In the face of the serious implications of the crisis due to the Covid-19 pandemic-induced lock-downs, Indian AV industry – pretty much in line with the global trends – is trying to re-invent its business competence and map the market survival strategies.
A group of top movers and makers of Indian AV industry comprising OEMS, consultants, systems integrators, distributors, have come together through online platform to assess the situation and explore its opportunities.
The Zoomed in webinar – organized from Bengaluru on the afternoon of April 3 – was moderated by Mradul Sharma of 3CDN Workplace Technologies, and had as many as 10 professionals as its panellists for discussion, besides a good number of professionals from across the country as participants of the 90-plus minute interaction.
The panellists included Kelvin-Ashby King of T2 Consultants and Vineet Singh of HMPL Consulting from consulting (besides Mradul himself); Prakash Gururao of Sigma AVIT, Prabha Lakshmi of O2K, and Shyam K Shaankar of Ideas Ahead from SI fraternity; Bharath Kumar of Kramer, Mahesh (MAK) of Extron, Naveen Sridhara of beyerdynamic, and Rishubh Nayer of Christie from manufacturing segment, and Saugato Siddhantha of NVincy Solutions from distribution spectrum.
Besides, the participants included Gaurab Majumdar of Avixa, Azharuddin of O2K, Dev and Laveen of Samsung, Sanjeev of Kaleido Technologies, and many others.
The webinar had a total of nine questions touching upon diverse aspects of AV business, ranging from short- and long-term strategies, learning from the past, supply chain disruption, exodus of online programmes, new work place landscapes and solutions, and government regime- all looked from the perspective of the ‘think uncertainty’ for a perceptible time.
Staying Positive, Closer to Client, Inventive & Investing:
Responding to the debate opener on the impact, and long- and short-term business continuity measures, Kelvin felt while it is difficult to map the impact at this stage, the industry must begin the exercise to map the reality stakes and plan accordingly- even as it has to continue working on the current projects.
While endorsing the view, Vineet Singh opined that the impact will differ from business to business, and therefore strategies have to be in accordance with the impact which – though – is still indistinct.
“A shift of focus is already shaping up- towards an increased adoption of work-from-home format,” felt Prakash Gururao. “I think we already started sending out feelers that we wouldn’t need large office premises; so if that catches the industry sentiment, it may open up yet another challenge.”
According to him, the short term measures have to include staying closer to the client, prudent planning of inventory, cash-flow management, enabling workforces with technical and managerial skillsets. Long term measures have to be exploring and identifying newer markets of growth.
“Two things appear to be pertinent for business continuity at this stage,” felt Bharath Kumar of Kramer India. “Well-being models such as happiness quotient among people to be monitored and improved by mentors, and measuring productivity based on outputs rather than inputs,” he opined.
“That will help us stand strong to tide over the crisis, and brace up scenario.” On a long-term, the seminars and workshops would go digital, and remote working models would determine the business dynamic, he felt.
Endorsing Bharath’s viewpoint, Naveen Sridhara felt “keeping up the morale of the workforce is one critical factor.” That the current crisis may lead to a situation of distress among people, motivating them with positive mindset and hope in the brighter things is the mandate.
“The ability to ensure supply chain, and support to the partners will help business continuity (for OEMs) – but only a short term,” opined Mak. “On a long term, the challenge would be the liquidity factor, how well they handle the factor would show up on their success in crisis.”
The current scenario would create more opportunities for surveillance and control rooms and NOCs (as administrations would increasingly want to remote monitor various measures on field); so solution providers would find business continuity in that segment, felt Rishubh Nayer.
“On a long-term, there cannot be a going-back on investing in resources and research,” felt the Christie top exec. “R & D is imperative; once things open up, OEMs are certain to face the technology curve, and therefore the need would be the ability to offer newer solutions.”
Ensuring the morale and trust in the industry competence is the need of the hour, felt SAM (Saugatho Siddhantha). “A sense of security among our talent pool is very critical,” he said, “it is they who help us stay in business.” While it is certainly a challenging scenario, “it’s not that big industry cannot handle,” observed Prabha Lakshmi. “The impact doesn’t look as big as it is apparently made out to be,” she observed. “There are still many areas like Government, healthcare, IT and corporate where the need of AV can be felt.”
One of the important observations made during the 2-hour webinar was the focus on local manufacturing towards ensuring proper supply chain management. “We need to look at our business models; develop technologies that would help businesses grow and stand free of crises,” Kelvin suggested.
Honing Skills Online, Staying Fit
The webinar did emphasize the increased attention being paid to online training and workshops by most AV players- irrespective of nature of business.
The initiative of AVIXA in this regard – with making free access to its training courses, besides offering many more programmes – was highly appreciated by the moderator.
The panellists appeared to have a consensus on enabling workforces with multitasking through various online models so that they can handle effectively handle diverse situations.
Striking, perhaps, a novel note with regard to staying positive, Naveen Sridhar felt “staying fit and sporty will help staying positive.” Better if the ‘fitness champs’ from the AV fraternity could come up with some exciting fitness programmes online so that initiatives of online training would turn exciting and taking for people.
Government Stakes
On the aspect of the State’s role during and post the crisis, the panellists observed that the Government would have some bailout packages – more or less – like what it did during 2008-09 crisis. This, despite the observation that the current situation revolved more around disruption in human touch than around financial crisis!
That the IMF chief Kristalina Georgieva just a few days ago declared that “the world has already entered recession,” and it would be worse than that in 2009, governments are expected to announce bail out packages for various industries and AV couldn’t be different. More, the packages made for other industry segments can be of growth opportunities for AV.
Champion Sector !?:
Some of the panellists observe that it’s time the industry braced up to intensify its efforts on getting the intended benefits from the government’s declaration of AV as one of the 12 Champion Sectors in the country. About two years ago, the government placed Audio Visual Services and IT & ITES among 12 Champion Sectors of manufacturing, and allocated an amount of ₹ 5000 crore (approx. US$ 65 million) for initiating various programmes of growth.
The government’s recent announcements weren’t of any great help, the panelists felt, and therefore, the AV industry fraternity needs to examine and work out the strategy as a priority factor.
India – Best Alternative to Chinese
Another observation of unanimity by the panellists was the possibility of India being an effective alternative to Chinese manufacturing. They observed India does possess skills and competence, and had actually been displaying that but that needed to be taken to a higher platter.
“A 25-year-old Indian SME from Pune took just three days to develop a 450-USD-ventillator”
This was highlighted by a rather emphatic sounding Kelvin. He continued that this should be an inspiring model for the country to actively pursue local manufacturing and present an alternative to the Chinese for the world.
“India does have the capability,” he observed. “We have such an amazing knowledge base and capability; but we are simply not using,” he said. “It’s time we looked at it again, and pursue aggressively.”
Even as the debate went on overshooting its time, the moderator had to prioritize some of the questions posed by the participants to elicit responses from the panellists. There did crop up some very pertinent questions resulting in some insightful thoughts and propositions.
