Research implies that promoting and nurturing entrepreneurial behaviour and practices should become part of the organization culture to explore market opportunities in all times. One of the major factors that is identified to contribute to organizational innovation is the way entrepreneurial leaders manage, motivate, engage, and empower the people of their organizations. With all the new realities of the pandemic times in mind and heightened anxiety among people, an Interactive panel discussion on A Panel Discussion on ‘Engaging and Leading Employees During Uncertain Times: Role of Leadership’ was organized by Amity University. The discussion focused on the need for different approaches of innovation management in times of crisis like Covid-19; Role of leadership, Innovative organizational HR Practices and organizational culture for increasing the organizational effectiveness in a virtual work environment and The challenges faced by Entrepreneurial Leaders in managing people and gaining their commitment for work.
Dr. Balvinder Shukla, VC, Amity University shared that covid has affected teams and employers. She added that business functioning and working has changed quite a lot since the pandemic surfaced. She averred that clear Leadership vision, compelling Innovation strategy and human capital builds distinctive competencies, capabilities and resources for organizations to create sustainable competitive advantage and deliver outcomes to the stakeholders. She stated that even academic institutions have been impacted a great deal where some were able to emerge as trendsetters and leaders while others kept struggling. Academic institutions are also highly impacted due to this covid regular teaching and exam are highly disruptive. Some institutes have emerged as leaders and finding ways to find the ways for challenges so that they can complete their studies and exams for previous session. There are many final year students who cannot join the companies because they don't have their degree in their hand. She stressed on the need for being more empathic to employees at this hour when the work life balance has taken a hit with dual responsibilities of work and home, especially for women employees. She called for thinking of organizational strategy for the future and how digital will play a key role in the coming times.
Mr. Jayant Jha, Founder and CEO, Yaantra.com shared that Covid was a unique situation for him and the entire world. They started reimagining the business strategy & they brought in creativity to the business model. They encouraged participation of all employees on one platform to get ideas though effective communication and chalk out the future course of action. He shared that they set up a health desk in their organization to take care of their employee’s well-being. He added that they took up to cost optimization through effective communication reaching out to the employees. Mr. Jha added that employees were kept engaged and motivated till business could resume normalcy. Providing consistence customer experience is a challenge they face that is taken care of a dedicated team.
Mr. Parag Chivate, Founder and CEO, ShipDelight averred that there was chaos in the early days of the pandemic and took them some time to restart the business. But since they were dealing with e-commerce they could get into action. Work From Home structures took time to settle and gain the seriousness. However, the teams gradually warmed up to the thought. But they did face trouble as not every employee could build a work atmosphere in their homes. E-Commerce has grown in these three months which is helping logistic industries also but still there is challenge at customer end. Customer expects to get the delivery with a specific time but now it is getting delay due to ground challenges.
Mr. Nitin Panmani, Founder and CEO, IiTokri shared that covid scenario made their relationship with their customers take the shape of employer-employee relationship as customers employ them for their services. He added that his employees understood the spirit of change and acquired a new dynamism. It took time and patience to restart the business and he had to take the help of innovation to reestablish the workflow, which have been used by several organizations.
Ms. Soumya Kant - Co-Founder - Clovia.com stated that they took to manufacturing essentials including PPEs to survive and for revenue to keep flowing. They had to make in a lot of efforts to open their factories, ensure their safety, organize food and convince their families. To keep their warehouse open they made lodging arrangements there for the labour and led by example by being with them. Setting up of workstations too was creating an issue and they encouraged their employees to wear shoes to ensure constant flow of energy throughout the day. She averred that to make the on-field employees feel safe, they took Covid insurance of their employees.