Indian ecosystem is the best fit for start-up culture and in every hour, three start-ups are coming into existence. Seeing this potential and orientation of youth towards start-ups and entrepreneurship has made this topic more pertinent for discussion. The year 2019 has been identified as a landmark in this regard as capital raised by the start-ups touched $14.5 billion marks. But last two years witnessed disrupted operations and a slowdown in financial markets. Pandemics and economic slowdowns are not new to world history, rather, earlier financial crises and pandemics gave impetus to new economic concepts like E-commerce, Sharing Economy, Gig Economy, and many more. But the social and economic impact of this pandemic has been very severe to the world in terms of unemployment and declining national output in the last two years. Hence the question arises:
What solutions can be suggested to the start-ups in the post-COVID scenario and how digitalization can help the established start-ups in scaling their businesses?
Here are few points for discussion in this context:
Physical connectivity vs. cyber connectivity: Physical connectivity has been considerably low in the previous two years. There are three key components for the survival of any organization; the availability of finance, uninterrupted processes and procedures, and a competent team. Challenges never come alone; they yield numerous solutions and opportunities for innovative minds. If the above-stated components are accompanied by cyber connectivity, then it can be a successful business practice for most businesses. This pandemic has transformed the working mode of 60% of the established businesses and induced digitalization has ensured the remote working and proved productive as stated by CEOs of TCS and Infosys. Alibaba is an established example in this context.
Finance is the lifeblood for all newbies and established ones. Post pandemic time can be about more sophistication and secure financial plans. Plan for both success and failure. Revisit your capacities and assess the disruptions caused by the pandemic. For example, how much you are short of supply and how you are going to arrange the finance for such backlogs. Hence, businesses should ponder upon Bounce Back Strategies more frequently.
Scaling is the new challenge and customer/client retention is the key to survival. Digitalization and analytics can guide you in analyzing the existing customer databases and help in assessing the Recency, Frequency, and Monetary value contribution in business revenue. All know that in post-pandemic time, customer or clientele acquisition is difficult so better opt for retention.
Jaipuria Institute of Management is imbibing these all-practicalities via experiential learning activities like case study-based workshops, mentoring sessions, and guest talks by entrepreneurs. Active participation in all initiatives of the Ministry of Education, such as Institution Innovation Council, National Innovation Start-up Policy, KAPILA, and Yukti 2.0 to make our institution the best fit for the students having an entrepreneurial mindset.
DR. SHEETAL
ASSISTANT PROFESSOR
Jaipuria Institute of Management
