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ANNUAL REGIONAL MEETING

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Conference on

Transformed Landscape of Business: "The Evolving Strategies"

The economic landscape has been definitively altered in past 12 months in the aftermath of the pandemic. Businesses were threatened and faced a monumental uncertainty in coping up the challenges to adopt the new ways of doing things. The economic growth was already moderating before the pandemic, and with the economic activity coming to a standstill due to the prolonged period of lockdowns, it has created a stress in the economy. The adverse impact of the pandemic started with disruptions in the global supply-chains, which later precipitated into an ominous compression in demand. As a result, multilateral organizations across the board have cut their global growth forecasts.

2021 is likely to be the year when the world transit to the next normal. As CEOs take stock of what’s just happened, and what’s to come, industry would need to rebuild sustainable and cost-effective strategies to regain momentum. One of the many important things which COVID-19 has brought to the fore is the importance of building a competitive industrial ecosystem, one which is strong enough to withstand a shock of this magnitude in the future. There has been a misery elevation both in cash and investments, monetary policy and liquidity has been pushed by RBI and government by supporting MSMEs and some degree of policy reforms has been undertaken to mitigate this grave situation. Even in the near-term, a robust industrial sector is crucial for bringing growth back to the economy as it provides the necessary firepower to boost exports and provide employment opportunities to the millions. Exports too need a quantum jump and achieving this integration with global and regional value chains is important besides being competitive.

Another challenging factor during this pandemic is that the economy has been primarily growing on government expenditure. This is not sustainable as Government and financial sectors have to work together to uplift the economy. It is equally important for companies to invest in technologies and innovation. Industry must accept the virtual digital world and use this to bring about extensive changes. For the first time science and innovation has taken a front seat and government has realized the importance of research.

It is also important to understand that both the supply and demand side of the industry is essential to revive growth. Given demand uncertainties, private investment remains a challenge. To get the growth back, the contribution of manufacturing in GDP has to go up. Power, roads, ports or airport - everything needs to be reworked to support growth in manufacturing sector. Unless huge investment happens in infrastructure, manufacturing cannot be turned into a growth contributor. On the other hand, services sector, in which India has a natural skilled strength, may contribute to overall development and growth.

Above all, this is not really a financial and economic crisis, this one is a health induced crisis converting to economic crisis. There is a psychological factor where consumer sentiments need to change with time. Confidence needs to be instilled for the economy to grow. A strong agenda of economic reform has been set in motion and needs to continue, to bring growth back to the economy. While higher growth will itself create jobs, this may not be enough. Greater focus on labour absorbing growth is required so that more employment can be created in the formal sector. Over the coming years, it is envisaged that a much stronger, more competitive and inclusive economy will better withstand any economic challenge.

While transforming business models is key to unlocking new value for business, customers and society, in a post-COVID world, a handful of companies today are undertaking business model transformation. Others are gaining marginal benefits through automation, process, or operating model shifts. Transformation towards more inclusive business models are proving more resilient.

The services geography has seen disruptions like never before. Tourism and hospitality, retail, sports and entertainment spaces have faced the brunt of the pandemic and the lockdowns which has impacted lives, livelihood and businesses. These sectors have made a turnaround with newer innovative business models, out of the box thoughts, rapid digitization and novel disruptions. Many businesses in these verticals are still grappling to firm up a roadmap and catch up to newer forms of competition.

The Annual Regional Meeting of the Confederation of Indian Industry, Eastern Region scheduled for Saturday, 13 March 2021 will focus on Transformed Landscape of Business: "The Evolving Strategies". The conference will attempt to deliberate on the role that the Industry has undertaken and must undertake for creating a necessary ecosystem for inclusive growth and development in the nation with major thrust on getting growth back. The C-Suite executives, decision makers and business leaders will deliberate on the new, disruptive and evolving strategies, unique business models and also focus on creating the next level of strategies for sustainable business growth, generate jobs and creating livelihoods.