50+ top business leaders, 100 startups and 5000+ corporates came together at the virtual panel discussion to talk about corporate sustainability and growth challenges
NATIONAL, 17 APRIL, 2020 (GPN):
CorpGini an initiative by Pantomath Group and Z Nation Lab, put together a 6 days long virtual panel discussion that brought together over 100 startups and 5000+ corporates participants to interact with Industry stalwarts on how COVID19 is going to impact various companies, sectors and market performance in short and long term.
The 6 key themes where shortlisted basis the research done and conversations held with a large number of corporates on what could be the potential concerns of India Inc during and post Covid-19 situation. Each of the panel discussions was followed by select pitches from CEOs of startups who provided valuable solutions to corporates around key areas of challenges in present times. The panel discussion was supported by renowned partners like BSE (Bombay Stock Exchange), Business Standard, UC Berkeley (USA), British Deputy High Commission (UK), Toronto Business Development Centre (Canada) and IIIT Hyderabad making it a formidable India-focused global program.
The successful panel discussion recorded a total number of 10,001 registrations for the Series; about 2250 Number of Decision makers including CEO, CFO, CTO, MD & likes from different companies, a total of 6,82,000 minutes were spent virtually by attendees. There were 25 startups that pitched their business and got about 825 corporate requests to engage with them and about 750 Interest in the Startup Crisis Fund.
These panel discussions were led by industry experts who have created and run India’s most successful brands. Some of the prominent names in the list of panelists included Mr. Kewal Handa, Chairman, UBI, Sai Venkateshwaran, Partner & Head – CFO Advisory, KPMG India, Mr. Sanjeev Pendharkar, MD, Vicco Laboratories, Mr. Arun Anandgiri, Founder – Taxsutra, Ms. Shobhana Lele ,CIO – Bombay Dyeing, Mr. Navneet Munot , CIO – SBI Mutual Fund, Mr. Nilesh Shah,MD – Kotak Mahindra AMC, Mr. Gautam Balakrishnan, CMO – Services, Tata Projects, Ms. Jyotsna Sharma,CFO and Head of IT – Bridgestone and many more. They shared their rich experience and participants got a rare opportunity to hear them out and pick their brains on strategies and workable frameworks for the future.
Mr. Amit Jain, Co-founder & CEO – CorpGini commented, “We are overwhelmed with the response from participants all over the globe who not only signed up but also attended most of the sessions. The {Corporate} Punch was our attempt to help our community survive the crisis with the power of knowledge sharing. Nothing gives us more joy than to see industry leaders, corporates, SMEs and startups come together to support our initiative and gives us confidence that we go hand in hand in this fight against Covid-19”
Mr. Mahavir Lunawat, Founder, Pantomath Group said , “We must add our experience of the last two weeks and we have been faced with a lot of subdued sentiments across industry segments. But what is encouraging is numerous inquiries from overseas corporations including some of the large listed companies across the western countries reaching out to us, looking to invest in various industries. They have shown interest in investing like seeds, or ceramics or even packaging industries, or as conventional as, corrugated boxes, flexible moulds. So this gives us a lot of excitement.
Mr. Anup Mehta, Co-Founder & COO, Z Nation Lab, states excitedly , “ Reflecting back on the last one week, we could not believe that we managed it so efficiently . We are extremely proud of the Team CorpGini that pulled this whole event in a brief time and has been able to contribute in this crisis time by bringing together 50+ Expert panel speakers. We are also grateful to the panelists who humbly accepted to share their views and experience on how Corporate India can emerge from this crisis and achieve long term sustainability and growth”.
Corpgini also presented 25 startups out of 200 plus applications they have received so far that can not only help corporates but also have the potential to become Alpha startups as they emerge from this crisis. While this event was completely free for the audience , the team also initiated a fundraiser for contribution to the Prime Minister’s Citizen Assistance and Relief in Emergency Situations (PM-CARES) Fund. They have already raised ~ INR 3.5 lakhs and the fundraiser is still going to reach a target of INR 5 lakhs.
