Message From MD November – 2019

Dear friends,

We celebrated the Festival of Lights, Hope and Victory of Goodness, DIWALI, last month. All of you know the industry is going through a tough phase of economic slowdown, trust deficit and turbulent market conditions. Extra efforts and care is required for survival. The first aim shall be to keep your customers and stakeholders informed about the difficulties, keep them along with us and sail safely towards the shore. The first priority shall be to keep the commitments and deliver the promises. As part of the policies to accomplish these targets, we may be forced to take some hard decisions on the expense side. I hope you all will understand the situation and rise to the required levels of involvement to keep the momentum to accomplish the targets. Diwali reminds us to be the ray of hope and light up our surroundings with positive energy and spirits.

Many of us have linked our identity to our careers. We measure our self-worth by promotions, titles and, yes, of course, money. This is doubly true for entrepreneurs and professionals – our individual success is measured by the financial success of our enterprise or personal form. Most of us would hesitate to ask someone directly “how much do you make?” But it is quite normal to ask business owners about number of employees, expansion, profitability and growth – which will tell you how much money they make. If the company is listed, the whole world knows the answers. Even if the individual is very comfortably off on a personal level, these business-related questions are tied to their identity and self-worth and can keep reinforcing the self-belief that their success is linked to continual growth.

As a country we are still quite new to modern capitalism. This means that we don’t necessarily have the most sophisticated understanding of business risk or the systems to protect us from the downside. Worse, both formally and informally our individual fortunes are tied to the business. For example, banks try very hard to get a personal guarantee even if the business is sufficiently creditworthy. Stakeholders expect the promoter to make good from his personal savings when the company goes belly-up. The concept of failing gracefully is new. The Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code is a step in the right direction, but we also need to change societal perception. According to our former president, Dr. A. P. J. Abdul Kalam, if you fail, never give up because F.A.I.L. means “First Attempt In Learning”. End is not the end; in fact E.N.D. means “Effort Never Dies”. If you get No as an answer, remember N.O. means “Next Opportunity”.

Friends, everyone calls victory in battle good, but it is not really good. The best victory is when the opponent surrenders of his own accord before there are any actual hostilities! It is best to win without fighting. So it is said that victory can be made. No matter how often you are defeated, you are born to victory!!!

Regards,
Sunil Kumar