Message From MD January – 2021

Dear friends,

31.12.2020. Today is the day before New Year. And I’m writing my message to newsletter. How is your Work-Life Continuum going? Behavior is the reaction of a person on the changes around him but habit is some thing a person does repeatedly until it becomes a routine. It shows that a repeated behaviour becomes a habit ultimately. After ten months of COVID-led isolation and digital working, I think it would be a habit for many, even as they crave a return to the office to renew their social ties. It is a sad realization for many team members and myself that, the work wasn’t fun – the office was.

For the sake of understanding, I was just referring to few employment application forms filled by our team members, where many have stated, inability to manage work life balance, as their weakness. We work so much that we don’t have time for other things. I asked myself. Why I want to segregate the two – wasn’t work fun? Revenue activities and non-revenue activities should be a seamless continuum and we should be able to do both at the best time for each. Efforts should be around finding the best match of timing. I am convinced to declare that 2021 will be the year of the Work Life Continuum.

When companies and marketers talk of loyalty, it is in the context of a customer emotion, an irrational choice based on liking. The year 2020 has been a year both for experimentation and sticking with the tried and tested. Both are based on our risk perceptions – trying out an unknown online service is less risky than venturing out to a physical store, and a hand sanitizer from a known brand seems more reliable. What is the marketing takeaway from this understanding is that loyalty is nothing but a risk mitigation strategy. Hence the business idea for 2021 shall be none other than differentiate through risk reduction. It is an accepted fact across the world that the ‘money back guarantee’ is one of the best customer loyalty tools ever – it reduces the risk perception tremendously. Legal safeguards for damages due to a product misbehaving are another. Any time cancellation with no penalty is a fantastic idea. So in 2021 we have to create and announce risk mitigation strategies for our customers.

This has been an interesting year to say the least. I wish you all a warm and happy New Year and hope that 2021 will be one of love, health, happiness and trust.

Merry work-life continuum to all assetians and together let’s differentiate from others with better risk reduction strategies.

Warm regards
Sunil Kumar V