TC Bureau: Amid an unprecedented, extraordinary event that has global repercussions on the economy and lives of several millions of people, COVID-19 has impacted the entire world on many fronts. Keeping the ramifications of the pandemic on various industries, and especially, the IT industry, and to spread the knowledge and make the Indian IT Industry more resilient, Software Technology Parks of India (STPI) and AIC STPINEXT INITIATIVES have initiated STPI Pulse, an online webinar series, where speakers of global repute are sharing their knowledge and experience for the benefit of the community at large.
STPI Pulse is a pioneering initiative to help industry &startups stay afloat by deliberating on the challenges, opportunities and strategies to become more sustainable, efficient & resilient in front of global crises. The maiden episode, which was launched on last month, featured Dr Omkar Rai, Director General, STPI and Subroto Bagchi, Co-founder of Mindtree and Chairman of Odisha Skill Development Authority.
As a keynote speaker, Subroto Bagchi accentuated on 11 strategies comprising lead with sacrifice, communicate continuously, rewrite your business plan, don’t follow the herd, leaders are sense makers, how can I help, cut your costs to the core, question your relevance, seek external help, never miss opportunities in crisis, and newer opportunities will come. Before taking off the maiden session, Bagchi appreciated the pioneering initiative by STPI, and said, “I salute STPI for starting this series which promotes communication & is addressing COVID-19 challenges at the right time. Communicate with customers, suppliers & the last person in your organisation.
“Keeping the human angle at the core of tough decision making, Bagchi further added, “When you make your decision according to your situation, you are more likely to stay with it. It is not necessary that all the popular tough decisions are meant for your company as well. Do what you can to support as a leader and a human being.” While addressing at the maiden session of STPI Pulse, Dr. Omkar Rai said,“As you can see from the name itself, this knowledge series will ensure that all stakeholders know the pulse of the things happening around us.
The IT industry is so innovative, it is coming forward with ideas, solutions & suggestions to not only mitigate the challenges but also to capitalize on them and come up with solutions that can benefit the society at large.The industry is fast adapting to the measures and the government is also quite proactive while supporting them.” When STPI Pulse is focused on disseminating knowledge to Indian startups, it was natural to choose a home-grown product Airmeet to connect with audience. The maiden webinar series was a massive success with 1418 people registered on Airmeet and 1109 people attended live through this platform.Similarly, on Facebook 623 people watched live.
The second session of the webinar series “Sailing through Uncertainties: Impact on start-ups & how to leverage current crisis to emerge as leaders” was conducted on 24thApril 2020, presenting Dr. Omkar Rai, Director General, STPI and Senapathy “Kris” Gopalakrishnan, Chairman, Axilor Ventures and Co-Founder & Former Vice Chairman, Infosys. During the conversation, Senapathy “Kris” Gopala Krishnan while deliberating on how investment can be attracted from institutional investors said, “My discussion with Institutional investors tells me that they are very keen to support their companies. They are allocating them disproportionately & protecting existing investments. If you are doing reasonably well and executing plans well, investors will support you.”
On the role of disruptive changes in the industry, he stressed, “Some of the changes that you are making are permanent and they will drive long term growth, for example, digitization.” On the role government in the current scenario, Gopalakrishnan said,“Government has a very big role so we must work with them. We need to contribute to the guidelines by adding different perspectives & sharing best practices to ensure business continuity.” While extolling the role of STPI in promoting Indian start-ups & product creators, he accentuated, “I’m glad that STPI has conducted this webinar on Airmeet, which is an Indian startup.”
“The IT industry has been adaptive & agile with proper collaborative & framework tools which have helped the industry sustain operations, “underlined Dr. Omkar Rai, DG, STPI. The 2ndwebinar series was a visible success with 1016 people registered on Airmeet and 769 people attended live through this platform. Similarly, on Facebook 1076 people watched live, and the video reached 10,060 people. The program received huge appreciations from participants. After the ground-breaking success of session 1 & session 2 of STPI Pulse,STPI today conducted the 3rd session on Design Thinking for Building Global Class Products by roping in Arun Jain, Chairman and Managing Director, Intellect Design Arena Ltd. & Founder & Former Chairman & CEO, Polaris Consulting and Services Ltd. as keynote speaker; Dr. Omkar Rai, DG, STPI as a distinguished speaker and Subodh Sachan, Director, STPI&CEO, AIC STPINEXT INITIATIVES as session moderator.
Before opening the floor to speakers, Subodh Sachan, Director, STPI&CEO, AIC STPINEXT INITIATIVES underscored, “STPI Pulse is a pioneering initiative of STPI & STPINEXT, speakers of global repute are sharing the knowledge and experience and insight to help the tech community become more resilient and stay afloat by deliberating on the challenges and opportunities to become more sustainable and efficient in front of this global crisis.” He further added, “It is time to reimagine future while taking stock of global developments to help address vulnerabilities of leaders & push the envelope of technology innovation to become more resilient & adaptive.”
“Indian IT industry has been the flagbearer of emerging technologies, which enable it stand tall on the face of challenges triggered by coronavirus,” underlined Dr. Omkar Rai, DG, STPI as a distinguished speaker in opening remarks. He further added, “Challenging times require challenging measures. Our measures made sure that the IT industry is least impacted by the lockdown.”“We have been opened with many opportunities for various sectors due to coronavirus challenges and we should develop innovative products to address these challenges,” accentuated Dr. Rai.
“Shashtras elaborate on “darshan, gyaan & charitra”. First perspective changes, then knowledge and then character. Design Thinking is closest to darshan. Darshan is philosophy, perspective & vision, after which you acquire appropriate knowledge,” shares Arun Jain. He further added, “India is at a right position for the huge consumption of products. We must focus on building innovative products.” While talking on the various dimensions of design thinking.” Jain explained, “Design Thinking starts with listening to customers in an unbiased manner, moves on to dialogues, and focuses on observations. It’s is about understanding requirements, observing, connecting the dots, and unearthing blind spots.” He explained about the 3 laws of DesignThinking include less is more, last 2% is 200% & theory of prioritisation. He also explained about the 5 forces that drive DesignThinking, which comprises skill, expertise, perspective, idea and alignment.
The 3rd session was a considerable success in terms of participation and engagement. Over 2000 people from IT industry &startups participated in the 3rd session, and massive engagement took place during the Q&A segment of the session. Log on to the SPTI website for the ongoing web transformation.
