Enough has been said about 2020. Campaign India is closing out the year by asking industry leaders about what has this different year taught them and what do they want from the year that comes up.
Here's what Megha Tata, managing director – South Asia, Discovery Communications, had to say:
One learning from the magical year 2020?
2020 has been a year of myriad emotions! Joy and sadness, hope and despair, pessimism and optimism. Being the glass half full person I am, at a personal level, I used this time for self-reflection and at a professional level, looked at this year to set some ground rules for opportunities. One of the observations I have had is that this pandemic has created a borderless world. People could be sitting in any part of the country, if not the world, and still contribute to the growth of the business. A few months ago, if somebody had told me that people of your organisation will be sitting in different parts of the country and trying to be a part of global organisation, like Discovery, we all would have laughed. However, the fact is that people are sitting in extreme corners of the nation and are still continuing to contribute to the business!
Another key point is, now there is an opportunity for new talent to emerge from smaller towns. Earlier, when organisations were hiring people, they would hire people only if they were based in or would move to metro cities or wherever the main offices were. Today, if you are sitting in Meerut or Jharkhand, you could still be contributing to the success of an organisation. Technology is going to play a key enabler in making talent from small towns to be a part of larger organisations. I think it will open doors for a lot of women to come back into the workforce, if you give them the flexibility of working from home and create opportunities for new talent.
One thing you want from the year 2021?
Of course, I want the pandemic to be gone forever, and never to return!
Human beings are malleable. We adapt fast but we forget faster! I hope people don’t forget what everyone has gone through and learn from this experience to not only find smarter and newer ways of doing business, but also smarter and newer ways of living their lives.
I think next year will be a year of revisiting and reimagining. Organisations will relook at how to run their businesses, use technology as an enabler to do that and find more efficient ways to make our businesses future ready.
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