Please add that we did not charge anything for this event instead we requested the audience to contribute to this fundraiser and have already rFor detailed Key Highlights please visit the link : http://corpgini.com/blog.php
April 6, 2020: Stress test your P&L & Managing Liquidity
The session was conducted by Amit Jain, CEO, CorpGini and the panel comprised of Mr. Kewal Handa,Chairman, UBI, Sai Venkateshwaran,Partner & Head – CFO Advisory, KPMG India, Ms. Jyotsna Sharma , CFO and Head of IT – Bridgestone, Mr. Abhishek Goenka ,CEO, Cowrks, Mr. Arun Anandgiri, Founder – Taxsutra and Kamal Vasagiri, Director, Honeywell Ventures.
Key takeaway:
Benefits to corporates must be extended. Period of relief given is good but not enough. The government should look at industry specific relief – said Sai Venkateshwaran,Partner & Head – CFO Advisory
It’s not about cost-cutting we have to be cost-conscious for the right cause. Stakeholders are here for the long run and important to work in their interest. Corporates can compromise on profits and not take any profits for a year. It is critical to support channel partners, suppliers, OEM and the entire chain- said Jyotsna Sharma,CFO and Head of IT – Bridgestone
Corporates should look at their cash flows. Capital budgeting should go off and the companies should tighten their budgets- said Kewal Handa,Chairman, UBI
April 7, 2020: Post-crisis scenarios and planning for the same
The panel comprised of Dr. Ramakrishna Sonde, EVP, Thermax, Mr. Sanjeev Pendharkar, MD Vicco Laboratories India, Ms. Jyotsna Sharma, CFO & IT Head Bridgestone India, Mr. Mukund Vasudevan, MD, Ecolab India, Mr. Harshal Kamdar, CFO Sequoia India, and Mr. Ambar Timblo, Promoter & MD Fomento Group with the discussion being coordinated by Mr. Mahavir Lunawat, Founder, Pantomath Group.
Key takeaway:
This is the right time to cut the fat and not the muscle. I hope for the next 10 years, we human beings invest more in research and make the world a better place- said Harshal Kamdar, CFO Sequoia India
Business can do a lot of design optimisation to bring down costs.We are going to wake up in the whole different world, we need to build step by step- said Dr Ramakrishna Sonde, EVP,Thermax
April 8, 2020: Team Motivation, Skill Development and the role of HR
The panel consisted of Ms. Grace Agarwal, Life Coach & Motivational Speaker, Mr. Jean Francois-Hilaire, EVP Recipharm AB, Mr. Shrenik Ghodawat, Director Sanjay Ghodawat Group, Mr. Ramesh Swaminathan, CIO TN State Innovation Cell, Swami Mahesh Yogi, Team Leader Siya International, and the discussion was coordinated by Ms. Neha who is the Co-Founder and CMO of CorpGini and Z Nation Lab.
Key takeaway:
Trust factor will play a key role in building and developing skills. This is a time when everyone can be a leader and think out of the box. There will be a new breed of leaders; people will move from IQ to EQ- said Grace Agarwal, life coach and motivational speaker
An employee and employer relationship is a transactional relationship that needs to find a win-win middle ground. We are in this situation together, we will need to understand the problems the employees have and employees need to understand the employers -said , Shrenik Godhawat, Director – Sanjay Godhawat Group
We need to make sure that all the data we’re collecting is honest and there are also additional systems to control this. How to work differently, how to allocate responsibilities differently. I think everyone will be greater and stronger after the crisis- said Jean-Francois Hilaire, EVP – Head of the strategy – Recipharm AB
April 9, 2020: How technology can help companies operate during a pandemic
Panelists for the day included Ms. Gopali Raval, MD AI Accenture, Mr. Kersi Tavadia, CIO BSE Ltd, Mr. Gautam B, CMO Tata Projects, Mr. Hitesh Sachdev, Head of Start-up ICICI Bank, Mr. Akhilesh Tuteja, KPMG Global Cyber Security, Mr. KV Dipu, President Bajaj Allianz General Insurance, Ms. Puneet Kohli, CTO & CIO Mannapuram Finance, with the panel being co-ordinated by Mr. Ankur Garg, Chief of AI, Sonasoft Venture.
