, GMR

"What will decide who will win or lose is one’s ability in being agile," Mr. Siddharth Nagpal, Sr. Professional – HR, New Development Bank

"If you want purpose driven business, hire purpose driven people and engage them constantly," Mr. Anmol Grewal, Head – HR, Ashok Leyland

"Whatever has worked yesterday, is working today, may not work tomorrow; keep adapting," Mr. Jitendra Das, Director – HR, MoveInSync & WorkInSync

Operations Conclave

The Operations Conclave, moderated by Dr. Amit Karamchandani, Assistant Professor – Operations, talked about demand prediction and sensing, versatility, and speed of response in regards to change in operations management during the pandemic. The panelists also shed light upon the fact that technology has enabled too many things and people have started adopting them very fast. Soon, operations will entirely depend on technology. And to be resilient, one needs to invest in tools to identify where they are falling short. Even organizations have started seeing competitors as an opportunity to collaborate and help each other. The panel also discussed how the workforce needed to be tech-savvy in order to sustain and thrive in the new normal.

Key Takeaways

"We must pledge to reduce our carbon footprint," Mr. Sethu Madhavan, Vice President, Biocon Biologics

"The pandemic has brought in the concept of collaborations," Mr. Jayaram Mummadi, Vice President – Projects, Zen Technologies

"All organizations have looked into everything from automation to digital operations," Mr. Prashanth Koduganty, Senior Director, Optum Global Solutions

"Don’t react; be proactive and resilient," Mr. Akhil Srivastava, Director - Planning & Logistics – ISEA, Anheuser-Busch InBev

Finance Conclave

During the Finance Conclave, moderated by Dr. Preeti Goyal, Professor – Finance & Accounting, the panelists discussed the challenges they faced during the pandemic, how they tackled these problems using automation and digitalization and what processes they have put in place for it. Building a digital community also helped the companies build closer relationships with the customers. They also discussed how to bring more openness and willingness of people towards transformation. The panelists were also of the view that the digital shifts that happened during the pandemic times are here to stay.

Key Takeaways

"The 3 T’s – Transformation, Talent & Training are here to stay," Mr. Vineet Nagpal, Director – Finance, Intertrust Group

"Customer segmentation has gone into a very deep level through analytics," Mr. Ashutosh R Tiwary, Head - Credit Policy & Underwriting, Razorpay

"It is important to look forward and look at the coming opportunities," Ms. Teena Jaisinghani, CFA, Head of Credit, Axis Bank Singapore

"Digitization has fast-tracked the process of figuring out how to deal with customers," Mr. Abhinav Nehra, EVP & Head - Partnerships & New Businesses, Network International

"Data is a goldmine for predicting the future roadmap," Mr. Sandeep Dasgupta, General Manager – Finance, Mankind Pharma

Analytics, AI & ML Conclave

The Analytics, AI & ML Conclave, as a part of the Sapience 2021 finale, was moderated by Dr. Poornima Gupta, Professor – HRM, The panelists discussed how AI, ML and Data Analytics have changed the perspective businesses and markets are viewed from, especially after the pandemic, where the corporates and their clients voluntarily started asking for the adoption of these technologies. AI, ML and Data Analytics have faced multiple criticisms on the grounds of ethical usage and accountability, and therefore they should not be used for arbitrary decision making, but instead in a more responsible and ethical manner to ultimately deliver more value to the target audience.

Key Takeaways

"The pandemic has been the Chief Digital Organizer of most companies," Mr. Avinash Chandra, Senior Director, Capgemini

"The pandemic has been a classic time to understand whether AI & ML were noise or a signal," Mr. Vishnu Bodapati, CEO, Hedgeloop

"It’s an analyst’s job to use data responsibly; consumers should not feel that their privacy is violated," Ms. Aarti Bharadwaj, SVP - Analytics (APAC), Essence

"There are many ways to use data, but we need to be very ethical in doing so," Mr. Vineet Shukla, Group VP & Head of Data, Mahindra Group

"There was criticism around AI & ML not being able to predict the pandemic; but they are not silver bullets, the pandemic was the outlier," Mr. Swapnil Tambi, Director - AI & ML, BNY Mellon