Lockdown Lessons: “Productivity is better when you are working from home”

India is just emerging out of an over two-month long lockdown – a period that has changed our lives, behaviours and the way we conduct business forever. The lessons that we have learnt during the lockdown period and our experiences during the year so far, will help us navigate a world that we had never imagined. It has been a trying time for many of us, with everyone working from home and having to adapt to a new way of working and living. Adgully’s latest endeavour – Lockdown Lessons – is an attempt to present the key learnings that India’s business honchos have learnt and imbibed, and which can help the industry navigate the new normal better.

Anant Raj Kanoria, CEO iQuippo, is the factor behind the disruption created in the B2B construction equipment and infrastructure space for having started the most efficient online platform from the house of Srei. Kanoria has been the brain behind iQuippo and has been steering its operations successfully since May 2017 before the company got finally registered under the companies’ act in November 2017.

What are the key lockdown lessons as a professional during the lockdown period?

I think one of the key learnings during the lockdown was that productivity is better when you are working from home and you can actually connect with more people by saving on logistics time and cost. Also, with everything coming to a standstill, it was a great time to strategise, as we would never have such a time in our lifetime where the entire world is on a halt and you don’t have to worry about operating issues. So, I think the lockdown was a kind of reset for the routine life, to learn how to look at things in a new way and remodel your business to address and tackle all kinds of crisis.

Please tell us some of the key takeaways in terms of life lessons from the lockdown period?

With a lot of time to reflect upon things, it showed me how we take a lot of things for granted and forget to notice it in our regular busy schedules. It also showed that there are so many things that we don’t need and can do without in our lives. All the material things which we have or want to possess are of no value or utility in our daily lives. Also, the lockdown helped us understand the value of some of the people around us and what they do to make our lives easier. It also allowed me to get back to some of my old passions like playing the piano or learning a new skill like cooking. Finally, I think this entire crisis made us aware about how dynamic life is and that we need to be prepared for any change. And in order to deal with such changes, we need to keep our mind, body and soul active and energised.

How did you manage and achieve work-life balance while working from home?

I was pretty lucky and privileged to have help during the lockdown as well and, therefore, really didn’t face much issues in getting a work-life balance. But I got time to clean out my room, which I would not have had time for generally and sort out my old belognings. Also, with being at home you have the pleasure of spending more time with family, so it really improved the work-life balance and you can give more concentrated and productive effort when working. Moreover, with less travelling it really helps in bonding and keeping you more energised.

It has been more than two months since the lockdown was enforced. How are you gearing up for back to office mode?

It was a long lockdown and with limited human interaction, people’s energy reduces. But we have been having regular video conferences and connecting with all our stakeholders during this time to keep it normal. We have still kept the option for people to work from home as we have seen that productivity has improved. Although where there is a human interaction required, we are educating our employees on best practices and taking all precautions when they move out of home. We have sanitized all our offices and are following all local government rules to keep it safe. We have also had our new strategy in place during the lockdown and were in touch with all our people, which has kept the energy going. And now they know that it is time for implementation, as being a digital platform, this crisis has become an inflection point for us to propel our growth to new heights.

Any lessons that you picked up in financial management from the lockdown period?

One of the greatest lessons that the lockdown has taught is that you need to be very frugal when it comes to costs and that you cannot run a start-up with a loss funding model. Whenever you become lenient with your costs, it is hard to turn it around, and then crisis like this will be hard to sail through. Also, I feel that travelling related costs have been an eye opener and the COVID-19 crisis has changed how business and travel costs need to be looked at. The last thing which this crisis has taught us is that you should have a lot of flexibility in your costs as that is the only thing in your control, so when required you can scale up or down.