‘Hope is here

This headline in the recent issue of a leading Newpaper correctly reflects the current mood prevailing with the announcement of the Covid Vaccine approval in UK. The economy is slowly on the road to recovery . The GST collection has hit Rs 1lakh trillion mark the second month in a row. In the September quarter, recovery has been there due to a a pick-up in manufacturing which helped GDP clock a lower contraction of 7.5 per cent and held out hopes for further improvement on better consumer demand. The paint industry generally grows at twice the GDP and hence there is bound to be a better future. However the rapidly rising raw material prices seems to have put some damper in this recovery path. The Covid Pandemic has in its wake generally brought in a number of lessons for humanity in general and industries in particular. Safety, health, and well-being of the employees has moved to the forefront of our decision making. The nationwide lockdown has enabled us to rethink, redesign, and reengineer how and where we work. For example, the lockdown has given the opportunity to significantly accelerate the adoption of digital technology. The importance of becoming more digital was already obvious pre-COVID, but its onset has exponentially catalyzed the need. Here we would like to borrow the thoughts of Mr Guenter Butschek, CEO of Tata Motors, who has in a recent interview with McKinsey shared his perspectives on the COVID-19-era challenges: “Trust plays a key role. At Tata Motors, this means active engagement and involvement with the communities in which we operate. We must always look after their well-being and welfare. [The pandemic] reinforces how we are all interconnected and responsible for one another in ways beyond what we might have envisaged—whether it’s employees, customers, suppliers, or communities. We have worked hard to stand with our ecosystem partners, and we think this purposeful, ecosystem-centered approach is helping us weather the crisis—or at least weathering it better. As an organization, we can only be as strong as our ecosystem, and we are committed to coming out stronger after the crisis together. “Other leadership characteristics—empathy, open communication, transparency—have also served us well during the crisis and need to be more hardwired into the culture, as they will be as relevant tomorrow as they are today. “We have tried to ensure our management style is accommodative and inclusive. And we have engaged as much as possible with our executive team, and also actively with employees, vendor partners, dealers, channel partners, customers, industry bodies— everyone. Trust and transparency have been our guiding principles for this engagement, whether it’s through town halls, focus groups, or other meetings. But the objective isn’t just to give direction. Much more important, it has been about hearing people, listening intently, and gaining a deeper understanding of their concerns, constraints, and risks—and, when possible, providing quantitative and qualitative support.” We at Voxco have enshrined and followed these tenets to the core and have constantly engaged with our customers, vendor partners, employees, industry associations --- everyone. In the future also we aim to show more proactive commitment with passion, be responsive and result oriented in helping achieve the expectations of the customer with more transparency.