Dear CL-ite,
My mental location is that of an army general in a war room. Covid19 is, quite literally, a war situation. A bio-war across the world at once ! In every country, city, town and locality.
From a conventional/ business-as-usual(BAU) mindset or perspective, we are in the pursuit of business. But, this situation is not BAU. It is critical to tag this period as unprecedented war times. Our Goal #1 in the mission is that CL Educate cannot allow Covid19 to touch even a single member in any of our businesses across the country and globe. This is not an easy task at all.
Challenging times and our outlook :
Even the foremost experts who have given their lives to medicine are learning on the run. We, the lesser mortals, are learnings from the neighbourhood anecdotes, whatsapp forwards, fake news engines and FB updates. Those cannot be the basis to fathom the extent of challenge we face. And yet, you and I as individuals and team leaders have to make specific and clear headed decisions to run the families of over 1000 CL-ites with no crisis and interruption for a long period of time !
How long ?
Given the lack of clear knowledge, I am inclined to think that this is world war III. Each one of those wars were waged for a period of 4-6 years! Count Covid19 impact lasting till March 2024. You and I will not be reckless if we call this a bio-war being fought in our balconies, cars and the lifts of the societies that we live in.
Focus on health, team and families :
Let us learn to be grateful that we are alive. That CL business is touch-proof and we are able to continue of our economic activity with least disruption. Unless you log into this mindset, you will stay in the realm of inconvenience, entitlement and resentment! That is the worst location to be in when you are waging a battle to save the health, income and continuity of family and life!
Focus on your personal health. Do your walking and yoga at home. Listen to your music. Please keep checking the welfare of your working team and their family members. Keep the positive spirits up by rising above your own agony and helplessness.
Mindful of keeping commitments and promises :
Please remember that we have a big bunch of commitments to keep with various stakeholders of ours. Two of the biggest being – our CL and Kestone team (employees, business partners) that earns their livelihood by depending on us. In turn, these 1200 individuals have to keep the commitment made to our clients, customers, students, parents and so on.
No temporary lapse of judgement or sense of adventure can be allowed to come in the way of ‘Safety first’ policy in this real life war situation! Please be mindful of your responsibility in helping CL keep all her commitments and promises to all stake holders!
Stay creative about business development and customer delight :
As shared earlier, we have reasons to be infinitely grateful that we are in a business / activity that is evergreen and also unaffected (at the core) by the Covid19 situation. That calls for us to be at our creative and adventurous best in upskilling ourselves, trying newer ways of developing business and at the same time, improve further in our customer delight.
Be frugal on resources. Paranoid about cash depletion
I will again repeat the only infallible truth about any business. A business is safe as long as she has cash reserves in the bank. She will grow as long as customers trust and pay money to seek her services. Dozens of businesses die every quarter around us with what looks like great valuation, product, team , brand recall due to a great advertising campaign. Then why do they die ? Only one reason – the cash in the back account is exhausted ! So, be paranoid about cash in bank and be frugal on resources like the mother in a lower middle class family ! That needs no training to any Indian !
Share ideas in any area, shape or form. Don’t pre-judge. It is a flat and unfamiliar world for all
Lastly, We live in a world that has no experts. No seers who can see the tomorrow. It is flat. It is unfamiliar from the highest person to the lowest guy on the socio-economic ladder! In such a situation, your observations and ideas are invaluable. What you are seeing in your neighbourhood or context must be seen as more insight-providing than what a world leading economist says. If any such observation translates itself into an idea that we can implement in CL to improve the lot of our team members or our customers, please do not hesitate to share them with us. I would go to the extent of inviting you to write to me at satya@careerlauncher.com. Please do not pre-judge your idea. That could be the one we might be missing. I can think of a few already that belong to this category!
Finally, I would like to close by saying once again – Take care of your health. Keep checking the wefare of your team and their families. Stay hungry on business with a firm eye on your cash balances! God bless all !
With Love, Satya