Key takeaway:
There’s going to be some compromise in security because of digitalization. The numbers of phishing cases have increased immensely in India, with lots of frauds happening around this time masked as Covid19 threats said Akhilesh Tuteja – Global Cyber Security practice, Co-Leader & Partner, KPMG India
There is a tremendous update in workflow management systems. People were still using physical papers and everything before and now it’s all digitized -said Gautam Balakrishnan, CMO (Services) – Tata Projects Limited
The planning functionalities in most industries have already gone digital but the physical aspect of a business is going to take a hit like in the case of client introduction. ‘It’s becoming a world of more HR driven companies now with the use of technology’ -pointed Ms. Gopali Raval, MD, AI Accenture.
April 10, 2020: Workforce Productivity in this time of crisis
The panelists included Mr.Prakash Balekar, President and CEO, Padmini VNA Mechatronics, Ms. Ramani Dathi, Financial Controller, TeamLease Services Limited, Mr. Jean-Francois Hilaire, EVP – Head of Strategy, Recipharm AB, Mr. Vijay Bhutada, Partner & Head of Advisory Pantomath Group, Ms. Shobhana Lele, CIO Bombay Dyeing and the discussion moderator for the day was Mr. Anup Mehta, Co-Founder & COO, Z Nation Lab.
Key takeaway:
Organizations should clinically assess each and every line item of cost that we can be variable costs instead of fixed costs. Analyze costs that can be leased instead of fixed purchase. MSME & SMEs should focus more on their working capital management. Cost management should be the core of the business. They should use this time to shift their process to automation, upgrading their systems and training their people-Ramani, Financial Controller, TeamLease Services Limited
This is the best time for companies to relook at company policies and realign the purposes and work on optimization. They should plan out things, focus on uncompleted tasks, reach out to the existing and potential customers and put a pause on expenditure that is not required- said Shobhana Lele CIO Bombay Dyeing
In most of the cases, you have signals in advance. It was predictable but deeply unexpected. It’s a crisis and we have to manage it. We have to manage a future crisis with plenty of measures with the way the world is organized. We need to have more empowerment in production facilities. The remote working trend can be a wider solution- said ,Jean-Francois Hilaire EVP – Head of strategy Recipharm AB
April 11, 2020: Economy & Business Post COVID-19: Investors’ Perspective
Day 6 of the panel had Mr. Nilesh Shah, MD & CEO, Kotak MF, Mr. Sunil Singhania, Founder of Abacus Asset Management, Mr. Basant Maheshwari, Author of the bestseller ‘The Thoughtful Investor’ and Founder & Fund Manager LLP, Mr. Navneet Munot, CIO SBI MF while the panel was moderated by none other than Mr. Anil Singhvi, a popular TV news anchor, and MD Zee Business News.
Key takeaway
In the coming time, low-ticket consumer items will have a greater demand. There’ll be a lot of behavioural changes and if you can invest in this behaviour, people will have a greater benefit.- said,Nilesh Shah, managing director, Kotak Mahindra AMC
The restructuring will be required in a lot of businesses. “They will need to release more liquidity. We need to forget everything and save the downside of the economy. Industries need to think creatively to save as many businesses as possible. Size and stability are important, agility is also important- said ,Navneet Munot, Chief Investment Officer, SBI Mutual Fund
Value vs Value Trap
We are soon going to be moving to a situation where people can work from home even after the lockdown situation is over. It will dramatically change the quality of life and work from home will be new normal. This will have an impact on commercial real estate like offices spaces, co-sharing places- said N Jayakumar, President – Prime Securities
Financial market is definitely a trouble spot. NBFCs borrow at a higher rate and give unsecured loans without background check. Lot of financial institutions will go down- said , Mr. Shankar Sharma, Vice Chairman & JT MD – First Global.Retail investors should consider investing in equities. Be selective of the market and look at the companies you understand better- said, . Varinder Bansal, Managing Partner Pantomath AMC
About CorpGini
CorpGini is a platform for Corporates to consistently discover and learn disruptive tech solutions and engage with Startups to adopt innovation. Corpgini is an initiative by Z Nation Lab & Pantomath Group.
Pantomath Group is a financial services group headquartered in Mumbai, India with credit of doing the largest number of Investment banking and Private Equity transactions in India. It provides a broad range of financial products and services to a diversified client base which include corporates, institutions and individuals.
https://www.pantomathgroup.
Z Nation Lab is a startup accelerator and fund (ZNL Ventures) that partners with growth stage startups to help them scale up and grow. It is headquartered in Silicon Valley, USA and office in Mumbai, India.
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