Wave and Perseverance

Clearly, the 3rd wave is on. At least in the metros, it’s been around for about a week. Whether its less severe, faster spreading, or the ultimate vaccine, time will tell. But the story of how we have moved over these 3 Covid waves is admirable for us: a story of human perseverance.

3rd Week, Mar 20 – The 1st time; it was a shocker. We didn’t know what had hit us. With the whole world calling doomsday, we ran to prepare business continuity plans (ours’ is still live on one of our investors’ website), conserving cash and focusing our energies on inputs – training, processes, analyzing past business trends, etc. Apart from slipping into melancholy (brooding over K-Shaped, U-shaped, L-shaped, W-shaped, V-shaped recoveries) and nostalgia (rekindling decade-old relationships and immersing ourselves deeper in nature, family, health, etc.). We ended up losing more than 5 months before getting to our pre-covid wave 1 business volumes of 360 cr/ month.

2nd week, Apr 21 – It was intense; we lost so many near and dear ones. But we knew it would go away. And there was hope: vaccination was going on. We all were focused on finding our hacks to grow and sustain. It showed in our performance. We lost only 3 months this time in getting to the pre-covid wave 2 business volumes of 900 cr/ month.

1st week, Jan 22 – It’s the most viral (though hopefully the mildest). But we now know that we have to live with it; it’s a part of us. We know how to deal with it. It may be early days, but we are already ahead of our pre-covid wave 3 business volumes of 1,550 cr/ month. It’s early days, but in the previous two waves, we lost sharply in the beginning; this time, we are ahead.

We have learnt 2 things that have kept us in good stead at OfBusiness.

Between the waves, we have always pressed hard on the accelerator. In the two 6-month interims, we grew 2.5x between waves 1 and 2 and 1.7x between waves 2 and 3. And not just in numbers, we grew in channels, geographies, and supply chains (viz., products sold) too. Scale made us stronger, harder to beat.

And perseverance – the shift in mindset from “survival” to “inevitability” to “come what may.” This perseverance is our biggest asset as we have lessened organizational and business time lost to the wave.

Read more from CEO speaks Column:-
– Riding the Tiger
– Stand and Wait