Guest Lecture on “ Business Growth Post Covid-19: Issues and Challenges”

The Department of Commerce and Management held a guest lecture on the topic "Business Growth Post Covid-19: Issues and Challenges" by Dr. Ankit Katrodia, who is a faculty member of Economics and Management Science from North West University, South Africa on 21st July,2020 from 2 to 4pm through Cisco Webex Video Conferencing. Dr. Katrodia informed us how all business are affected by COVID-19 and that there is a change taking place in the business cycle. The business cycle consists of HR, Marketing, IT and Finance, Finance being the blood that runs the business.

Dr. Ankit addressed the impact of COVID on business organisations, emphasizing on the lockdown measures and other restrictions leading to new and unique challenges. Moreover, he informed that businesses will have to get used to a new normal, the new normal being digitalisation.

In order for a business to be successful post-COVID, new strategies need to be followed. One of the major strategies being responding to change in terms of structure of the business, behaviour of the employees and the technological advancements required. Dr. Ankit also stated that the new normal of social distancing and sanitization of work places is now a corporate social responsibility (CSR).

Transformation of the business organization post-COVID will result in a shift of priorities. For example, previous priorities were profits and self- interest whereas priorities now will be sustainability and creating value for customers. Dr. Ankit says, ”the customer is the king of the market” while emphasizing on customer satisfaction and how to convert trial or first time visiting customers to repeat customers.

Another major point for the business organizations to function in a full-fledged manner is focus on employees as they play a pivotal role in the future of the business. Quoting Mr. Ratan Tata, the former Chairman of Tata Sons and Tata Group the speaker said, “Employees are my main asset.” Employees should be trustworthy, skilled and loyal to the company. He continues by saying how there has been a change in the job prospects post-COVID. Instead of demand for managers in the market, there has been a rise in the demand for technicians and executives, a demand for those who are digitally well skilled.

Apart from the issues and challenges post-COVID, Dr. Ankit spoke on business and management skills. Quoting Peter Drucker, a management consultant and author he said, “the function of business is to attract and maintain customers.” He informs us that the reason business exist are customers and how first impressions really are last impressions. He also emphasized on three key elements while delivering service to customers – Body Language, Voice Tone and Words. Furthermore, he highlighted on Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs which is a theory in psychology on human motivation. It consists of five levels being – self-actualization, self-esteem, belongingness, safety and physiological needs. It takes a ‘we’ approach instead of an ‘I’ approach as the business works on collective efforts of the people. Moreover, Dr. Ankit spoke about a business triangle consisting of the company, the providers and the customers and how there is a correlation between all three. Lastly, the speaker encouraged the students of Christ University to come up with new and unique ways to face the challenges and issues post-COVID.

The speech was followed by a Q & A session and was concluded with the vote of thanks by the HOD of the Commerce and Management Department, Dr. Shubhashree Acharya